Russia-Ukraine War: Top 5 developments from the warzone

Three weeks into Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the two sides are trying to wear down the other, experts say, with bogged-down Russian forces launching long-range missiles at cities and military bases as Ukrainian forces carry out hit-and-run attacks and seek to sever Russian supply lines.

In Ukraine’s major cities, hundreds of men, women and children have been killed in Russian attacks.

The U.N. has confirmed 902 civilian deaths in the war but concedes the actual toll is likely much higher.

It says nearly 3.4 million people have fled Ukraine.

Estimates of Russian deaths vary, but even conservative figures are in the low thousands.

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Here are the top 5 developments from the warzone:

1. Kyiv suffers another round of Russian shelling

Ukrainian emergency services say six people were killed by shelling not far from the center of Kyiv on Sunday.

Loud explosions were heard as a shopping center and cars in a parking lot caught fire, they said.

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said the Russian shelling also hit several houses in the densely populated district of Podil.

Russian troops have been shelling Kyiv for a fourth week now and are trying to surround the capital, which had nearly three million people before the war.

2. Ammonia leak at chemical plant in Sumy contained: officials

Emergency officials have contained an ammonia leak at a chemical plant that contaminated a wide area in the eastern Ukrainian city of Sumy, officials said Monday.

Sumy regional governor Dmytro Zhyvytskyy didn’t say what caused the leak, which spread about 2.5 kilometers (1.5 miles) in all directions from the Sumykhimprom plant.

The plant is on the eastern outskirts of the city, which has a population of about 263,000 and has been regularly shelled by Russian troops in recent weeks.

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3. Ukraine rejects Russian offer of passage out of Mariupol

Ukrainian officials defiantly rejected a Russian demand that their forces in the besieged strategic port city of Mariupol lay down arms Monday and raise white flags in exchange for safe passage out.

'There can be no talk of any surrender, laying down of arms,' Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Irina Vereshchuk told the news outlet Ukrainian Pravda. 'We have already informed the Russian side about this.' Mariupol Mayor Piotr Andryushchenko also rejected the offer shortly after it was made, saying in a Facebook post he didn't need to wait until the morning deadline to respond and cursing at the Russians, according to the news agency Interfax Ukraine.

Russian Col. Gen. Mikhail Mizintsev had offered two corridors — one heading east toward Russia and the other west to other parts of Ukraine. He did not say what action Russia planned to take if the offer was rejected.

4. Russia Ministry of Defense video shows unmanned aircraft in action

The Russian Defence Ministry released footage on Sunday of what it said were Russian forces destroying Ukrainian armoured vehicles with the help of unmanned aircraft.

In text which accompanied the footage, the minstry said that Russian Aerospace Forces attacked Ukrainian self-propelled artillery, howitzer, and armoured vehicles.

It added that the attack was conducted from average altitudes.

The date or location of the material or the conditions under which it was filmed could not be verified.

5. Demonstration blocks Poland-Belarus border crossing

Several hundred protesters gathered at the border crossing between Poland and Belarus on Sunday demanding the European Union halt all trade with Russian and its ally Belarus.

Officials in Poland say that trucks headed for Belarus are waiting in a 40-kilometer (25-mile) line to reach the Koroszczyn border point due to the demonstrations.

The protesters, Ukrainians and Poles, have been blocking access to the crossing – on and off – for some two weeks, to pressure Moscow into ending its war on Ukraine, in which civilians are being killed.

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