TOP HEADLINES

• Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has called for comprehensive peace talks with Moscow, saying Russia would otherwise need generations to recover from losses suffered during the war.

• Ukraine's defense ministry admitted it had "temporarily" lost access to the Sea of Azov as Russia's defense ministry talked of "tightening the noose" around Mariupol.

• Ukraine hopes to evacuate civilians on Saturday via 10 humanitarian corridors from cities and towns on the front line of fighting with Russian forces, Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said.

• Nine people were killed and 17 wounded in shelling of the suburbs of the city of Zaporizhzhia in southern Ukraine on Friday, deputy mayor Anatoliy Kurtiev said on Saturday.

• Russia said on Saturday that it had used hypersonic missiles to destroy a large weapons depot in Ukraine's western Ivano-Frankivsk region. 

• The United States has agreed to provide a Stryker mechanized infantry company for Bulgaria's battlegroup under NATO's drive to bolster its eastern flank.

• Russia has demanded that Google stop spreading what it called threats against Russian citizens on its YouTube video-sharing platform.

• Russian President Vladimir Putin is healthy, sane and "in better shape than ever," said his close ally Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko.

• Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala said his country would take care of the "wives and children" fleeing Ukraine.

• Ukraine may not produce enough crops to export if this year's sowing campaigns are disrupted by the conflict, a presidential adviser warned.

• British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said it would be a "mistake" to normalize relations with Putin.

IN DEPTH

Zelenskyy calls for talks

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has called for comprehensive peace talks with Moscow, saying Russia would otherwise need generations to recover from losses suffered during the war.

Zelenskyy said Ukraine had always offered solutions for peace and wanted meaningful and honest negotiations on peace and security, without delay.

"I want everyone to hear me now, especially in Moscow. The time has come for a meeting, it is time to talk," he said in a video address released in the early hours of Saturday. "The time has come to restore territorial integrity and justice for Ukraine. Otherwise, Russia's losses will be such that it will take you several generations to recover."

The two sides have been involved in talks for weeks with no sign of a breakthrough.

Zelenskyy said Russian forces were deliberately blocking the supply of humanitarian supplies to cities under attack. "This is a deliberate tactic... This is a war crime and they will answer for it, 100 percent," he said.

Zelenskyy said there was no information about how many people had died after a theater in the city of Mariupol, where hundreds of people had been sheltering, was struck on Wednesday. More than 130 people had been rescued so far, he said.

Russia's 'noose' tightens around Mariupol

Ukraine's defense ministry admitted it had "temporarily" lost access to the Sea of Azov as Russia's defense ministry talked of "tightening the noose" around Mariupol.

"The occupiers have partially succeeded in the Donetsk operational district, temporarily depriving Ukraine of access to the Sea of Azov," Ukraine's defense ministry said in a statement which did not specify whether access had been regained.

Russia's defense ministry said that separatists in eastern Ukraine with help from Russia's armed forces were "tightening the noose" around Mariupol, Russia's RIA Novosti news agency reported. The defense ministry added that fighting was ongoing in the city center.

An estimated 80 percent of the city's homes had been damaged, while some 1,000 people may still be trapped in makeshift bomb shelters beneath a destroyed theater. Zelenskyy said on Friday that "There are still hundreds of Mariupol residents under the rubble." Ukrainian authorities have not confirmed the number of possible casualties.

In a strategic location on the coast of the Sea of Azov, Mariupol lies on the route between the peninsula of Crimea to the west, and the Donetsk region to the east, which is partially controlled by pro-Russian separatists.

Humanitarian corridors and Zaporizhzhia

Ukraine hopes to evacuate civilians on Saturday via 10 humanitarian corridors from cities and towns on the front line of fighting with Russian forces, Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said.

She said a corridor had been agreed for the besieged city of Mariupol, although the authorities' previous efforts to evacuate civilians there under a temporary ceasefire have mostly failed, with both sides trading blame.

Nine people were killed and 17 wounded in shelling of the suburbs of the city of Zaporizhzhia in southern Ukraine on Friday, deputy mayor Anatoliy Kurtiev said on Saturday.

The military has since declared a 38-hour curfew in the city, which was being attacked by Russian forces with mortars, tanks, helicopters and rocket systems, Kurtiev said in an online post. "Do not go outside at this time!" said Kurtiev's post.

The regional capital has become an important point of transit for some of the 35,000 people estimated to have fled the besieged Mariupol city in the southeast.

Russia's hypersonic weapons

Russia said on Saturday that it had used hypersonic Kinzhal (Dagger) missiles to destroy a large weapons depot in Ukraine's western Ivano-Frankivsk region. The Interfax news agency said it was the first time Russia had deployed the hypersonic Kinzhal system since it sent its troops into Ukraine on February 24.

