Ukraine's humanitarian crisis deepens as talks with Russia go nowhere

Ukraine has said relentless Russian shelling is deepening a humanitarian crisis in its besieged port of Mariupol, as high-level talks on the war drew a blank and Kyiv and western allies warned that Moscow could be preparing to use chemical weapons in the conflict.

The United Nations Security Council will convene on Friday at Russia’s request, diplomats said, to discuss Moscow’s claims, presented without evidence, of US biological activities in Ukraine.

Swathes of several Ukrainian towns and cities lie in ruins 15 days after Russia invaded, and attempts to evacuate civilians from several areas are being hampered by surges in fighting that Kyiv and Moscow blame on each other's forces.

Ukraine and aid groups say the worst situation is in Mariupol, which has been encircled by Russian troops for more than a week, and where two adults and a child were killed and 17 people injured on Wednesday when a maternity hospital was bombed.

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"Not a single person was evacuated [on Thursday]. Not a single drop of water reached people," said Ukrainian deputy prime minister Iryna Vereshchuk.

“Three hundred thousand people are suffering from lack of water, from cold and hunger. The enemy vindictively prevents us from saving them.”

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said the people of Mariupol, an industrial port on the Azov Sea, “urgently need respite from violence, and humanitarian aid”.

Looted

Sasha Volkov, an ICRC worker in the city, said it had no power, heat or water supply, its shops and pharmacies had been looted, cancer and diabetes sufferers were struggling to find vital medicines and many people "reported having no food for children".

“People started to attack each other for food . . . People are getting sick already because of the cold,” he said in phone call released by the ICRC.

Moscow accuses Ukraine of blocking the evacuation of civilians, and the Russian defence ministry on Thursday denied bombing the maternity hospital in Mariupol.

Earlier, Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said the hospital had been taken over by "ultra-radical" Ukrainian fighters, and Russia's embassy in London claimed the bombing and footage of pregnant women being evacuated from the ruins were staged by Ukraine.

After talks in Turkey with Mr Lavrov, Ukrainian foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba said Russia had rejected his call for a 24-hour ceasefire to allow aid to reach Mariupol.

“They want Ukraine’s surrender. They will not get it. Ukraine is strong, Ukraine is fighting,” he said.

‘False-flag’ attack

Kyiv’s security service and the US and UK governments warn that Russia may be setting the stage for a “false-flag” attack using chemicals, after Moscow made unsubstantiated claims that the US had run a bio-weapons programme in Ukraine.

British prime minister Boris Johnson said "this is straight out of their playbook".

"They start saying that there are chemical weapons that have been stored by their opponents or by the Americans. And so when they themselves deploy chemical weapons, as I fear they may, they have a sort of . . . fake story ready to go. And you've seen it in Syria, " he told Sky News.

Speaking before a meeting of EU leaders in Versailles, which continues on Friday, Taoiseach Micheál Martin said it was “always possible” that Irish Defence Forces personnel could go to the borders of Ukraine to help in a humanitarian capacity, depsite Ireland’s military neutral status.

“We stand ready to help neighbouring countries in terms of the humanitarian crisis in terms of logistics along the border,” he said. – Additional reporting Reuters