Russia-Ukraine war live updates: Vladimir Putin offers deal to end invasion but Volodymyr Zelenskyy vows revenge

Vladimir Putin has released a video message for the women in the lives of troops fighting in Ukraine amid a new deal for a ceasefire.WARNING: GRAPHIC

Vladimir Putin has released a video message for the women in the lives of Russian troops sent to Ukraine.

The Russian president said the “mothers, wives, sisters, brides and girlfriends of our soldiers and officers” should be proud.

“I know how worried you are for your loved ones. You can be proud of them, just as the whole country is proud and feels for them,” the former KGB agent said in the message released early Tuesday morning.

Mr Putin reassured that conscripts “will not be involved” in the Ukraine invasion, nor will reserves be deployed in the war.

“The set goals will be achieved only by professional soldiers. I am confident that they will reliably ensure security and peace for the Russian people,” he said.

Vladimir Putin has released a video message.

CEASEFIRE TO HAPPEN WITHIN HOURS

Russia says it will open humanitarian corridors on Tuesday from 0700 GMT (6pm AEDT), subject to Ukraine’s approval, listing evacuation routes from Kyiv as well as Mariupol, Kharkiv and Sumy - all of which have been under heavy Russian attack.

Kyiv’s UN ambassador, Sergiy Kyslytsya, said the conflict had blocked exports through Ukraine’s seaports, cutting off vast quantities of agricultural goods vital to the world’s food supplies.

“The implications at the global level will be catastrophic,” said Kyslytsya, noting that his country produces 55 percent of the world’s sunflower oil.

He also warned of the health threat from so many dead lying uncollected on the battlefield.

“We are speaking about dozens of thousands of bodies decomposing in the fields of Ukraine, I’m talking about the bodies of the Russian soldiers,” he said, calling on the International Committee of the Red Cross to help repatriate fallen combatants and prisoners of war.

RUSSIA BOOBY-TRAPPING ‘SAFE CORRIDORS’

Russia has reportedly planted landmines along a “human corridor” that is supposed to allow the safe passage of civilians.

A senior Red Cross official told the BBC that aid staff trying to use a safe passage out of Mariupol said the route had been booby-trapped with landmines.

“That is why it is so important that the two parties have a precise agreement for us then to be able to facilitate it on the ground,” Dominik Stillhart, director of operations for the International Committee of the Red Cross, told BBC 4.

Moscow has offered terms to stop its invasion of Ukraine “in a moment” if Kyiv agrees to carve up three key regions and vow to drop its NATO ambitions.

As delegations from the two countries arrived in Belarus for the third round of peace talks, a Kremlin spokesman listed its demand to end the conflict immediately.

Dimitry Peskov told Reuters that all Ukraine needs to do is acknowledge Crimea as Russian territory and recognise the breakaway regions of Donetsk and Lugansk as independent states.

Mr Peskov added that Ukraine must amend its constitution to reject entering defensive blocs, like NATO, and also “end its military action”.

Ukrainian police officers patrol a street following a shelling in Ukraine's second-biggest city of Kharkiv. Picture: AFP

A pedestrian walks past a bomb crater following a shelling in Ukraine's second-biggest city of Kharkiv. Picture: AFP

“This is not us seizing Lugansk and Donetsk from Ukraine. Donetsk and Lugansk don’t want to be part of Ukraine. But it doesn’t mean they should be destroyed as a result,” Mr Peskov said.

“For the rest. Ukraine is an independent state that will live as it wants, but under conditions of neutrality.”

Mr Peskov said that the terms had been delivered to Ukraine during the first two rounds of peace talks.

After the third round, Russian delegation head Vladimir Medinsky said Russia’s expectations of a Ukrainian surrender were “not fulfilled”.

“We hope that next time we will be able to take a more significant step forward,” he said.

At The Hague, Netherlands, Ukraine pleaded with the International Court of Justice to order a halt to Russia’s invasion, saying Moscow is committing widespread war crimes.

Russia “is resorting to tactics reminiscent of medieval siege warfare, encircling cities, cutting off escape routes and pounding the civilian population with heavy ordnance,” said Jonathan Gimblett, a member of Ukraine’s legal team.

Russia turned its back on the court proceedings, leaving its seats in the Great Hall of Justice empty.

Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak went into the third round of peace talks slamming Russia’s “toxic” representatives over violence against civilians.

He said after the talks that some progress had been made “concerning the logistics of humanitarian corridors,” he said.

Now we are about to start talking to representatives of a country that seriously believes that massive violence against civilians is an argument. Let's prove them wrong. Do not pay attention to various toxic surnames like Yanukovych, Boyko, Muraev, which the RF foolishly pull… pic.twitter.com/VFPvlH3V9Q

— Михайло Подоляк (@Podolyak_M) March 7, 2022

Mr Zelenskyy had rejected Russia’s move to open humanitarian corridors to Belarus and Russia, calling it a “completely immoral” attempt to “use people’s suffering to create a television picture”.

