\n Ukraine on Wednesday dismissed Russian neutrality proposals, refused to surrender and vowed prosecution of \"war crimes\" three weeks into an invasion that is drawing ever-increasing Western support against Moscow.\n<\/p>\n
\n On the ground, fresh blasts hit the capital Kyiv, which was under a total curfew, and Russian rocket fire hit a train station in southern Ukraine used by thousands of fleeing refugees.\n<\/p>\n
\n Regional officials reported no casualties as Russian strikes blew out windows at the railway station in Zaporizhzhia, where people have been arriving from the besieged city of Mariupol.\n<\/p>\n
\n Some 20,000 residents have been allowed to leave Mariupol. But exhausted, shivering evacuees speak of harrowing escape journeys and rotting corpses littering the streets.\n<\/p>\n
\n Hours before he was to give a landmark virtual speech to the US Congress, President Volodymyr Zelensky responded to the hacking of Ukrainian TV news with a message demanding Russia lay down its arms.\n<\/p>\n
\n The hack was \"the latest childish provocation\" from Moscow, he said, claiming the invasion had killed 103 Ukrainian children.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"We are defending our land, our children, our families. So we are not going to lay down any weapons until our victory,\" Zelensky said.\n<\/p>\n
\n The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court was in Ukraine to investigate Russian atrocities, the president added.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"So the occupiers will be held responsible for all of the war crimes against Ukrainians.\"\n<\/p>\n
\n The conflict has already sent more than three million Ukrainians fleeing across the border, and a peaceful resolution still seems beyond reach.\n<\/p>\n
\n Kyiv braced for an offensive from Russian forces trying to encircle the capital, although their progress has been slow due in part to resistance from Ukrainian troops using high-tech Western weaponry.\n<\/p>\n
\n The city was subjected to a fresh round of bombardment overnight close to its centre, including on a 12-storey residential building, with columns of smoke rising high into the morning sky.\n<\/p>\n
\n Ukraine's State Emergency Service said at least two people were injured and 37 evacuated from the apartment block.\n<\/p>\n
\n The attacks came as Ukraine and Russia continued stop-start peace talks, after Zelensky conceded that NATO membership was not on the table, in an apparent concession to Moscow.\n<\/p>\n
\n Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said a \"compromise\" outcome would centre on Ukraine becoming a neutral state comparable to Sweden and Austria.\n<\/p>\n
\n But Zelensky's office gave the idea short shrift.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"Ukraine is now in a direct state of war with Russia. Consequently, the model can only be 'Ukrainian' and only on legally verified security guarantees,\" Kyiv's negotiator Mikhailo Podolyak said.\n<\/p>\n
\n - 'Enormous suffering' -\n<\/p>\n
\n In an earlier overnight video address, Zelensky said \"all wars end with an agreement\" as he pointed to the \"difficult\" but \"important\" ongoing round of talks.\n<\/p>\n
\n But in his virtual speech to the US Congress, the president was also expected to intensify pleas for NATO allies to intervene against Russia.\n<\/p>\n
\n The alliance will hold an emergency summit next week in Brussels with US President Joe Biden attending -- but it has so far resisted Zelensky's pleas for direct involvement for fear of starting World War III.\n<\/p>\n
\n Indirectly, however, Biden and other NATO leaders have been stepping up military support for Ukraine including anti-tank weapons that have helped to stall Russian forces north of Kyiv.\n<\/p>\n
\n Coinciding with Zelensky's speech, a White House official said Biden would unveil another $800 million of military aid, expected to include more anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles.\n<\/p>\n
\n After a morale-boosting train journey to Kyiv by the leaders of Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovenia, International Committee of the Red Cross president Peter Maurer came for a five-day visit.\n<\/p>\n
\n He noted the \"enormous suffering by the civilian population\" in Ukraine and stressed it was \"utterly important\" for the ICRC's neutral humanitarian work to be recognised on the ground.\n<\/p>\n
\n Punishing Western sanctions against President Vladimir Putin's regime have also stepped up this week, pushing Russia to the brink of default on its foreign debts.\n<\/p>\n
\n Moscow was due Wednesday to pay $117 million on two dollar-denominated bonds -- the first interest payment that has fallen due since it was largely shut out of the Western financial system.\n<\/p>\n
\n The Kremlin has sought to shut down domestic opposition to the war, blocking access to at least 15 Russian and foreign-based media including the investigation website Bellingcat.\n<\/p>\n
\n Isolated internationally, Putin has turned to Chechnya and Syria to replenish his invasion force -- and to China for economic support.\n<\/p>\n
\n - 'Plan C' for Russia? -\n<\/p>\n
\n But facing stern US threats against helping Russia to bypass the sanctions, foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said Beijing was acting \"objectively and impartially\".\n<\/p>\n
\n \"We urge the US not to damage China's legitimate rights and interests in any form. If the US continues down this path, China will certainly take strong counter-measures,\" he added.\n<\/p>\n
\n Western military experts believe Russia is increasingly turning to aerial bombardments after its ground invasion stalled -- and as possible leverage in the negotiations with Kyiv.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"They have found that their ground operations are not succeeding very well and where they are making gains they are at massive costs that are not sustainable,\" Mick Ryan, a retired Australian major general, told AFP.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"They have had to change to 'Plan C' -- which is bombard cities and terrorise civilians in the hope that the Ukrainians will reach some kind of political accommodation,\" he said.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"What the Russians are doing is using our own humanity against us and Zelensky's humanity against him.\"\n<\/p>\n
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Ukraine on Wednesday dismissed Russian neutrality proposals, refused to surrender and vowed prosecution of \"war crimes\" three weeks into an invasion that is drawing ever-increasing Western support against Moscow. On the ground, fresh blasts hit the capital Kyiv, which was under a total curfew, and Russian rocket fire hit a train station in southern Ukraine […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":60,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[553],"tags":[],"ji_location":[],"class_list":["post-88875","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-live-feed"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n