KYIV - Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky may hold talks with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in the coming days, the Ukrainian government-run Ukrinform news agency reported on Wednesday, citing Ukrainian Presidential Advisor Mykhailo Podolyak.

"Obviously, the only way to end this war is direct talks between the two presidents, and this is what we are working on in the current talks," Podolyak, also a member of the Ukrainian delegation to the peace talks with Russia, was quoted as saying.

Work is underway to prepare the documents that could be signed during the meeting of the two leaders, the official said.

The Ukrainian side has high hopes that ceasefire will be achieved in the near future, he added.

The fourth round of negotiations between Ukrainian and Russian delegations started on Monday via video link and continued into Wednesday.

KYIV - Ukraine has integrated its electricity transmission network into the European energy system, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Wednesday.

"Ukraine has become a member of the European Energy Union. The unification of Ukrainian and European energy systems has been completed," Zelensky tweeted.

Ukraine, which was importing electricity from Russia and Belarus, last year set a target to integrate its energy system into the European network of electricity transmission system operators by 2023.

According to media reports, 15 nuclear units at four Ukrainian nuclear power plants generate about 55 percent of Ukraine's electricity needs. Thermal power plants produce 29 percent of Ukraine's electricity, while the rest is powered by other sources or imported from abroad.

Negotiations are the only way for solving the Ukraine crisis, said Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian on Wednesday, calling on the United States to "stand on the side of peace and justice" to ease the situation in Ukraine.

Commenting on remarks made by US Department of State spokesman Ned Price on Monday that Russia is "violating … what have been the cardinal rules of the international order… that big countries cannot bully small countries", Zhao said the US itself has violated such rules.

What the US did to Cuba, Panama, Grenada, Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and Syria from the 1960s to the 2010s are "textbook examples of big countries bullying small ones", Zhao said.

The solution to the Ukraine crisis does not lie in making unilateral decisions according to one's own standards about what a rules-based international order is, let alone force countries to take sides and create the chilling effect of labeling countries as friend or foe.

"The world wants peace instead of war, justice instead of overbearingness, and cooperation instead of confrontation," Zhao said.

"This is what most countries want. There is only one system in the world, which is the international system with the United Nations at the center. There is only one order, which is the international order based on international law.

"There is only one set of rules, which is the basic rules of an international order based on the UN Charter's purpose and principles."

In another development, Zhao urged the US to stop opposing the establishment of a special verification mechanism on biological weapons to restore the world's confidence in its willingness to implement international duties and help improve global biological security.

More efforts

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said there are "almost 30" US military biological laboratories "just in Ukraine alone", and Russia will "double and triple" its efforts to end the US blocking of the establishment of the verification mechanism under the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention, reported TASS on Tuesday.

The US has an obligation to obey the convention and clarify the concerns of the international community, Zhao said.

The world has long been concerned about the biological military activities that the US conducts at home and abroad, an issue that has already existed before the Ukraine crisis broke out, Zhao said.

"We welcome the international community to jointly review Russia's revelation under the framework of the convention and the UN, and to listen to the US clarifications fairly and justly," Zhao said.

The international community can take this as an opportunity to restart the negotiation process for the establishment of a verification mechanism, he added.

Travel bans, asset freezes apply as Moscow hits back at Russophobia

The Russian Foreign Ministry on Tuesday announced sanctions against 13 US individuals including President Joe Biden, his son Hunter and former secretary of state Hillary Clinton.

"This step, taken as a response measure, is the inevitable result of the extreme Russophobic policy of the current US administration, which, in a desperate attempt to maintain American hegemony, has abandoned any sense of decorum and placed its bets on the head-on containment of Russia," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

"However, we do not oppose maintaining official ties when it is in our national interests, and, if necessary, we will address the issues arising from the status of the black-listed individuals in order to organize high-level contacts."

Also sanctioned are Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and General Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

The move prevents those named from entering Russia and freezes any assets they have there, according to the BBC. Moscow called the restrictions "personal sanctions "and a "stop list" based on "the principle of reciprocity".

Russia also announced similar measures against 313 Canadians, including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and several of his ministers.

