HEADLINES

· Ninety-seven Ukrainian children have died since the start of Russia's invasion, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a speech to Canada's parliament, pleading once more for allies to "expand" their support for Kyiv.

· Russia will put forward its own draft of a resolution regarding the humanitarian situation in Ukraine, Moscow's ambassador to the UN said.

· Zelenskyy said his country should 'accept the truth and recognize' that it will not become a member of NATO, a key Russian security concern that Moscow used as one justification for the invasion. 

· Zelenskyy said Ukraine must protect itself independently provided it has security guarantees and called again on NATO to apply a no-fly zone over the country.

· Russia's foreign ministry says it is launching a procedure to exit the Council of Europe, amid growing pressure for its expulsion from the pan-European rights group. A spokesperson for the Council told CGTN Europe that Moscow intended to "denounce the European Convention on Human Rights."

· A new round of talks are ongoing, via videoconference, between Ukraine and Russia. Kyiv says it is demanding "peace, an immediate ceasefire and the withdrawal of Russian troops," while President Zelenskyy said discussions on Monday were "pretty good."

· The Kremlin said it was too early to make predictions about the talks. "The work is difficult, and in the current situation, the very fact that they are continuing is probably positive," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. "We don't want to make predictions. We await results."

· Russia's Foreign Ministry has placed sanctions on U.S. President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, according to reports by TASS news agency. It said the measures targetted  representatives of the U.S. leadership and persons associated with them, including Biden's son, Hunter Biden.

· The third batch of humanitarian supplies from the Red Cross Society of China departed from Warsaw on Tuesday. According to the carrier and logistics company, the supplies will arrive at the Krebenny port on the Poland-Ukraine border on Tuesday evening.  

· "China is not a party to the crisis, still less wants to be affected by the sanctions," Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said, according to a readout of a phone call with his Spanish counterpart Jose Manuel Albares published on Tuesday.

· UN chief Antonio Guterres warns that the world must act to prevent a "hurricane of hunger and a meltdown of the global food system," as both Ukraine and Russia are leading producers of grain, among other essentials. 

· The UN stated that more than three million people have now fled Ukraine since Russia invaded on February 24. 

· A Russian editor who protested against Moscow's military action in Ukraine during a prime-time news broadcast on state TV was released with a fine on Tuesday after a court hearing.

· The Polish, Czech, and Slovenian prime ministers arrive at Kyiv, the first visit by foreign leaders to Ukraine's besieged capital since Russia invaded last month.

· Some 2,000 civilian cars have been able to drive out of the besieged southeastern Ukrainian city of Mariupol along a humanitarian evacuation route, the city authorities said.

China calls for dialogue  

China does not want to be impacted by Western economic sanctions on Russia, the foreign ministry said. 

"China is not a party to the crisis, still less wants to be affected by the sanctions," Foreign Minister Wang Yi said, according to a readout of a phone call with his Spanish counterpart Jose Manuel Albares published on Tuesday.

China has "always opposed using sanctions to solve problems, let alone unilateral sanctions that have no basis in international law," Wang said, according to the readout.

The comments followed a seven-hour meeting between high-ranking US and Chinese officials in Rome, at which Washington said the U.S. had expressed concern about "alignment" between Russia and China.

US media has reported that Russia has asked China for military and economic assistance as its troops struggle to make ground and its economy faces devastation from Western sanctions.

The New York Times, citing unnamed US officials, said there was no indication whether China had responded.

China denied the allegations. "The U.S. has repeatedly spread malicious disinformation against China on the Ukraine issue," the Chinese embassy in London told Reuters.

"China has been playing a constructive role in promoting peace talks," it added.

Foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian told reporters that Beijing "strongly urges the U.S. not to harm China's legitimate rights and interests when handling relations with Russia."

Asked about articles saying Moscow had asked Beijing for help, Zhao accused the US of "spreading disinformation" against China.

"Our aim is very clear, that is, to promote de-escalation of the situation... and end the conflict," he added.

In the Rome meeting on Monday with US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, China's senior diplomat Yang Jiechi reiterated the country's stance that Beijing is "committed to promoting peace talks", the official Xinhua news agency reported Tuesday.

China called on all parties to exercise "maximum restraint" and "protect civilians" in the Ukraine crisis at the meeting.

Yang said the international community should support such talks to achieve substantive results as soon as possible.

Prime ministers visit Kyiv

Three European prime ministers rode a train for Kyiv on Tuesday, the first visit by foreign leaders to the Ukrainian capital since Russia launched its invasion. 

"It is our duty to be where history is forged. Because it's not about us, but about the future of our children who deserve to live in a world free from tyranny," said Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, who set off across the border with Czechia Prime Minister Petr Fiala and Janez Jansa of Slovenia.

Fiala said the aim was "to confirm the unequivocal support of the entire European Union for the sovereignty and independence of Ukraine."

They will arrive in a city still under bombardment, where around half of the 3.4 million population has fled, and many are spending nights sheltering in underground stations.

Two powerful explosions rocked the capital before dawn on Tuesday and tracer fire lit up the night sky. A high-rise apartment building was in flames after being struck by artillery.

Firefighters tried to douse the blaze, and rescue workers helped evacuate residents trapped inside using mobile ladders. A dead body lay on the ground in a bag.

But despite shelling that has reduced some cities to rubble, Europe's biggest invasion force since World War Two has been halted at the gates of Kyiv, nearly three weeks into a war which Western countries say Moscow believed it would win within days.

Major road and train routes from the capital are still open, and Russia has failed to capture Ukraine's ten biggest cities.

Hosting foreign dignitaries in his capital would be a remarkable achievement for President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who rejected offers to evacuate early in the war, staying under bombardment to rally his nation.

In his most confident public statement yet, Zelenskyy called on Russian troops to surrender, saying they and their officers already knew that the war was hopeless.

"You will not take anything from Ukraine. You will take lives. There are a lot of you. But your life will also be taken. But why should you die? What for? I know that you want to survive," he said.

Hopes for peace

One of Zelenskyy's top aides said the war would be over by May - and could even end within weeks - as Russia had effectively run out of fresh troops to keep fighting.

"We are at a fork in the road now: there will either be a peace deal struck very quickly, within a week or two, with troop withdrawal and everything, or there will be an attempt to scrape together some, say, Syrians for a round two and, when we grind them too, an agreement by mid-April or late April," Oleksiy Arestovich said in a video.

"I think that no later than in May, early May, we should have a peace agreement, maybe much earlier: we will see," Arestovich said.

The remarks projected newfound confidence that Ukraine's heavily outnumbered forces have thwarted what Western countries believe was Moscow's aim - to topple Zelenskyy and install pro-Russian leaders in Kyiv.

Russia says it is not targeting civilians and is carrying out a "special operation" to disarm and "denazify" Ukraine.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said it was too early to predict progress at peace talks, due to resume later on Tuesday by video link.

"The work is difficult, and in the current situation, the very fact that they are continuing is probably positive," he told reporters.