Zelensky sees room for compromise as 20,000 escape Mariupol

Ukraine said it saw possible room for compromise in talks with Russia despite Moscow’s stepped up bombardment of Kyiv and new assaults on the port city of Mariupol.

The fast-moving developments on the diplomatic front and on the ground came as Russia’s invasion neared the three-week mark and the number of Ukrainians who have left the country amid Europe’s heaviest fighting since the Second World War eclipsed three million.

After delegations from Ukraine and Russia met again on Tuesday via video, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said early on Wednesday that Russia’s demands were becoming “more realistic”. The two sides were expected to speak again on Wednesday.

Mr Zelensky, who is expected to address the US Congress on Wednesday, thanked President Joe Biden and “all the friends of Ukraine” for 13.6 billion dollars (£10.4 billion) in new support.

He appealed for more weapons and more sanctions to punish Russia, and repeated his call to “close the skies over Ukraine to Russian missiles and planes”.

He said Russian forces on Tuesday had been unable to move deeper into Ukrainian territory but had continued their heavy shelling of cities.

In other developments, the leaders of three European Union countries — Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovenia — visited the embattled capital on Tuesday, arriving by train in a bold show of support amid the danger.

Meanwhile, large explosions thundered across Kyiv before dawn from what Ukrainian authorities said were artillery strikes, as Russia’s bombardment of the capital appeared to become more systematic and edged closer to the city centre, smashing apartments, a subway station and other civilian sites.

Mr Zelensky said on Tuesday that barrages hit four multi-storey buildings in the city and killed dozens. The strikes disrupted the relative calm that returned after an initial advance by Moscow’s forces was stopped in the early days of the war.

A senior US defence official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss the Pentagon’s assessment, said that the Russians were using long-range fire to hit civilian targets inside Kyiv with increasing frequency but that their ground forces were making little to no progress around the country. The official said Russian troops were still about nine miles from the centre of the capital.

Before Tuesday’s talks, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Moscow would press its demands that Ukraine drop its bid to join Nato, adopt a neutral status and “demilitarise”.

In a statement that seemed to signal potential grounds for agreement with Moscow, Mr Zelensky told European leaders gathered in London that he realizes Nato has no intention of accepting Ukraine.

“We have heard for many years about the open doors, but we also heard that we can’t enter those doors,” he said. “This is the truth, and we have simply to accept it as it is.”

Nato does not admit nations with unsettled territorial conflicts. Mr Zelensky has repeatedly said in recent weeks that he realises Nato is not going to offer membership to Ukraine and that he could consider a neutral status for his country but needs strong security guarantees from both the West and Russia.

The UN said close to 700 civilians in Ukraine have been confirmed killed, with the true figure probably much higher.

New efforts to bring civilians to safety and deliver aid were underway around the country. The Red Cross said it was working to evacuate people in about 70 buses from the north eastern town of Sumy, near the Russian border.

The exodus from Mariupol marked the biggest evacuation yet from the southern city of 430,000, where officials say a weeks-long siege has killed more than 2,300 people and left residents struggling for food, water, heat and medicine. Bodies have been buried in mass graves.

Kyrylo Tymoshenko, a senior aide to Mr Zelensky, said that about 20,000 people managed to leave Mariupol on Tuesday in 4,000 private vehicles via a designated safe corridor leading to the city of Zaporizhzhia.

Later, Ukraine said a fourth Russian general had been killed in the fighting.

Major general Oleg Mityaev died on Tuesday during the storming of Mariupol, said Ukrainian Interior Ministry adviser Anton Gerashchenko, who published a photo on Telegram of what he said was the dead officer.