Russia sees no sign that the United States is interested in resolving the conflict in Ukraine, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Wednesday. The United States has a decisive role in defining the position of the Ukrainian authorities, but "today, we see no interest from the United States to speedily resolve this conflict", Lavrov told the RBC television channel.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky delivered a virtual address on Wednesday to US members of Congress. Zelensky appeared via video and was introduced by House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi after she gaveled in the session.

Zelensky cited Pearl Harbor and the 9/11 attacks in an appeal to US lawmakers for help against Russia. "We need you right now," he said.

Explosions reported

Several explosions rocked Kyiv early on Wednesday, and local emergency services reported two residential buildings were damaged.

The blasts happened as Kyiv was under a curfew that began late on Tuesday, due to what its mayor called a "difficult and dangerous moment".

At least three loud explosions were heard just after dawn in the western part of the city, and thick clouds of smoke billowed into the sky.

"Two residential buildings were damaged in an overnight bombardment in the central part of Kyiv, Shevchenkivskyi district. Two people reported wounded, 35 evacuated," the Ukrainian state emergency service said.

A neighboring 9-story building was also damaged in the attack, the statement added.

In broader diplomatic moves, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu flew to Russia and held talks with Russian officials on Wednesday as Ankara seeks to facilitate cease-fire talks between the two sides.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Cavusoglu "will continue our efforts to achieve a ceasefire and peace through talks with both sides".

The moves by Turkey are among the international efforts in recent days aimed at bringing the parties to a cease-fire. On Tuesday, three leaders from Eastern European nations met Ukraine's Zelensky in Kyiv on Tuesday.

He hosted the Polish, Czech and Slovenian prime ministers in the first visit to the city by foreign leaders since Russia began its special military operation.

"We have to halt this tragedy… as quickly as possible," Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said on Facebook announcing his arrival, along with Petr Fiala of the Czech Republic and Slovenia's Janez Jansa.

Zelensky said his country should accept it would not become a member of NATO. But he insisted that security guarantees from NATO allies would be necessary to keep Ukraine safe.

Agencies contributed to this story.

BEIJING -- A temporary flight carrying Chinese citizens evacuated from Ukraine arrived in Dalian, Northeast China's Liaoning province, on Wednesday afternoon.

Prior to this, 14 temporary flights taking Chinese nationals back from Ukraine have returned to China safely.

The assertions that "China knew about, acquiesced to or tacitly supported" Russia's military operation in Ukraine "are purely disinformation", Qin Gang, the Chinese ambassador to the US wrote in an op-ed published Tuesday.

In the piece in The Washington Post, he dispelled talk of a comparison between the situation in Ukraine and Taiwan, calling them "totally different things".

In the article titled "Where We?Stand?in?Ukraine," Qin said that he was writing to "explain fully and dispel any misunderstandings and rumors".

He denied claims that China had prior knowledge of Russia's military action and that it had demanded Russia delay it until the Beijing Winter Olympics had concluded. Qin also denied that Russia was seeking military assistance from China.

"Let me say this responsibly: Assertions that China knew about, acquiesced to or tacitly supported this war are purely disinformation. All these claims serve only the purpose of shifting blame to and slinging mud at China," wrote Qin.

"There were more than 6,000 Chinese citizens in Ukraine. China is the biggest trading partner of both Russia and Ukraine, and the largest importer of crude oil and natural gas in the world. Conflict between Russia and Ukraine does no good for China. Had China known about the imminent crisis, we would have tried our best to prevent it."

The ambassador reiterated the positions emphasized by other senior Chinese officials: China is committed to an independent foreign policy of peace, and as a "staunch champion of justice", China decides its position on the merits of the issue.

He also reiterated China's "objective and impartial" position on Ukraine. "The purposes and principles of the UN Charter must be fully observed; the sovereignty and territorial integrity of all countries, including Ukraine, must be respected; the legitimate security concerns of all countries must be taken seriously; and all efforts that are conducive to the peaceful settlement of the crisis must be supported," the ambassador wrote.

"Given this, threats against Chinese entities and businesses,?as uttered by some US officials, are unacceptable. Neither war nor sanctions can deliver peace. Wielding the baton of sanctions at Chinese companies while seeking China's support and cooperation simply won't work," said Qin.

Qin mentioned specifically that some people are linking Taiwan and Ukraine to play up the risk of a conflict in the Taiwan Straits, referring to the analogy as "a mistake".

