Ukraine leader entreats US as Putin claims invasion on course

Kyiv was under curfew as the capital braced for an offensive from encircling Russian forces

Ukraine's leader on Wednesday made an emotive appeal to US lawmakers for greater Western intervention against Russia, which insisted its invasion was going "successfully" despite the West rallying to Kyiv's aid with arms and sanctions.

In a landmark virtual address to Congress, President Volodymyr Zelensky invoked Pearl Harbor, the 9/11 attacks and Martin Luther King Jr as he showed lawmakers the aftermath of three weeks of Russian attacks.

The Mariupol mayor's office later said Russian forces had struck a theatre sheltering hundreds of civilians.

Kyiv has been emptied of around half of its 3.5 million people but Eduard Demenchuk, a private-security employee in his 50s, was among those who have stayed.

"To tell the truth, I wasn't planning to leave Kyiv anyway," Demenchuk added. "If need be, we will take arms and will stand to defend the city." 

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.

Switching to English, Zelensky addressed US President Joe Biden, saying: "I wish you to be the leader of the world. Being the leader of the world means to be the leader of peace."

- Putin warns West -

Russian President Vladimir Putin, however, also reached back to history as he denounced the West's "pogroms" against Russia and its sanctions "blitzkrieg", which he said had failed.

"And we will not allow Ukraine to serve as a springboard for aggressive actions against Russia," he added.

NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said the alliance would put "substantially more forces" on its eastern flank, but was not planning to deploy forces to Ukraine.

The new aid announced by Biden on Wednesday adds $800 million to the $200 million allocated over the weekend from an aid package approved last week by Congress.

Zelensky had earlier responded to news that hackers had targeted Ukrainian TV news and inserted a bogus message demanding Ukraine lay down its arms.

The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court was in Ukraine to investigate Russian atrocities, the president added.

Russia was meanwhile ordered to end its invasion by another tribunal, the International Court of Justice, which deals with disputes between UN countries.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said a "compromise" outcome would centre on Ukraine becoming a neutral state comparable to Sweden and Austria.

"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.

After a symbolic journey to Kyiv by rail of the leaders of Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovenia, International Committee of the Red Cross president Peter Maurer embarked on a five-day visit.

The conflict has already sent more than three million Ukrainians fleeing across the border.

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.

Isolated internationally, Putin has turned to Chechnya and Syria to replenish his invasion force -- and to China for economic support.

Russian Patriarch Kirill -- who has supported Putin's war -- and Pope Francis meanwhile agreed in talks on the need for a "just peace", Kirill's office said.

...