A Kyiv shopping centre was attacked late on Monday, killing at least eight people, wrecking nearby buildings and leaving smoking piles of rubble and the twisted wreckage of burned-out cars spread over several hundred metres.
The force of the explosion obliterated one structure in the "Retroville" shopping centre car park and gutted an adjacent 10-storey building, shattering windows in the surrounding residential tower blocks.
Six bodies were lain out on the pavement as emergency services combed through the wreckage to the sound of distant artillery fire. Ukraine's Prosecutor General said at least eight people had been killed.
"My apartment shook with the force of the explosion, I thought the building would collapse," said Vladimir, 76, who lives nearby.
"It's the biggest bomb to have hit the city until now," said Dima Stepanienko, 30. He told AFP he found himself flung to "the foot of his bed" by the explosion.
Russian Defence Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said areas near the shopping centre were used to store rocket munitions and for reloading multiple rocket launchers.
"High-precision long-range weapons on the night of March 21 destroyed a battery of Ukrainian multiple rocket launchers and a store of ammunition in a non-functioning shopping center," he told reporters.
Russian forces have pounded some suburbs of the Ukrainian capital, but defenders have so far managed to prevent Kyiv from coming under the kind of full-scale assault that has devastated eastern cities such as Mariupol and Kharkiv.
Ukraine's president says he will not accept Russian ultimatums
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Monday Ukraine would never bow to ultimatums from Russia and cities such as Kyiv, Mariupol or Kharkiv would not accept Russian occupation.
"We have an ultimatum with points in it. 'Follow it and then we will end the war'," Mr Zelenskyy said in an interview published by Ukrainian public broadcasting company Suspilne.
"Ukraine cannot fulfill the ultimatum."
Nearly a month after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, its assaults have become more deadly despite unprecedented sweeping sanctions imposed by Western allies.
Moscow has ramped up its air and sea operations as the Kremlin is "desperate" to turn the tide against a ferocious Ukrainian resistance, a senior US defence official said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin's troops have been increasingly accused of deliberately targeting civilians, including at the port city of Mariupol.
Almost 350,000 people are trapped without water and electricity in the southern city which has been bombarded by Russian troops for almost a month in what EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell described as a "massive war crime".
Mr Zelenskyy urged Europe to significantly dial up pressure on Moscow to halt its invasion, saying the continent must cease all trade with Russia.
'Completely destroyed'
"No euros for the occupiers. Close all of your ports to them. Don't export them your goods. Deny energy resources. Push for Russia to leave Ukraine," Mr Zelenskyy said in his latest video address.
Ukrainian leaders also stressed they were standing firm against invaders in Mariupol, which is suffering a critical humanitarian crisis.
Defenders of the port city have "played a huge role in destroying the enemy's plans and enhancing our defence," said Ukraine’s Defence Minister Oleksiy Reznikov.
"Today Mariupol is saving Kyiv, Dnipro and Odessa. Everyone must understand this."
The Kremlin's military command had warned authorities in Mariupol had until "5am... on 21 March" to respond to eight pages of demands, which Ukrainian officials said would amount to a capitulation.
Rejecting the ultimatum by Russia, Ukraine's Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said Moscow should instead allow the trapped residents to escape.
Mariupol is a pivotal target in President Putin's war in Ukraine, providing a land bridge between Russian forces in Crimea to the southwest and Russian-controlled territory to the north and east.
A Greek diplomat, believed to be the last EU diplomat to leave the city, said the devastation would rank alongside history's most ruinous wartime assaults.
"Mariupol will be included in a list of cities in the world that were completely destroyed by the war, such as Guernica, Stalingrad, Grozny, Aleppo," said Manolis Androulakis, as he arrived back in Athens late Sunday.
Prices for gas at an Exxon gas station on Capitol Hill are seen 14 March, 2022 in Washington, DC. The cost of gasoline continues to rise across the globe and in the United States due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and continued inflation associated with the global pandemic. Credit: Win McNamee/Getty Images
Oil prices surge
In the north, Ukrainians were told to temporarily take shelter after an ammonia leak at a nearby chemical factory, before an all-clear was sounded mid-morning.
At the port city of Odesa, known as the pearl of the Black Sea, shelling by Russian warships damaged several houses. No casualties were reported, an official in the Ukrainian city said.
Away from the frontlines, leaders of the United States, Britain, France, Germany and Italy were once again in urgent talks on the war.
Separately, foreign ministers of the European Union were gathered in Brussels to mull fresh sanctions against Russia.
Some members within the bloc are pushing for a complete embargo on Russian oil and gas, but Germany has so far rejected the call, warning it could spark social instability.
The Kremlin on Monday heaped on the warnings against such a ban.
"Such an embargo will have a very serious impact on the world energy market, it will have a very serious negative impact on Europe's energy balance," said spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
World oil prices, already sky-high over the Ukraine conflict, on Monday surged again as top producer Saudi Arabia warned that attacks by Yemeni rebels on the kingdom's oil facilities posed a "direct threat" to global supplies.
Energy prices and supply security issues will be on the table at an EU summit on Thursday in Brussels, to be attended by President Joe Biden.
The US leader will also join in a NATO summit and G7 talks, before travelling on Friday to Poland, which has seen more than two million Ukrainians cross its border to flee the war.
Moscow furiously hit out against Mr Biden after he branded Mr Putin a "war criminal".
"Such statements by the American president, which are not worthy of a high-ranking statesman, have put Russian-American relations on the verge of rupture," the foreign ministry said.
Evacuees stand under a destroyed bridge as they flee the city of Irpin, northwest of Kyiv, on 7 March 7, 2022. Source: AFP / DIMITAR DILKOFF/AFP via Getty Images
Spectre of famine
Kyiv meanwhile turned to another major world power, China, urging it to "play an important role in" ending the conflict.
Humanitarian conditions continued to deteriorate in the mostly Russian-speaking south and east, where Russian forces have been pressing their advance, as well as in the north around Kyiv.
Aid agencies are struggling to reach people trapped in besieged cities.
Around 10 million Ukrainians have fled their homes, roughly one-third going abroad, the UN refugee agency said.
The repercussions of the war are spreading far beyond the region, with famine feared in parts of the world because Russia and Ukraine are both major agricultural exporters.
"Sudan is in a particularly vulnerable position because 86-87 per cent of its wheat imports is coming from Russia and Ukraine combined," warned David Wright, chief operating officer at charity Save the Children.
Signs of strain are also appearing in Russia, where scenes of panic buying at supermarkets prompted authorities to urge the public not to stockpile.
"I want to calm our citizens: we are fully self-sufficient when it comes to sugar and buckwheat," deputy Prime Minister Viktoria Abramchenko.
"Panic-buying only destabilises the distribution network," she said.