"These are totally different things. Ukraine is a sovereign state, while Taiwan is an inseparable part of China's territory. The Taiwan question is a Chinese internal affair. It does not make sense for people to emphasize the principle of sovereignty on Ukraine while hurting China's sovereignty and territorial integrity on Taiwan," said Qin. "The future of Taiwan lies in peaceful development of cross-Straits relations and the reunification of China."

The ambassador stressed that China is committed to peaceful reunification and retains all options to curb "Taiwan independence". He expressed the hope that the United States earnestly abide by the one-China principle and not support "Taiwan independence" separatism in any form.

"To ensure long-term peace and stability across the Taiwan Straits, China and the United States must work together to contain 'Taiwan independence," Qin wrote.

Qin enumerated the efforts of China to push for peace talks and the prevention of a humanitarian crisis in Ukraine, including President Xi Jinping's phone call with President Vladimir Putin on the second day of the conflict expressing China's desire to see Russia and Ukraine hold peace talks as early as possible; Xi's virtual meeting with leaders of France and Germany emphasizing the need to jointly support peace talks between Russia and Ukraine; the Rome meeting between Yang Jiechi, the director of the Office of the Central Commission for Foreign Affairs of China, and Jake Sullivan, the national security adviser of US in Rome; and the close communication State Councilor Wang Yi has maintained with Secretary of State Antony Blinken and other foreign ministers.

Qin also mentioned that China outlined a six-point initiative to address the Ukraine crisis and suggested that humanitarian operations abide by the principles of neutrality and impartiality. He also wrote that the first tranche of emergency humanitarian supplies provided by the Red Cross Society of China to its Ukrainian counterpart had been shipped from Beijing.

Qin cited a Chinese proverb, "It takes more than one cold day to freeze three feet of ice." He said the long-term peace and stability of Europe rely on the principle of indivisible security, and there must be a balanced, effective and sustainable security architecture.

"The priority now is to achieve a cease-fire to protect civilians from war, "said Qin. "But as a permanent member of the UN Security Council and a responsible major country, China will continue to coordinate real efforts to achieve lasting peace. We stand ready to do whatever we can and work with other parties.

"Our ultimate purpose is the end of war and support regional and global stability," Qin concluded.

The Russian Foreign Ministry on Tuesday announced sanctions against 13 Americans including President Joe Biden, his son Hunter and former secretary of state Hillary Clinton.

"This step, taken as a response measure, is the inevitable result of the extreme Russophobic policy of the current US Administration, which, in a desperate attempt to maintain American hegemony, has abandoned any sense of decorum and placed its bets on the head-on containment of Russia," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

"However, we do not oppose maintaining official ties when it is in our national interests, and, if necessary, we will address the issues arising from the status of the black-listed individuals in order to organise high-level contacts."

Also sanctioned are Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and General Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Others on the list include National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, White House press secretary Jen Psaki and US Agency for International Development Administrator Samantha Power, a former US ambassador to the United Nations.

The move prevents those named from entering Russia and freezes any assets they have there, according to the BBC. Moscow called the restrictions "personal sanctions" and a "stop list" based on "the principle of reciprocity".

Russia also announced similar measures against 313 Canadians, including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and several of his ministers.

"Every Russophobic attack, be it attacks on Russian diplomatic missions, airspace closures, or Ottawa's actual severing of bilateral economic ties to the detriment of Canadian interests, will inevitably receive a decisive and not necessarily symmetrical rebuff," the Russian ministry said.

A spokesperson for Trudeau, in a statement to Newsweek on Tuesday, said that "the only response from Russia that we're interested in is an immediate end to this illegal, unnecessary war in Ukraine".

"Until then, Canada and our allies will continue imposing crippling sanctions on Putin and his enablers in Russia and Belarus. The people of Ukraine, and President Zelensky, continue to have our unwavering support," the statement said.

The Russian action was met with derision by some on the list in the US.

"I'd first note that President Biden is a 'junior', so they may have sanctioned his dad, may he rest in peace," Psaki said. "None of us are planning tourist trips to Russia and none of us have bank accounts we won't be able to access, so we will forge ahead."

Hillary Clinton tweeted: "I want to thank the Russian Academy for this Lifetime Achievement Award."

