(NewsNation) — A fourth round of talks concluded Monday with no resolution as Russian troops continued their push to capture Ukraine’s capital with fighting and an airstrike on a military base near the Polish border.
On day 19, fighting continues on the outskirts of Kyiv. Ukrainian officials said Russian forces shelled several suburbs of the capital, a major political and strategic target for an invasion.
The fourth round of talks happened virtually Monday between Ukrainian and Russian officials to discuss getting food, water, medicine and other desperately needed supplies to cities and towns under fire, among other issues.
Ukrainian presidential aide Mykhailo Podolyak said the negotiators took “a technical pause” and planned to meet again Tuesday.
Two people died Monday after artillery hit a nine-story apartment building in a northern district of the city, according to Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to Ukraine’s Interior Ministry. A town councilor for Brovary, east of Kyiv, was killed in fighting there, officials said.
Ukrainian officials also said two people died and seven were injured after Russian forces struck an airplane factory in Kyiv, sparking a large fire.
The city of Mariupol remains under siege. Bombing continued on the Kyiv suburbs of Irpin, Bucha and Hostomel, which have seen some of the worst fighting, regional administration chief Oleksiy Kuleba said on Ukrainian television.
The new round of talks come one day after Russian missiles blasted a military training base in western Ukraine, killing 35. The shelled base borders Poland, raising concerns about the safety of people in Lviv, the largest Ukrainian city near that border.
“What you’re seeing perhaps is the Russians being willing to take more chances and be more aggressive,” NewsNation’s Leland Vittert said during an appearance on “Morning in America”. “And this is par for the course when the Russians are backed into a corner, they tend to double down.”
The president’s office reported Monday that airstrikes hit residential buildings near the important southern city of Mykolaiv, as well as in the eastern city of Kharkiv, and knocked out a television tower in the Rivne region in the northwest. Explosions rang out overnight around the Russian-occupied Black Sea port of Kherson.
Three airstrikes also hit the northern city of Chernihiv overnight, and most of the town is without heat. Several areas haven’t had electricity in days. Utility workers are trying to restore power but frequently come under shelling.
Despite Russia’s punishing assault on multiple fronts, Moscow’s troops did not make major advances over the past 24 hours, the general staff of Ukraine’s armed forces said Monday morning. The Russian Defense Ministry gave a different assessment, saying its forces had advanced 7 miles and reached five towns north of Mariupol. They also said its forces shot down four Ukrainian drones overnight, including a Bayraktar drone.
The U.N. has recorded at least 596 civilian deaths since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, though it believes the true toll is much higher. The Ukrainian prosecutor general’s office said the death toll includes at least 85 children. Nearly 2.6 million refugees have already fled the country.