At least two people were killed and 12 wounded when a shell hit a residential building in Kyiv on Monday, according to emergency services.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday urged NATO to impose a no-fly zone over his country or see its member states attacked by Russia, in a new video address.

Russia and Ukraine are set for a fourth round of talks on Monday.

Moscow has asked Beijing for military supplies and economic aid, US officials told media outlets. The US has warned that China will face “severe consequences” if it helps Russia dodge sanctions.

Russian naval forces had established a blockade of Ukraine’s Black Sea Coast, the UK Ministry of Defence said on Sunday, isolating Ukraine from international maritime trade.

A Russian missile attack struck a Ukrainian military facility in Yavoriv near the Polish border on Sunday, killing 35 people, according to Lviv’s regional governor. Ukraine held most of its drills with NATO countries at the base, one of Ukraine’s largest, before the invasion.

The American journalist Brent Renaud was shot and killed and a colleague was wounded in Irpin northwest of Kyiv on Sunday. Media reports said that a third Ukrainian colleague was also wounded in the incident.

Ukraine’s human rights commissioner Lyudmila Denisova accused Russia of using banned phosphorus weapons in an attack in the Luhansk region. Her claims could not be independently verified. Asked about the allegations on Sunday, US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan reiterated that if Russia uses chemical weapons in Ukraine, “they will pay a severe price”.

The human toll of the Russian invasion is rising: Kyiv on Saturday said “around 1,300” Ukrainian soldiers have been killed. Moscow’s official death toll has not changed since the March 2 figure of 498 Russian troops killed. On the civilian side, at least 596 people have died, according to a verified UN count. The real figure is likely to be much higher.

The UN said the number of refugees fleeing Ukraine since the start of the Russian invasion on February 24 has surged past 2.6 million.

Source: France 24