The Foreign Ministry also warned that additional sanctions would follow against other Americans.

"More announcements will be made soon concerning the expansion of the sanctions list to include other top US officials, military leaders, lawmakers, business executives, experts and media personalities who promote Russophobia or contribute to inciting hatred of Russia or imposing restrictive measures," the statement said.

"These actions will be taken in harmony with the major decisions of the Government of the Russian Federation in finance, banking and other areas to protect the Russian economy and ensure its stable development."

Meanwhile, President Biden will travel to Europe for a March 24 meeting of NATO leaders at the military alliance's headquarters in Brussels to discuss the situation in Ukraine, Psaki told reporters Tuesday.

"We will address Russia's invasion of Ukraine, our strong support for Ukraine, and further strengthening NATO's deterrence & defence," NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg wrote on Twitter.

Reuters contributed to this story.

The Kremlin said on Tuesday that it was too soon to draw any conclusions from talks to resolve the conflict in Ukraine, as fighting intensified around the capital Kyiv.

"The work is complex, but the very fact that the work is continuing is in itself positive," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

"We don't want to give any forecasts. Let's wait for tangible results."

Peskov was commenting hours before the latest round of talks on Tuesday. Delegations from Moscow and Kyiv have met for four rounds of talks to find a diplomatic resolution to the nearly three weeks of fighting between Russia's army and Ukraine.

Both sides earlier raised hopes that a document might be signed at meetings held by videoconference on Monday, before both sides announced a "technical pause".

Peskov said on Tuesday that it was "too early" to discuss the format of any document that could be adopted as a result of negotiations, saying this was part of discussions between negotiators. Both sides indicated over the weekend that they were making headway.

In Kyiv, the city announced a 35-hour curfew from Tuesday evening after a flash shelling from Russian troops. Moscow warned Western governments that they should be responsible for the deaths of their own citizens who were encouraged to enlist in Ukraine.

Shortly before dawn on Tuesday, large explosions thundered across Kyiv as Russia pressed its advance on multiple fronts.

A strike on a 16-story housing block in the Ukrainian capital has killed at least two people, local emergency services said.

"The bodies of two people were recovered, 27 people were rescued," wrote Ukraine's emergency services on a Facebook post, adding that the building was located in the Sviatoshynsky district in western Kyiv.

Explosions heard

Several loud explosions were also heard in central Kyiv early on Tuesday morning.

Peskov said Russia's special military operation in Ukraine is proceeding in accordance with the original plan and "will be completed on time and in full".

Elsewhere, a convoy of 160 civilian cars left the encircled port city of Mariupol along a designated humanitarian route, said the city council, in a rare glimmer of hope a week and a half into the lethal siege that has pulverized homes and other buildings.

Vitaliy Kim, governor of Ukraine's southern Mykolayiv region, said the security situation is calmer in the area because Russian forces had been pushed back slightly from the regional capital, which they have been trying to seize.

The United States Department of State announced on Tuesday a new set of sanctions against 11 Russian defense officials, including the head of the Russian National Guard and several deputy defense ministers.

US President Joe Biden is expected to travel to Brussels next week to meet with NATO leaders. Reuters quoted one source as saying that Biden could also travel to Poland, where concerns are running high after a Russian attack on a large Ukrainian base just kilometers from the border that killed 35 people.

The European Union also approved sanctions late on Monday "targeting individuals and entities involved in the aggression against Ukraine, as well as several sectors of the Russian economy".

Agencies contributed to this story.

KIEV - Ukraine and Russia will continue their peace talks on Wednesday, Ukrainian Presidential Advisor Mykhailo Podolyak, also a member of the delegation, said Tuesday.

"We'll continue tomorrow. A very difficult and viscous negotiation process. There are fundamental contradictions. But there is certainly room for compromise," Podolyak tweeted.

The work in subgroups will continue during the break, he added.

The fourth round of negotiations between Ukrainian and Russian delegations started on Monday via video link and continued into Tuesday.

ANKARA - Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu will hold talks in Russia on Wednesday and visit Ukraine the next day amid efforts to establish a ceasefire between warring sides.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told reporters after a cabinet meeting on Tuesday that "I am sending our foreign minister to Russia today. He will hold talks in Moscow tomorrow and will travel to Ukraine on Thursday."

