(CN) — The war in Ukraine entered its 12th day on Monday with continued fighting and intense shelling in the eastern and southern parts of the country and around the capital Kyiv, which straddles the Dnieper River, a central artery through Ukraine's vast flatlands.
Over the weekend, efforts to open humanitarian corridors to allow civilians trapped in cities encircled by Russian forces failed with Ukrainian and Russian forces blaming each other for firing on civilians.
Hopes for a ceasefire and the opening of safe corridors to evacuate suffering populations were renewed on Monday as Ukrainian and Russian delegations sat down for a third round of talks at a site in Belarus. After the talks concluded, negotiators said they had made progress, but announced no breakthroughs. Prospects for a diplomatic end to this conflict remained very uncertain.
The humanitarian crisis in Ukraine is growing by the day as millions of civilians remain trapped in the war zone, unable to flee or who are seeking a way out amid fighting and explosions. Heart-wrenching images of people – among them the elderly, children, families – suffering in freezing basements, carrying a few possessions in bags on war-torn roads and pleading on video posts for an end to the war have saturated the world. Images from the war zone show destroyed villages, towns, bridges, factories, roads, residential blocks. Gas, electricity, food, water and other basic necessities are lacking in many parts of Ukraine. Making the situation worse, the country is experiencing snow and freezing temperatures.
On Monday, Ukraine’s infrastructure ministry estimated that the country has suffered $10 billion in damages to its infrastructure.
After a weekend of relative calm, Russia’s bombing campaign was ramping up on Monday and there were fears it will intensify further over the next day or more as its troops try to seize key cities. On Monday, Ukraine accused Russia of shelling a bread factory in Makariv near Kyiv, killing 13 civilians, and firing cluster bombs in Mykolaiv, a city close to the historic port city of Odessa, Ukraine’s third-largest city with 1 million people. Russia has been accused of using cluster munitions in previous attacks against Kharkiv and Okhtyrka, something the Kremlin denies.
The use of cluster munitions is considered a war crime, but Russia, like other major powers such as the United States and China, has not signed onto a United Nations convention banning them. Cluster munitions do not distinguish between civilians and combatants and can leave behind unexploded ordnance which can harm civilians, according to the Arms Control Association.
The Pentagon estimates Russia has fired about 625 missiles on Ukraine since Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his troops to invade on Feb. 24. Dozens of civilians and hundreds, if not thousands, of soldiers on each side have been killed. The United Nations estimates that about 1.7 million people have fled Ukraine and that the number of refugees could grow to as many as 5 million if the fighting continues. Civilian deaths have been reported in towns and cities targeted by Ukrainian forces in eastern Ukraine too.
Russian forces advancing on Kyiv were accused of killing a fleeing family on Sunday with a mortar strike and killing the mayor of the town Hostomel and his aides as they handed out bread and water.
These civilian killings, and others elsewhere in Ukraine, were reported by Ukrainian and foreign news outlets and social media sources, including those used by Ukrainian officials. Russian media and officials, meanwhile, accuse Ukrainian forces of positioning themselves among the civilian population and carrying out attacks on civilians in order to blame Russia. It is nearly impossible for reporters to independently verify most accounts from the frontlines.