Russian President Vladimir Putin told French counterpart Emmanuel Macron on Sunday that Moscow planned to achieve its aims in Ukraine either through diplomacy or military means, the Elysee said.
Russia would reach its objectives in Ukraine "either through negotiation or through war", Putin told Macron according to a French presidential official, adding the Russian president also pledged "it was not his intention" to attack Ukrainian nuclear sites, reports AFP.
Macron found Putin "very determined to achieve his objectives", including on "what the Russian president calls the 'de-Nazification' and the 'neutralisation' of Ukraine", added the official, who asked not to be named.
Putin also demanded recognition of the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea -- annexed by Russia in 2014 -- as part of Russian territory as well as recognition as independent of two Ukrainian eastern breakaway regions already recognised by Russia.
These demands are "unacceptable for the Ukrainians", said the official.
Putin also denied that the Russian army is targeting civilians after Macron urged him not to endanger civilians, in line with international law.
The French president replied to him that "the army attacking is the Russian army" and said he had "no reason to believe that the Ukrainian army is putting civilians in danger", the official said.
The call, which a presidential official said lasted one hour 45 minutes and was at Macron's request, was the fourth time they had spoken since the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24.
Russian President Vladimir Putin in a telephone call with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron blamed Kyiv for failed civilian evacuations from the key Ukrainian port city of Mariupol which is surrounded by Russian troops, the Kremlin said Sunday.
Putin "drew attention to the fact that Kyiv still does not fulfil agreements reached on this acute humanitarian issue," according to a statement from the Kremlin, after two agreements to evacuate Mariupol fell though following allegations of ceasefire breaches.
A barrage of Russian missiles destroyed the airport in Vinnytsia in central Ukraine, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Sunday.
"I have just been informed about a missile strike on Vinnytsia. Eight rockets... The airport was completely destroyed," he said.
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Civilian safe passage from Ukraine's besieged eastern port city of Mariupol was "halted" on Sunday for a second consecutive day, the International Committee of the Red Cross said.
"Amid devastating scenes of human suffering in Mariupol, a second attempt today to start evacuating an estimated 200,000 people out of the city came to a halt," the ICRC said.
"The failed attempts yesterday and today underscore the absence of a detailed and functioning agreement between the parties to the conflict," it added.
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Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky warned Sunday that Russian forces are preparing to shell Odessa, a historic port city on the Black Sea coast.
"This is going to be a military crime. This is going to be a historical crime," he declared.
Russian forces have made progress in southern Ukraine since their February 24 invasion, overrunning the city of Kherson and besieging the port of Mariupol, but Odessa has so far been largely spared.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan appealed for an urgent general ceasefire in Ukraine when he spoke Sunday to Russian leader Vladimir Putin by telephone, Erdogan's office said.
The two heads of state spoke several days ahead of a diplomatic forum in the southern city of Antalya on March 11-13 that Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is due to attend.
Russia struck and disabled Ukraine's Starokostiantyniv military air base with long-range high-precision weapons, Russia's defence ministry said on Sunday.
"The Russia armed forces continue to strike the military infrastructure of Ukraine," Russian defence ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said.
"On the morning of March 6, strikes were carried out by high-precision long-range weapons. The Ukrainian air force base near Starokostiantyniv was disabled."
He said a Ukrainian-controlled S-300 missile system had also been destroyed by Russian rocket forces. He said Russia had downed 10 Ukrainian planes and helicopters over the past 24 hours.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has threatened the existence of Ukrainian statehood as his army's invasion of the neighbour faces stiff resistance and his economy is increasingly asphyxiated by sanctions.
In the latest efforts to freeze Moscow out of the world economy, US-based card payment giants Visa and Mastercard announced they will suspend operations in Russia, while world leaders vowed to act over the intensifying onslaught.
"The current (Ukrainian) authorities must understand that if they continue to do what they are doing, they are putting in question the future of Ukrainian statehood," Putin said on Saturday.
"And if this happens, they will be fully responsible."
The Ukrainian port city of Mariupol, which is surrounded by Russian troops, said it will restart efforts to evacuate civilians Sunday, after earlier efforts were scuppered by ceasefire violations.
"From 1200 (1000 GMT) the evacuation of the civilian population begins," city officials announced in a statement, which said a ceasefire was agreed with Russian-led forces surrounding the city.
An earlier attempt on Saturday to allow civilians to leave by buses and private cars along the road northwest towards Zaporizhzhia failed when both sides accused the other of shelling.
Ukraine has succeeded in dominating social media in the first days since the Russian invasion, in an intensifying information war with Moscow that Kyiv so far appears to be winning, analysts say.
Even as President Volodymyr Zelensky remains bunkered down in Kyiv amid heavy bombardment and the fear of assassination, his government has forced an all-out assault on social media to win supporters for their cause.
Zelensky's daily video addresses, usually published with English subtitles, have become viral sensations, while the defence and foreign ministries tout the military resistance of Ukraine in snazzy graphics.
Meanwhile, Ukrainians have posted videos showing the success of their forces that have become viral trends, including a Ukrainian missile shooting down a Russian helicopter and a Ukrainian farmer towing away captured Russian military hardware on his tractor.
US payments firms Visa Inc and Mastercard Inc on Saturday said they were suspending operations in Russia over the invasion of Ukraine, and that they would work with clients and partners to cease all transactions there.
Within days, all transactions initiated with Visa cards issued in Russia will no longer work outside of the country and any Visa cards issued outside of Russia will no longer work within the country, the company said.
"We are compelled to act following Russia's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, and the unacceptable events that we have witnessed," Al Kelly, chief executive officer of Visa, said in a statement.
US President Joe Biden, in a call with Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, welcomed Visa's and Mastercard's decisions to suspend their operations in Russia, the White House said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin warned Saturday that Moscow would consider any country imposing a no-fly zone over Ukraine to have entered into the conflict, while he also equated global sanctions with a declaration of war.
Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky has pleaded with the West to support a no-fly zone as his besieged country continues to resist Moscow's invasion, now in its second week.
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The number of Ukrainian refugees was expected to reach 1.5 million on Sunday as Russia continued its attack 11 days after invading Ukraine and Kyiv pressed for further Western action, including more sanctions and weapons.
Moscow and Kyiv traded blame over a failed ceasefire on Saturday that would have let civilians flee Mariupol and Volnovakha, two southern cities besieged by Russian forces. Ukrainians who could escape spilled into neighbouring Poland, Romania, Slovakia and elsewhere.
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A senior official from Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has warned that the humanitarian situation in the besieged southern Ukrainian port city of Mariupol is “catastrophic” and it is vital that civilians be evacuated.
The city, which lies near the border with Russia, has been under siege by Russian forces, and a Saturday ceasefire to allow civilians to leave failed to materialise.
"It is imperative that this humanitarian corridor, which could have been created today but which has not really been put in place following non-respect of the ceasefire, is put in place very quickly to allow the civilian population, women and children, to get out of this city," MSF's emergency coordinator in Ukraine, Laurent Ligozat, told AFP.
"...the situation is catastrophic and getting worse day by day," he added.
Canada called Saturday on its nationals to avoid all travel to Russia because of its invasion of Ukraine and on Canadians in Russia to leave the country.
In an update to its travel advice, the Canadian Ministry of Foreign Affairs recommended that its nationals "avoid all travel to Russia due to the impacts of the armed conflict with Ukraine."
"If you are in Russia, you should leave while commercial means are still available," the statement added.