"He will continue our efforts to achieve a ceasefire and peace through talks with both sides," the Turkish president said.

Turkey hosted the Russian and Ukrainian foreign ministers on the sidelines of a diplomacy forum last week for their first high-level negotiations, although talks did not yield any progress for a ceasefire.

Erdogan has repeatedly reiterated that Ankara cannot abandon its ties either with Russia or Ukraine since Turkey is neighboring the two countries in the Black Sea.

KYIV - Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Tuesday that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) "open door" policy had not worked for Ukraine, the Ukrainian UNIAN news agency reported.

"For years we've heard about 'open doors,' but now we are hearing that we can't enter those doors, and we have to admit it. I am glad that our people are beginning to understand this and rely on themselves and on our partners who help us," Zelensky was quoted as saying.

Zelensky once again urged NATO to establish a no-fly zone over Ukraine in the wake of the conflict with Russia, but noted that the likelihood of a positive decision of the alliance remains low.

Russia launched a special military operation against Ukraine on Feb 24.

BEIJING - A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson on Tuesday urged the United States to make tangible efforts to ease the situation in Ukraine.

Spokesperson Zhao Lijian made the remarks at a daily press briefing in response to a question on recent allegations reportedly made by an unnamed US official on relations between Russia and China with regard to the Ukraine crisis.

According to media reports, the official said the US government has notified NATO and certain Asian allies that Russia has requested military and economic assistance from China, and that China agreed but would deny it publicly.

The media reports also claimed that the United States took this step in order to increase its disclosure of intelligence as a means of countering disinformation.

Noting that Russia has denied asking China for military assistance, Zhao said that the United States creates and spreads disinformation from time to time, and such actions are unprofessional, unethical and irresponsible.

"Their practices will only cause the United States to be further discredited in the world," he said.

The United States should deeply reflect on the role it has played in the development of the Ukraine crisis and make tangible efforts to ease the situation in Ukraine, Zhao added.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has submitted a bill to the parliament, proposing the extension of the current martial law in Ukraine, the Ukrainian government-run Ukrinform news agency reported Tuesday.

If the lawmakers pass the bill, the martial law in Ukraine will be extended for another 30 days starting from March 26.

Ukraine imposed the martial law after Russia started a special military operation on Feb 24.

The Russia-Ukraine conflict continues on Tuesday as relevant parties are working to broker a peaceful solution.

Negotiations between the two sides are being held daily, Russian presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky, also the head of the Russian delegation, said on Monday.

The fourth round of the negotiations between Russia and Ukraine occurred earlier on Monday via video link. According to Ukrainian Presidential Advisor Mykhailo Podolyak, a member of the delegation, a technical pause has been taken in the negotiations until Tuesday.

Resumed talks between the two sides is underway via video link Tuesday, according to local media.

Ukrainian and Russian delegations resumed peace talks on Tuesday, local media outlet Ukrayinska Pravda reported, citing David Arakhamia, a member of the Ukrainian delegation.

"The talks are already underway," Arakhamia said without giving further details.

Ukrainian and Russian delegations started the fourth round of their talks via video link on Monday.

Ukrainian Presidential Advisor Mykhailo Podolyak, also a member of the delegation, said the two sides took a technical pause in the negotiations until Tuesday for "additional work in the working subgroups and clarification of individual definitions."

KYIV -- Some 150,000 people have been evacuated from conflict zones in Ukraine to safe places through humanitarian corridors so far, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said Monday.

People are still exposed to dangers along humanitarian corridors, Vereshchuk said at a news briefing.

After rounds of negotiations, Ukraine and Russia agreed to set up humanitarian corridors to evacuate civilians.

According to reports by the Interfax-Ukraine news agency on Monday, Deputy Head of Ukraine's Presidential Office Kyrylo Tymoshenko said Ukraine has established 26 humanitarian corridors in six regions to evacuate civilians.

MOSCOW - Negotiations between Russia and Ukraine are being held daily, Russian presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky, also the head of the Russian delegation, said on Monday.

"The negotiations with Ukraine are being held every day, seven days a week, in a format of video conferences," Medinsky posted on his Telegram account. Medinsky said video meetings save time and are more efficient.

