Tens of thousands of people have died in the besieged port city of Mariupol in southern Ukraine since Russia launched its invasion last month, according to senior Ukrainian official.
"About 5,000 people were buried, but the burials stopped 10 days ago because of continued shelling," Tetyana Lomakina, a presidential adviser in charge of humanitarian corridors, told the AFP news agency.
She added that the number of people killed could only be estimated with bodies stuck under the rubble. "We could be talking about 10,000 dead," she said.
Ukraine's humanitarian needs are direst in the southern Mariupol, where Ukraine said that about 160,000 civilians remain encircled by Russian forces, desperate for food, water and medicine.
Ukraine's foreign ministry said the situation there was "catastrophic" and Russia's assault from land, sea and air had turned a city once home to 450,000 people "into dust".
A city councilor said that the fate of hundreds of civilians who took refuge in a theatre hit by Russian bombardment in Mariupol is still unknown because of poor communications.
The theatre, believed to be harbouring more than 1,000 people, was destroyed in an attack on 16 March.
Ukraine has claimed that Russia knew civilians were sheltering in the building.
City councillor Kateryna Sukhomlynova told AFP that the lack of communications and the absence of local authorities in the southeastern city made it almost impossible to find out the civilians' fate.
"There are no communications with Mariupol. There is sometimes network availability in some locations, it's difficult to pick up. And any manipulation with a telephone is dangerous, it can be considered suspect by both sides. You can't photograph anything," she said.
Mariupol city hall said it fears 300 were killed in the theatre, citing witnesses.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said 130 people had been saved but did not speculate on the number of civilians killed.
There have been more than 100 deaths in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv since Russia's invasion of its neighbour, the city's mayor Vitali Klitschko said.
In an address to the Italian city council of Florence, which is twinned with Kyiv, Mr Klitschko said more than 20 corpses could not be identified and four of the victims were children, while another 16 injured children are in hospital.
"The cities around Kyiv have seen numerous battles ... on the roads we see many corpses and pieces of human corpses," Mr Klitschko said according an Italian interpreter.
The former world heavyweight boxing champion said 82 multi-storey buildings in Kyiv had been destroyed by Russian attacks and it was impossible to know the true death toll in the city.
Ukraine and Russia are preparing for the first face-to-face peace talks in more than two weeks, but a senior US official said Russian President Vladimir Putin did not appear ready to make compromises to end the war.
Ukraine forces retake village outside Kharkiv
Ukrainian forces are said to have recaptured a small village on the outskirts of Ukraine's second-largest city Kharkiv, as Kyiv's forces mount counterattacks against a stalling Russian invasion.
Members of the Ukrainian army were clearing and securing destroyed homes in the settlement of Malaya Rohan, about five kilometres from Kharkiv, after pushing out Russian forces.
AFP journalists observed remnants of several Russian armoured vehicles abandoned in the yards of homes in the village.
Ukraine launched its attack on the Russian-controlled village in the middle of last week, but it took several days to rout Moscow's troops hiding in cellars and nearby forests, the military said.
"Our troops are liberating Malaya Rohan, and this is hugely important because Russian troops are constantly shelling residential areas of Kharkiv from there," the mayor of Ukraine's second-most populated city, Igor Terekhov said earlier.
Russian and Ukrainian troops meanwhile have been fighting for several days for control of the neighbouring town of Vilkhivka, a few kilometres further north.
Ukrainian officials have also accused the Russian army of using it as a base to shell Kharkiv.
In Malaya Rohan, the situation was relatively calm today, with the deep sounds of shelling in the distance.
An adviser to the head of the president's office, Oleksiy Arestovich, said that Ukrainian forces were counter attacking against invading Russian troops in the northeast, referring to small, tactical offensives.
Moscow's month-long invasion on its pro-democracy neighbour has largely stalled with no major recent advances and Ukrainian forces even able to counterattack in places.
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