Defense ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov told a briefing that the underground depot hit by the Kinzhal system on Friday housed Ukrainian missiles and aircraft ammunition. Reuters was not able to independently verify Konashenkov's statements.

Russia prides itself on its advanced weaponry, and President Vladimir Putin said in December that Russia was the global leader in hypersonic missiles, whose speed, maneuverability and altitude make them difficult to track and intercept. 

Konashenkov added that Russian forces had also destroyed military radio and reconnaissance centers near the Ukrainian port city of Odessa using the Bastion coastal missile system.

EXPLAINER: What are hypersonic missiles?

U.S. bolsters NATO's eastern flank

The United States has agreed to provide a Stryker mechanized infantry company for Bulgaria's battlegroup under NATO's drive to bolster its eastern flank, Bulgarian Prime Minister Kiril Petkov said on Saturday.

"The USA agreed to provide a Stryker company," he told a press conference with U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin. "This is a strong sign to all of our allies in NATO."

Bulgaria, once Moscow's closest ally during the Cold War era but now a NATO and European Union member state, is establishing a battlegroup of up to 1,000 troops under the operational command of NATO's Supreme Allied Commander Europe. The battlegroup is expected to host troops from other allied countries as well.

"I wanted to underscore the importance of the announcement that Bulgaria has established and is leading a NATO multinational battlegroup. It is an important step and we fully support it," Austin said.

Petkov said Bulgaria would continue to send humanitarian aid to Ukraine and take in Ukrainian refugees from the war, but it was not considering sending any weaponry to Kyiv for the time being as his Black Sea country was too close to the conflict.

Russia blasts Google

Russia has demanded that Google stop spreading what it called threats against Russian citizens on its YouTube video-sharing platform, a move that could presage an outright block of the service on Russian territory.

The regulator, Roskomnadzor, said adverts on the platform were calling for the communications systems of Russia and Belarus' railway networks to be suspended and that their dissemination was evidence of the U.S. company's anti-Russian position. It did not say which accounts were publishing the adverts.

"The actions of YouTube's administration are of a terrorist nature and threaten the life and health of Russian citizens," the regulator said.

"Roskomnadzor categorically opposes such advertising campaigns and demands that Google stop broadcasting anti-Russia videos as soon as possible."

Ukraine wheat exports warning

Ukraine may not produce enough crops to export if this year's sowing campaigns are disrupted by the conflict, presidential adviser Oleh Ustenko said in a televised interview on Saturday.

"Ukraine has enough grain and food reserves to survive for a year, but if the war continues ... (Ukraine) will not be able to export grain to the world, and there will be problems," he said, adding that Ukraine is the world's fifth-largest wheat exporter.

Lukashenko: Putin will outlive us all

Russian President Vladimir Putin is healthy, sane and "in better shape than ever," said his close ally Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko.

"He and I haven't only met as heads of state, we're on friendly terms," Lukashenko said in an interview with the Japanese television channel TBS. "I'm absolutely privy to all his details, as far as possible, both state and personal."

Russia used Belarusian territory as a staging post for its military action in Ukraine.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has suggested Putin is being "irrational" and Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte has described him as "totally paranoid" – but Lukashenko dismissed the notion that Putin, who is 69, was not at the height of his powers.

"The West, and you, should get this stupidity, this fiction out of your heads," he said. "Putin is absolutely fit, he's in better shape than ever ... This is a completely sane, healthy person, physically healthy – he's an athlete. As they say here – he'll catch a cold at all our funerals."

Czech PM welcomes refugees

Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala said on Saturday his country would take care of the "wives and children" fleeing Ukraine.

Fiala, who travelled to Kyiv earlier this week with his Polish and Slovenian counterparts to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, added that Czechia could cope with further refugee arrivals from Ukraine.

With men of conscription age prevented from leaving Ukraine, mostly women and children have crossed into the European Union at border points in Poland, Slovakia, Hungary and Romania.

"I have informed Ukrainian friends that we will take care of their wives and children," Fiala said on Twitter. "The speed and size of the refugee wave is incomparable with past waves but Czechia can (handle) it."

Echoing the concerns of other leaders in the region, Fiala said countries receiving large numbers of refugees should receive EU financial support but voiced opposition to quotas. 

"We do not want the EU to introduce quotas but to have financial solidarity with the countries most affected by the refugee wave," he said.

UK PM Johnson won't 'normalize' relations

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Saturday it would be a mistake to normalize relations with President Vladimir Putin following Russia's military action in Ukraine. "To try to re-normalize relations with Putin after this, as we did in 2014, would be to make exactly the same mistake again," Johnson told a Conservative Party conference.