"We are striving to do everything that is possible to fulfill the tasks set by (Russian President) Vladimir Putin for Russia's peaceful future," he wrote.

The fourth round of negotiations between Russia and Ukraine occurred earlier on Monday via video link. According to Ukrainian Presidential Advisor Mykhailo Podolyak, a member of the delegation, a technical pause has been taken in the negotiations until Tuesday.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — US astronaut Mark Vande Hei has made it through nearly a year in space, but faces what could be his trickiest assignment yet: riding a Russian capsule back to Earth in the midst of deepening tensions between the countries.

NASA insists Vande Hei's homecoming plans at the end of the month remain unchanged, even as Russia's military operation of Ukraine has resulted in canceled launches, broken contracts and an escalating war of words by the Russian Space Agency's hardline leader. Many worry Dmitry Rogozin is putting decades of a peaceful off-the-planet partnership at risk, most notably at the International Space Station.

Vande Hei — who on Tuesday breaks the US single spaceflight record of 340 days — is due to leave with two Russians aboard a Soyuz capsule for a touchdown in Kazakhstan on March 30. The astronaut will have logged 355 days in space by then, setting a new US record. The world record of 438 continuous days in space belongs to Russia.

Despite the deadly conflict down here, retired NASA astronaut Scott Kelly, America's record-holder until Tuesday, believes the two sides "can hold it together" up in space.

"We need an example set that two countries that historically have not been on the most friendly of terms, can still work somewhere peacefully. And that somewhere is the International Space Station. That's why we need to fight to keep it," Kelly told The Associated Press.

NASA wants to keep the space station running until 2030, as do the European, Japanese and Canadian space agencies, while the Russians have not committed beyond the original end date of 2024 or so. The US and Russia are the prime operators of the orbiting outpost, permanently occupied for 21 years.

Until SpaceX started launching astronauts in 2020, Americans regularly hitched rides on Russian Soyuz capsules for tens of millions of dollars per seat. The US and Russian space agencies are still working on a long-term barter system in which a Russian would launch on a SpaceX capsule beginning this fall and an American would fly up on the Soyuz. That would help ensure a US and Russian station presence at all times.

Vande Hei, 55, a retired Army colonel, moved into the space station last April, launching on a Soyuz from Kazakhstan with Pyotr Dubrov and another Russian. He and Dubrov stayed twice as long as usual to accommodate a Russian film crew that visited in October.

As the situation 260 miles (420 kilometers) below intensified last month, Vande Hei acknowledged he was avoiding conversations about Ukraine with Dubrov and Anton Shkaplerov, their Russian commander. Three more Russians will blast off from Kazakhstan on Friday to replace them. "We haven't talked about that too much. I'm not sure we really want to go there," Vande Hei told a TV interviewer in mid-February.

Space station operations continue as always — in orbit and on Earth, according to NASA.

"It would be a sad day for international operations if we can't continue to peacefully operate in space," said NASA's human spaceflight chief Kathy Lueders, who noted it would be "very difficult" to go it alone.

NASA's space station program manager Joel Montalbano, during a press briefing Monday, said Russia's space agency has confirmed that they're ready to bring all three back — Vande Hei and the two Russians. A NASA plane and small team will be on hand in Kazakhstan, as usual, to whisk Vande Hei back home to Houston.

Agencies via Xinhua

Russia and Ukraine met online for their fourth round of talks on Monday while Russian forces continued airstrikes on the Ukrainian capital Kyiv and the southern port city of Mariupol.

The airstrikes, which killed two people and injured at least a dozen, according to Ukraine's emergency services, came as the Russian military edged closer to Kyiv and kept up its siege of Mariupol, where officials said nearly 2,200 people have been killed in the fighting.

"As of 07:40, the bodies of two people were found in a nine-story apartment building, three people were hospitalized and nine people were treated on the spot," the country's emergency services said on Facebook, adding that the building was in Kyiv's Obolon district.

Meanwhile, separatists in eastern Ukraine said on Monday that a strike by Kyiv's forces in Donetsk had left at least 20 people dead.

Rebel officials said that fragments from a Ukrainian Tochka missile that had been shot down landed in the center of the city.