The corridor from Kyiv would lead to Belarus, while civilians from Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-biggest city, would be directed to Russia, according to maps published by the RIA news agency.

“They are citizens of Ukraine, they should have the right to evacuate to the territory of Ukraine,” the spokesman told Reuters.

An Ukrainian serviceman looks at a civilian crossing a blown up bridge in a village, east of the town of Brovary. Picture: AFP.

Mr Zelenskyy, meanwhile, vowed revenge against Russian troops for the shelling of civilian targets that killed eight Ukrainian citizens as they attempted to flee Irpin, close to Kyiv, on the weekend.

“We will not forgive. We will not forget. We will punish everyone who committed atrocities in this war. On our land,” he said.

“We will find every b*****d.”

Sind fighting began on February 24, there have been 406 civilians killed – 27 of them children – and 801 injured, according to the United Nations’ Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.

The office believes the real figure is “considerably” higher, but information has been delayed by the heavy fighting.

“Most of the civilian casualties recorded 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,” the office said in a statement.

‘I’M STAYING, I FEAR NO ONE’: ZELENSKYY DEFIANT

Ukraine’s brave president has appeared in his office for the first time since Russia’s invasion

In a video posted on Facebook this morning, Mr Zelenskyy said: “I’m staying in Kyiv … And I fear no one.”

The president filmed himself on his phone as he made his way to the office and maintained: “As much as it takes to win the war”.

I stay in Kyiv. On Bankova Street. I’m not hiding. And I'm not afraid of anyone. As much as it takes to win this Patriotic War of ours.

Posted by Володимир Зеленський on Monday, March 7, 2022

TWO OIL DEPOTS SET ON FIRE

Two oil depots in Ukraine were ablaze after Russian air strikes.

Video shows large flames and black smoke coming from the oil depots in the cities of Zhytomyr and Cherniahiv.

The fire has been extinguished and no injuries or deaths have been reported.

⚡️Two oil depots in Zhytomyr Oblast on fire after air strikes.

According to the State Emergency Service, the targeted oil depots are in Zhytomyr and Cherniahiv. The fire has been extinguished. No casualties have been reported yet.

Video: State Emergency Service of Ukraine pic.twitter.com/il97wfmMwI

— The Kyiv Independent (@KyivIndependent) March 7, 2022

UKRAINE STREETS STREWN WITH BODIES

It came after indiscriminate shelling by Russian forces left catastrophic scenes across various cities in Ukraine, with bodies strewn where they fell and demands for a nationwide ceasefire.

French President Emmanuel Macron has again spoken with Russian President Vladimir Putin appealing for his forces to allow civilians to flee the devastation through “humanitarian corridors”.

Mr Putin has tentatively agreed but two previous pledges for a ceasefire in the city of Mariupol alone have not been honoured.

A third round of talks is to be held later today but Russia has demanded an unconditional surrender by Ukraine before it will negotiate terms.

Ukrainian soldiers trying to save the father of a family of four — the only one at that moment who still had a pulse — moments after being hit by a mortar while trying to flee Irpin, near Kyiv. Picture: Lynsey Addario for The New York Times

Me Zelenskyy vowed to fight on, urging his people in a weekend television address to take to the streets to “drive this evil out of our cities, from our land.”

Russian forces used Smerch heavy multiple rocket launchers to shell various cities overnight including Kyiv, Chernihiv and Mykolaiv.

Street fighting has also flared in Kherson, occupied but not controlled by Russians and Mariupol. Townships outside of port city Odessa ere also hit with artillery.

Ukrainian servicemen co-ordinate the evacuation of civilians near Irpin, Ukraine. Picture: Getty Images

The UN refugee agency has already called the conflict “the fastest-growing refugee crisis in Europe since World War II”.

A planned ceasefire to allow Ukrainian civilians in the embattled port city of Mariupol has failed for a second time as Russian artillery pounded the city and various points along the proposed evacuation route.

A second 11-hour ceasefire saw thousands emerge from the Mariupol rubble and bunkers but in heartbreak scenes, they were again told to return to their sanctuaries.

There is now little hope of ending the misery for the 200,000 people of that city trapped let alone civilians from other centres who were yesterday also indiscriminately shelled by Russian artillery.

Little hope either for many trapped in the city of Irpin which lies in the path of Russian forces advancing on capital Kyiv.

A man escapes the town of Irpin with his small child. Picture: Reuters

Military hardware in the Ukrainian village of Bugas recently taken under control by the Donetsk People's Republic troops. Picture: Taisiya Vorontsova

Yuriy, who was shot in the leg while evacuating civilians from the shelled city of Irpin receives first aid in Kyiv, Ukraine. Picture: Getty Images

Servicemen of the Ukrainian Military Forces speak after following their battle against Russian troops and Russia-backed separatists near Zolote village. Picture: AFP

Families are given shelter at the Lviv Puppet theatre in Lviv, Ukraine. Picture: Getty Images

A defiant Mr Putin however on Monday said he would only now negotiate any form of a truce when “all known Russian demands are met”.

