Russia Pummels Ukrainian Civilian Targets Ahead of Talks

Russia’s failure to capture major cities and its mounting loss of aircraft and armored vehicles have increased pressure on Moscow in a campaign that has drawn global ire and sanctions.

Areas seized as of Saturday

Direction of invasion forces

Controlled by or allied to Russia

Primary refugee crossing locations

Ukraine territory, recognized by Putin as independent

Chernobyl

Not in operation

Controlled by

separatists

Areas seized as of Saturday

Direction of invasion forces

Controlled by or allied to Russia

Ukraine territory, recognized by Putin as independent

Primary refugee crossing locations

Chernobyl

Not in operation

Controlled by

separatists

Areas seized as of Saturday

Direction of invasion forces

Controlled by or allied to Russia

Primary refugee crossing locations

Ukraine territory, recognized by Putin as independent

Chernobyl

Not in operation

Controlled by

separatists

Areas seized as of Saturday

Direction of invasion forces

Controlled by or allied to Russia

Primary refugee crossing locations

Ukraine territory, recognized by Putin as independent

Areas seized as of Saturday

Direction of invasion forces

Controlled by or allied to Russia

Primary refugee crossing locations

Ukraine territory, recognized by Putin as independent

Foreign Minister Wang Yi of China, the most important global power to align itself with Russia, said Beijing would work with the international community to provide “necessary mediation” when required.

Ukrainian and Russian negotiators were scheduled to meet in Belarus for their third round of talks on Monday, with progress uncertain after earlier agreements to allow civilians to flee the fighting collapsed. Ukrainian negotiators arrived in Poland on Monday morning ahead of the meeting.

With Ukraine’s ability to withstand the barrage amid increasing deprivation in question, President

Volodymyr Zelensky,

in separate calls with President Biden, U.K. Prime Minister

Boris Johnson

and Italian Prime Minister

Mario Draghi,

pressed his case for increased sanctions against Russia and the implementation of a no-fly zone over his country.

As Russia continued to erase the line between military and civilian targets, Russian forces shot and killed Yuri Prylypko, the head of the village council in Hostomel, outside Kyiv, and two people who were helping him distribute food and medicine, according to the council’s

Facebook

page. Hostomel was the site of fierce fighting in the war’s early days.

In Kharkiv, near the Russian border, Russia intensified attacks on civilian targets, pressing to subdue a city, Ukraine’s second largest, that remains in Ukrainian control after days of fierce bombardment.

A Ukrainian counteroffensive retook a town on the outskirts of the city, with Ukrainian officials claiming to have killed two Russian colonels in the operation. Russia’s concentrated bombardment on civilian sites overnight in Kharkiv killed eight people and set more than 20 buildings ablaze, emergency services said.

Elsewhere, Russia has been consolidating gains. In Irpin, to Kyiv’s west, where residents have been without food and water for three days, Russia moved in tanks and motorized infantry units in a sign of what may be in store for the capital.

Russia continued efforts to subdue cities and towns in the Ukrainian south, piecing together a land bridge to the Crimean Peninsula and choking off access to the Black and Azov Seas.

Russian forces have nearly encircled the Azov Sea port city of Mariupol, trapping civilians. Aid group Doctors Without Borders described the humanitarian situation in the city as catastrophic.

With food supplies threatened across the country, Ukraine banned exports of staples such as rye, oats, buckwheat, salt and sugar.

During the night, Russia assaulted an airport outside the southern port city of Mykolaiv, using Smerch multiple-rocket launchers to pound civilian targets.

Kyiv said it had destroyed 30 Russian helicopters at an airfield near Kherson, southern Ukraine.

Missiles launched from Russian ships in the Black Sea struck infrastructure in Tuzla, south of Odessa, which Mr. Zelensky said was the target of a Russian attack, according to plans he said Ukraine has obtained, auguring an expansion of Russian objectives. Russian ships were regrouping on the Black Sea.

“We know that Russian troops are actively preparing to attack Odessa,” said Mikhail Podolyak, a Ukrainian presidential military adviser. “They have already tried to implement this plan. But our defense has managed to hold them back.”

Ukrainian railways scheduled an additional evacuation train out of Odessa for Monday.

In the country’s east, Ukraine blunted a Russian advance in the Luhansk region, trading artillery blasts in the occupied territory and killing nearly 40 soldiers and hitting an oil depot, Ukrainian Interfax news service reported.

Ukraine continued to muster international support. The U.K. announced a $100 million grant to backfill Ukrainian pensions and public-sector salaries, and the U.S. with Australia, Canada and New Zealand called on Interpol to suspend Russian membership.

A Russian government plane left New York carrying a dozen expelled Russian diplomats to the United Nations.

—Isabel Coles contributed to this article.

Write to Brett Forrest at brett.forrest@wsj.com