Kyiv's lead negotiator, Mykhailo Podolyak, placed conditions on continuing talks: "Peace, an immediate cease-fire and the withdrawal of all Russians troops－and only after this can we talk about regional relations and about political differences."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the clear aim of his negotiators was to "do everything "to arrange for him to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"We must hold on. We must fight. And we will win," Zelensky said in a video speech.

Zelensky renewed on Monday his call for NATO to impose a no-fly zone, after an attack near the western city of Lviv.

Talks between Kyiv and Moscow have yet to yield a cease-fire and the Russian offensive has shown no signs of easing.

But Leonid Slutsky, a senior member of Russia's negotiating team, said that "significant progress" had been made at the earlier talks, adding that the delegations could possibly soon reach draft agreements.

Meanwhile, energy officials in Kyiv said the electricity supply had been restored at Ukraine's retired Chernobyl nuclear power plant.

Power had been cut to the site of the world's worst nuclear disaster, but the UN's atomic energy watchdog said there was "no critical impact to safety".

Separately, a US journalist was killed on Sunday as fighting escalated in Kyiv's suburbs－the first foreign reporter to die since Russia's "special military operation "started on Feb 24.

Beijing urged Washington once again on Monday to fully clarify its biological military activities with a responsible attitude, saying that biological military activities in Ukraine have become a shared concern of the international community.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian made the remark at a daily news briefing after the United States Representative to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield accused China of spreading disinformation in support of Russia when the UN Security Council met on biological weapons at Moscow's request on Friday.

The US has denied Russian claims that Washington is operating bio-warfare laboratories in Ukraine that involve deadly pathogens, including bubonic plague and anthrax. The US embassy in Ukraine has reportedly hastily removed information related to such labs from its website.

Zhao said the US could not convince others by simply dismissing the concerns as disinformation in the face of evidence found by Russia in Ukraine, including documents, photos and other materials.

According to the information released publicly, Zhao said there are dozens of biological labs in Ukraine that are operated by order of the US Department of Defense.

Washington has invested more than $200 million in the activities of these labs, whose research aims to create a mechanism for the covert transmission of deadly pathogens, he said.

"As the US has always claimed itself to be open and transparent, why doesn't it release detailed materials and why doesn't it open up these biological labs for independent investigations by international experts, if it wants to prove its innocence?" Zhao asked.

Last week, US Under Secretary of State Victoria Jane Nuland said, "Ukraine has biological research facilities" and the US is working with Ukraine on how to prevent any of those research materials from falling into the hands of Russian forces.

According to Zhao, the World Health Organization has suggested that Ukraine destroy high-threat pathogens stored in the country's laboratories to avert "any potential spills" that could cause the spread of disease.

UNITED NATIONS - UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Monday announced the release of 40 million US dollars from the world body's Central Emergency Response Fund to ramp up vital humanitarian assistance in Ukraine.

This funding will help get critical supplies of food, water, medicines, and other lifesaving aid into Ukraine and provide cash assistance to the needy, he said at a press encounter.

Guterres underscored the crucial importance of respecting international humanitarian law, noting that at least 1.9 million people are displaced inside Ukraine and growing numbers are escaping across borders.

The United Nations and humanitarian partners are working to ensure safe passage from besieged areas and to provide aid where security permits. More than 600,000 people have received some form of aid, he said.

While the humanitarian situation in Ukraine is dire, there is another dimension of this conflict that gets obscured: its impact on the global economy, especially the developing world.

Russia and Ukraine represent more than half of the world's supply of sunflower oil and about 30 percent of the world's wheat. Ukraine alone provides more than half of the World Food Programme's wheat supply, he said.

Food, fuel and fertilizer prices are skyrocketing. Supply chains are being disrupted. And the costs and delays of transportation of imported goods, when available, are at record levels. All of this is hitting the poorest the hardest and planting the seeds for political instability and unrest around the globe, he said.

Guterres noted that 45 African and least developed countries import at least one-third of their wheat from Ukraine and Russia, 18 of those countries import at least 50 percent, he noted.

The Food and Agriculture Organization's global food prices index is at its highest level ever.

Against the backdrop of these immense inter-connected challenges, Guterres announced the establishment of a Global Crisis Response Group on Food, Energy and Finance in the UN Secretariat.

In the coming days, the United Nations will be consulting with member states to carry forward the global emergency response that will be required for these looming crises, he said.