Those demands now include a full surrender by Ukrainian troops – who together with ordinary civilians – have humiliated Russian forces through their resistance despite immense suffering.

In Mariupol there is no heating, no electricity and no water and many are melting snow to drink and according to authorities some are dying in minus 4 temperatures where they lay.

Ukrainian authorities claim more than 2000 civilians nationally have so far being killed since Russia’s invasion of the country 11 days ago and twice that number maimed.

A wife says her goodbyes to her husband who is a member of the Territorial Defence as she evacuates from the city near Irpin, Ukraine. Picture: Getty Images

A local resident reacts as a house is on fire after heavy shelling on the only escape route used by locals to leave the town of Irpin. Picture: Reuters

An evacuated Mariupol civilian talks on the phone at a relief centre for evacuees of the DPR Emergency Service in the village of Bezymennoye. Picture: Alexander Ryumin/TASS

Evacuated Mariupol civilians and a serviceman at a relief centre for evacuees of the DPR Emergency Service in the village of Bezymennoye.

Precision missiles destroyed two airports on the 11th day of fighting, one a regional civilian air strip, in central Ukraine while ground forces and multi — rocket launchers struck at Kharkiv and other towns nearby.

It is these that cannot be guided and have destroyed whole suburban homes and in the case of Mariupol, more than half the city.

In Irpin a bus with fleeing civilians was fired upon killing eight and in another assault outside that city a bridge was hit by a mortar killing another five people including two children, one of whom was about eight years old.

Ukrainian soldiers rushed back to help the family but the kids and their mother lay dead among the burst suitcases and backpacks they were carrying, a dog in a carrier they were holding at the time was still barking. The father was dragged away but is believed to have also died.

The whole scene was captured by an American news outlet but many media refused to run the series of images simple because they were beyond distressing.

Also killed, caught out in the open, crossing a bridge already destroyed but used by civilians to flee was a well known Ukrainian actor Pavlo Lee who was a volunteer soldier.

Irpin city was last night ablaze. The city is on the outskirts of capital Kyiv and lies in the path of advancing Russian troops. It has also been the city through which civilians from the capital have been escaping. Many had been leaving via train but the railway line was cut by Russian troops forcing the population to risk going on foot. But like Kyiv, Irpin remains besieged.

The desperation to now escape in car or on foot from many of these cities is seeing the devastating civilian death toll rise.

There appears to be no end to the misery in Ukraine and EU leaders have warned it is only likely to get worse with Putin becoming ever more desperate.

Russia had also downed 10 Ukrainian planes and helicopters over the past 24 hours.

Already 1.5 million Ukrainians have left the country with twice that number displaced internally, many being taken in by strangers from Lviv in Ukraine’s west which remains relatively unscathed from Russian aggression.

MORRISON SLAMS CHINESE ‘SILENCE’

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has slammed China’s “chilling silence” on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine saying it is time for Beijing to stop having a “bet each way”.

Mr Morrison gave a major foreign policy address to the Lowy Institute on Monday, formally announcing his plan for a $10bn base to be built for the nuclear powered submarines Australia is set to acquire under the AUKUS agreement.

The burnt out remains of a building destroyed by Russian army shelling in the second largest Ukrainian city of Kharkiv. Picture: AFP.

During his hour-long speech, Mr Morrison called out China’s alliance with Russia.

The Prime Minister said he believed it was an “instinctive and opportunistic relationship” rather than a strategic one.

“The world has heard China’s words about its commitment to global peace and respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity and playing a positive role in the international community for a very long time,” he said.

“So it’s now up to China’s and their leaders at this hinge point of history to demonstrate that these are more than just words.

“But I feel the early signs are not good.

“No country will have a bigger impact on concluding this terrible war in Ukraine than China.

“But so long as they have a bet each way on this, the bloodshed will continue.”

Earlier, Mr Zelenskyy accused Russia of “deliberate murder” in Ukraine.

In an address on Facebook, the Ukraine President warned “we will punish everyone who committed atrocities.”

A member of a Territorial Defence unit prepares equipment before starting his shift guarding a barricade on the outskirts of eastern Kyiv. Picture: Chris McGrath/Getty Images

“Today is Forgiveness Sunday. But we cannot forgive the hundreds upon hundreds of victims. Nor the thousands upon thousands who have suffered,” Mr Zelenskyy said.

“And God will not forgive. Not today. Not tomorrow. Never. And instead of forgiveness, there will be judgment.”

He continued: “For tomorrow Russia has officially announced the shelling of our territory. Our enterprises of the defence complex. Most were built decades ago by the Soviet government, built in cities. And now they are in the middle of an ordinary urban environment. “Thousands of people work there. Hundreds of thousands live nearby.

“This is murder. Deliberate murder.”