Ukraine

LVIV, Ukraine (AP) — A narrow diplomatic path stayed open as Ukraine and Russia planned another round of talks and Moscow’s forces pounded away at cities across the country, including the capital, in a bombardment that deepened the humanitarian crisis.

Shortly before dawn on Tuesday, large explosions thundered across Kyiv while Russia pressed its advance on multiple fronts.

LVIV, Ukraine March 14 (Reuters) - Talks between Russia and Ukraine on Monday have started and communication between the two sides is hard but ongoing, Ukrainian presidential adviser and negotiator Mykhailo Podolyak said on Twitter.

Tweeting a photo of the talks, which are being conducted via video conference, Podolyak said: "The parties actively express their specified positions. Communication is being held yet it's hard. The reason for the discord is too different political systems."

LVIV, Ukraine, March 14 (Reuters) - Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba called on the West on Monday to supply Ukraine with weapons and apply more sanctions on Russia to help prevent other countries being dragged into a wider conflict.

Ukraine has repeatedly urged its allies to do more to help it resist the Russian invasion that began on Feb. 24. Some Western governments fear that doing so could pull other countries, including NATO member states, into the war.

LVIV, Ukraine, March 14 (Reuters) - The fourth round of talks between Ukraine and Russia on Monday will focus on achieving a ceasefire, troop withdrawals and security guarantees for Ukraine, one of the Ukrainian negotiators Mykhailo Podolyak said.

Ukraine's position remained unchanged in insisting on a ceasefire before talks on future relations could happen, he said in a social media post and accompanying video.

LVIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia’s military forces kept up their punishing campaign to capture Ukraine’s capital with fighting and artillery fire in Kyiv’s suburbs Monday after an airstrike on a military base near the Polish border brought the war dangerously close to NATO’s doorstep.

Residents of besieged Ukrainian cities held out hope that renewed diplomatic talks might open the way for more civilians to evacuate or emergency supplies to reach areas where food, water and medicine are running short.

MARIUPOL, Ukraine (AP) — A pregnant woman and her baby have died after Russia bombed the maternity hospital where she was meant to give birth, The Associated Press has learned. Images of the woman being rushed to an ambulance on a stretcher had circled the world, epitomizing the horror of an attack on humanity’s most innocent.

LVIV, Ukraine March 13 (Reuters) - Foreign military instructors worked at the Yavoriv military facility near the Polish border that was hit by a Russian air strike on Sunday, Ukrainian Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov said, but it was not clear if any were present at the time.

A ministry representative told Reuters the ministry was still trying to establish if any of the instructors were at the centre at the time of the attack.

LVIV, Ukraine, March 13 (Xinhua) -- Explosions were heard on Sunday in Ukraine's western city of Lviv at about 6 a.m. local time (0400 GMT).

Earlier in the day, air raid alerts went off in Lviv at 3:30 a.m. local time, with residents rushing to bomb shelters for security.

Ukrainian media outlets have yet to release any information about the targets of the airstrikes.

According to the UNN news agency, Kherson in southern Ukraine also reported sounds of explosions, and air alarms continued in most Ukrainian cities and oblasts.

MARIUPOL, Ukraine (AP) — A Russian airstrike on a military training base in western Ukraine killed at least nine people and wounded 57, a local official said Sunday. The assault brought the war closer to the border with Poland after a senior Russian diplomat warned that Moscow considered foreign shipments of military equipment to Ukraine “legitimate targets.”

LVIV, Ukraine, March 12 (Reuters) - Fighting raged near Kyiv on Saturday and heavy shelling in other areas threatened new attempts to evacuate trapped civilians as France said Russian President Vladimir Putin showed no readiness to end the war in Ukraine.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Moscow was sending in new troops after Ukrainian forces put 31 of Russia's battalion tactical groups out of action in what he called Russia's largest army losses in decades. It was not possible to verify his statements.