LVIV/KIEV, Ukraine (Dispatches) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Sunday his campaign in Ukraine was going according to plan and would not end until Kiev stopped fighting, as efforts to evacuate 200,000 people from the heavily bombarded city of Mariupol fell apart for a second day in a row.
Most people trapped in the port city are sleeping in bomb shelters to escape more than six days of near-constant shelling that has cut off food, water, power and heating supplies, according to the Ukrainian authorities.
The civilian death toll from hostilities across Ukraine since Moscow launched its military operation on Feb. 24 stood at 364, including more than 20 children, according to the United Nations on Sunday, with hundreds more injured.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said most civilian casualties were caused by the use of “explosive weapons with a wide impact area, including shelling from heavy artillery and multi-launch rocket systems, and missile and air strikes.”
Moscow has repeatedly denied attacking civilian areas.
The conflict has sent more than 1.5 million Ukrainians fleeing from the country, and triggered tough Western sanctions against Russia aimed at squeezing its economy.
Putin made his demand for Kiev to end the fighting in a phone call with Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, who appealed for a ceasefire. Putin told Erdogan he was ready for dialogue with Ukraine and foreign partners but any attempt to draw out negotiation would fail, a Kremlin statement said.
Russian media said Putin also held almost two hours of talks on Sunday with French President Emmanuel Macron, who has stayed in regular contact.
Anti-war protests took place around the world on Sunday including in Russia itself, where police detained around 3,500 demonstrators. TASS news agency reported the interior ministry as saying arrests included 1,700 people in Moscow and 750 in St Petersburg.
In the besieged Ukrainian city of Mariupol, authorities had said on Sunday they would make a second attempt to evacuate some of the 400,000 residents.
But the ceasefire plan collapsed, as it had on Saturday, with each side blaming the other for the failure.
“The failed attempts yesterday and today underscore the absence of a detailed and functioning agreement between the parties to the conflict,” the International Committee of the Red Cross said, adding 200,000 people had been due to quit the city.
Moscow calls its campaign a “special military operation”, saying it has no plans to occupy Ukraine.
Russia has poured troops and equipment into Ukraine. A huge Russian convoy on a road north of Kiev has made limited visible progress in recent days, although Russia’s defense ministry released footage on Sunday showing some tracked military vehicles on the move.
In the capital, Ukrainian soldiers bolstered defenses by digging trenches, blocking roads and liaising with civil defense units as Russian forces bombarded areas nearby.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russian rockets had destroyed the civilian airport of the central-western region capital of Vinnytsia on Sunday. He also said Russia was preparing to bombard another southern city, Odessa.
Kiev renewed its appeal to the West to toughen sanctions beyond existing efforts. It also requested more weapons, including a plea for Russian-made planes, to help it repel Russian forces.
U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said Washington was “very, very actively” considering how it could backfill aircraft for Poland, if Warsaw decided to supply its warplanes to Ukraine, speaking on a trip to neighboring Moldova.
Putin says he wants a “demilitarized”, “denazified” and neutral Ukraine and on Saturday likened Western sanctions “to a declaration of war”.
The West has expanded its campaign to rearm Ukraine, sending in data-x-items from Stinger missiles to anti-tank weapons.
But Washington and its NATO allies have resisted Ukraine’s appeals for a no-fly zone for fear that it would escalate the conflict beyond Ukraine’s borders.
Ukrainians continued to pour into Poland, Romania, Slovakia and elsewhere. UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi said more than 1.5 million people had fled in the fastest growing refugee crisis in Europe since World War Two.
Western sanctions have pushed many companies to exit investments in Russia, while some Russian banks have been shut out of global financial payment systems, driving down the rouble and forcing Moscow to jack up interest rates.
Ukraine’s military said more than 11,000 Russian troops had been killed so far and 88 Russian aircraft shot down since the start of the invasion. Russia has not given regular updates on its death toll, but has rejected the claims.
U.S. lawmakers promised an additional $10 billion aid package, but the White House has so far balked at an oil ban, fearing it would hike prices and hurt American consumers already stung by record inflation.
Washington last week authorized $350 million of military equipment for Kiev -- the largest such package in U.S. history.
Meanwhile, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s office said he is to launch an international “plan of action” to ensure Russia’s military operation in Ukraine fails.