As Russian forces re-enforced their assault on the Mariupol steel plant, which houses Ukrainian soldiers and residents, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky threatened to call off peace negotiations over Moscow's efforts to smash the port city's final pockets of resistance.
It comes ahead of his meeting with Antony Blinken, the US Secretary of State, and Lloyd Austin, the US Secretary of Defense, in Kyiv.
Baby Killed in Russia's Missile Attack in Odesa
Zelensky revealed few details about the encounter's arrangements at a press conference but said he expected solid results - "not just presents or some kind of cake, we are expecting certain goods and particular weaponry," he added.
Earlier this month, Russia shelled numerous cities in southern and eastern Ukraine, killing a three-month-old newborn and eight others in Odesa, a Black Sea port city, as per The Independent. According to Ukraine, Russian forces stormed the Azovstal steel facility in Mariupol barely two days after Russian President Vladimir Putin instructed his generals not to raid it.
The steelworks, Ukraine's final stronghold in the city, where hundreds of Ukrainian military and civilians are holed up, is under siege, according to Oleksiy Arestovich, an adviser to Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelensky.
Five people, including a three-month-old infant, were killed in a missile assault in the Black Sea port city of Odesa, according to a presidential adviser. On Saturday, Andriy Yermak, Ukraine's president's chief of staff, released the information as video footage uploaded on social media showed smoke pouring from a 14-story apartment building.
Per ABC News via MSN, several emergency vehicles were spotted heading to the location. One woman, who looked to be suffering from facial injuries, was speaking to the local press. Russia's Defense Ministry claimed its forces destroyed a logistics center in Odesa where a big quantity of weapons supplied by the US and European nations were being housed using high-precision missiles.
Russia Renews Mariupol Assault
It also claimed that Russian forces had killed up to 200 Ukrainian troops and damaged more than 30 vehicles, some of which were armored, in an online post. Russian military fired at least six cruise missiles toward the city, according to an adviser to Ukraine's Interior Minister.
Anton Gerashchenko stated in a Telegram message on Saturday local time that Ukrainian forces were able to fire down many missiles, but at least one landed and detonated. Two missiles targeted a military complex and two residential structures in Odesa, according to Ukraine's southern air command.
In early April, there was a large strike in or around Odesa. Russia has denied that its "special military operation," which began on February 24, is targeting people. According to Petro Andriushchenko, an assistant to Mariupol's mayor, another mass grave was uncovered on Friday in the town of Vynohradne near the besieged southern city.
According to the firm's statement, satellite photographs from US defense contractor Maxar revealed numerous parallel ditches totaling around 131 feet that "are/will likely become" additional gravesites. The trenches first appeared in late March, according to Maxar. The allegations elicited no quick response from Russian officials, as per The NBC News.
According to an intelligence briefing from the United Kingdom's defense minister early Saturday, Moscow's attempts to totally take Mariupol have been hampered by Ukrainian opposition.
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