TOP HEADLINES

• Ukrainian forces say they are preparing for a "last battle" for Mariupol because their ammunition is running out. "It's death for some of us, and captivity for the rest," the 36th marine brigade of the Ukrainian armed forces posted on Facebook, saying it had been "pushed back" and "surrounded" by the Russian army. Pro-Russia rebels says they are already in control of Mariupol's port.

• Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer held "very direct, open and tough" talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Monday, in Putin's first meeting with a European Union leader since the conflict in Ukraine started. "I generally have no optimistic impression that I can report to you from this conversation with President Putin," he said in a news conference after the meeting.

• Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the Kremlin would not halt its operation for any new round of peace talks. "A decision was made that during the next rounds of talks, there would be no pause [in military action] so long as a final agreement is not reached," Lavrov said.

• The United States believes that Russia has started reinforcing and resupplying its troops in Donbas in eastern Ukraine, a senior U.S. defense official said.

• Residents in Ukraine's eastern city of Sloviansk boarded trains to safety on Monday. 

• Russia is responsible for an escalating global food crisis through its military action in Ukraine, notably by bombing wheat stocks and preventing ships from carrying grain abroad, the EU's top diplomat Josep Borrell told a media conference after chairing a meeting of EU foreign ministers. 

• U.S. President Joe Biden has held a video conference with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, weeks after saying New Delhi has been "shaky" in its response to Russia's military action in Ukraine.

• Russia's war in Ukraine could almost halve world trade growth this year and drag down global GDP growth, according to an economic simulation model issued by the World Trade Organization.

• Ukraine says it has discovered 1,222 bodies in Bucha and other towns around the capital Kyiv from which the Russian army has retreated. 

• Ukraine's economy will collapse by 45.1 percent this year, the World Bank predicts, warning of a huge increase in poverty in Ukraine. The proportion of the population living on $5.50 a day is expected to rise to nearly one in five, from one in 50 in 2021, according to the World Bank. 

• More than 4.5 million Ukrainian refugees have now fled their country, according to the United Nations refugee agency.

• French banking group Societe Generale said it was ceasing activities in Russia and selling its Rosbank unit to an investment firm founded by an oligarch close to the Kremlin. Societe Generale said in a statement that its withdrawal from Russia would cost it $3.4 billion.

IN DETAIL

'In a war there are only losers on both sides'

Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer held "very direct, open and tough" talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Monday, in Putin's first meeting with a European Union leader since the conflict in Ukraine started more than six weeks ago.

Neutral Austria, which obtains 80 percent of its natural gas from Russia, generally maintains closer ties to Moscow than much of the EU but that has not been the case recently.

Nehammer has expressed solidarity with Ukraine and denounced alleged Russian war crimes, while his government has joined other EU countries in expelling Russian diplomats, albeit only a fraction of the large Russian diplomatic presence there.

"This is not a friendly visit," Nehammer was quoted as saying in a statement issued by his office shortly after the meeting at Putin's official Novo-Ogaryovo residence outside Moscow. A Nehammer spokesman said the meeting lasted 75 minutes.

Nehammer repeated previous comments that he had hoped to help bring an end to the conflict or improvements for Ukraine's beleaguered civilian population, such as humanitarian corridors. He gave little away about Putin's response.

"The conversation with President Putin was very direct, open and tough," Nehammer said in the statement.

Nehammer told Putin of the "urgent" need for humanitarian corridors "to bring water and food into besieged towns and (to) remove women, children and the injured".

Having been visibly moved by telephone conversations with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Nehammer visited Ukraine on Saturday to show support for Kyiv. 

He said he felt meeting Putin was his duty so as to "leave no stone unturned" in seeking an end to the conflict or humanitarian improvements.

"My most important message to Putin was that this war must finally end, because in a war there are only losers on both sides," he said in the statement.

"I generally have no optimistic impression that I can report to you from this conversation with President Putin. The offensive [in eastern Ukraine] is evidently being prepared on a massive scale," Nehammer told a news conference in Moscow after his afternoon meeting with Putin.

The Russian government has yet to comment on the talks.

Ukraine investigating 5,600 alleged war crimes by Russians

Ukraine is examining the alleged culpability of 500 Russian leaders, including President Vladimir Putin, for thousands of war crimes, a top official said on Sunday.

Speaking on Britain's Sky News, Ukrainian prosecutor general Iryna Venediktova also thanked Prime Minister Boris Johnson for his surprise visit to Kyiv on Saturday. 

Venediktova said Johnson's trip had offered "really great support for us", as she detailed alleged atrocities by Russian invaders, including at a railway station packed with fleeing civilians.

"Of course what we see on the ground in all the regions of Ukraine, it is war crimes, crimes against humanity," the prosecutor added.

She said there was "full evidence" linking Russian forces to the missile attack on the station at Kramatorsk, in eastern Ukraine, where officials said 52 people were killed.

"That's why it will be one of the cases in our big profile," Venediktova said.

"You know that now we started 5,600 cases in Ukraine on the above war crimes", involving "500 suspects" from Russia's government and military, she said.

"Vladimir Putin is the main war criminal of [the] 21st century," the official said, adding that as president, he may enjoy immunity from prosecution under international law but that would not last forever.

A week ago, Zelenskyy said that he had created a "special mechanism" to investigate Russian "war crimes" in Ukraine, vowing to find and punish "everyone" responsible.

The mechanism would include national and international experts, investigators, prosecutors and judges, he said.

Russia has said it doesn't target civilians and dismissed evidence of war crimes around Kyiv as 'fakes' and 'provocations.'