Russian Forces Target Suburbs Of Kyiv, Other Ukrainian Cities As Two Sides Plan More Talks.

People walk past a shell crater on Mariupol's Avenue Of Peace on March 13.

Up to 20,000 civilians managed on March 15 to leave the besieged city of Mariupol, which has been devastated by relentless Russian shelling, Ukrainian officials said, as invading forces stepped up strikes on suburbs of the capital, Kyiv, and Ukrainian and Russian negotiators ended a second day of talks aimed at reaching a cease-fire without palpable progress.
"Today around 20,000 people drove out of Mariupol in private cars along the humanitarian corridor," President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's deputy chief of staff, Kyrylo Tymoshenko, said on Telegram. Earlier, the city council said on Telegram that "as of 1400 (local time) it is known that 2,000 cars left Mariupol," adding that a further 2,000 vehicles were waiting to leave the port city on the Sea of Azov.

But the city's deputy mayor said that Russian troops were holding 400 people, including doctors and patients, "like hostages" inside a hospital in Mariupol, while a humanitarian convoy was being prevented from reaching the city.
The city of some 400,000 inhabitants has been besieged by Russian troops for days and cut off from the rest of the country. Local officials estimate that more than 2,300 civilians have been killed in the siege.

Kyiv was under a 35-hour curfew declared by Mayor Vitali Klitschko from 8 p.m. local time on March 15 , with Klitschko warning that as Russian forces step up their strikes and close in, the capital faces a "difficult and dangerous moment."

There are "fundamental contradictions" in talks aimed at ending Russia's military attack on Ukraine but compromise is possible, a member of the Ukrainian delegation and presidential aide, Mykhaylo Podolyak, said at the end of a second day of virtual talks.
"We'll continue tomorrow. A very difficult and vicious negotiation process. There are fundamental contradictions. But there is certainly room for compromise," Podolyak tweeted.

Zelenskiy earlier referred to the talks as "pretty good" while the Kremlin said the fact they were ongoing was "in itself positive."

Zelenskiy is due to address the U.S. Congress via video link on March 16, and he will likely reiterate his appeal for the West to impose a no-fly zone over Ukraine. The Ukrainian president made the same impassioned appeal in his address to the Canadian parliament on March 15.
The White House announced that U.S. President Joe Biden will travel to Europe next week for face-to-face talks with European leaders about the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Biden will meet with NATO and European leaders at an extraordinary summit of the alliance in Brussels on March 24, and will also attend a scheduled European Council summit, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said.

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Such a move is extremely rare for a U.S. president.
The extraordinary NATO summit will seek to coordinate its response to Russia's war in Ukraine, Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said on March 15. "We will address #Russia's invasion of #Ukraine, our strong support for Ukraine, and further strengthening NATO’s deterrence & defense. At this critical time, North America & Europe must continue to stand together," Stoltenberg wrote on Twitter. Zelenskiy urged the Canadian parliament and government on March 15 to exert greater economic and military pressure on Russia, and asked Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and lawmakers for help to enact a no-fly zone over the Ukraine. "Please close the sky, close the airspace," Zelenskiy told a packed House of Commons chamber on video link from Ukraine. "Please stop the bombing. How many more cruise missiles have to fall on our cities until you make this happen?" said Zelenskiy, who received a standing ovation.

The prime ministers of Poland, the Czech Republic, and Slovenia arrived in Kyiv on March 15, according to Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki.

"Here, in war-torn Kyiv, history is being made," Morawiecki wrote on Twitter as he posted pictures of himself with his deputy, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, as well as Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala and their Slovenian counterpart, Janez Jansa, at a table with a map of Ukraine. Russian forces also unleashed new artillery strikes on the eastern city of Kharkiv, the General Staff of Ukraine's armed forces said on Facebook, and overnight shelling destroyed a runway and damaged the terminal at the airport in the eastern city of Dnipro, said Valentin Reznichenko, the governor of the region.

WATCH: At least two high-rise buildings in the Kyiv's Svyatoshyn district were heavily damaged and set ablaze. RFE/RL correspondent Levko Stek reported from the site of another attack in the city's Kurenivka district that killed one person and injured 10 on March 14.

The European Union and the United States slapped a new round of sanctions on Russian individuals and entities close to the Kremlin on March 15.
The EU sanctions include freezing the assets of several oligarchs such as Roman Abramovich, the owner of the Chelsea soccer club, an import ban on Russian steel and iron, an export ban on luxury goods worth more than 300 euros and cars costing more than 50,000 euros ($55,000), and a ban on investments in oil companies and the energy sector. Washington, meanwhile, targeted more individuals in Russian President Vladimir Putin's power structure with sanctions and slapped fresh punitive measures on Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka, Putin's close ally.

The U.S. State Department imposed sanctions on 11 Russian military leaders, including several deputy ministers of defense and Viktor Zolotov, chief of Russia's National Guard and a member of Putin's Security Council.
The U.S. Treasury Department imposed measures on four Russians and one entity it accused of being involved in concealing events around the death of whistleblower Sergei Magnitsky or of being connected to human rights violations against human rights advocate Oyub Titiyev.

WATCH: A criminal defense lawyer who now spends her days in a hospital basement in Kharkiv tells RFE/RL the mood in the eastern city is "amazing," and that she is now gathering evidence of war crimes.

In a move intended as a tit-for-tat response, Russia's Foreign Ministry announced sanctions on Biden and Trudeau on March 15 alongside several officials.
The measures, also applied to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, "is the consequence of the extremely Russophobic policy pursued by" Washington, Moscow said in a statement. In a separate statement, Moscow announced punitive measures against 313 Canadians including Trudeau and several of his ministers. Russia has also circulated a proposed UN Security Council resolution demanding protection for civilians "in vulnerable situations" in Ukraine along with safe passage for humanitarian aid and people seeking to leave the country. The draft resolution released on March 15 voices "grave concern" for the deteriorating humanitarian situation and civilian casualties in and around Ukraine without mentioning Russia's responsibility for invading the country.

With reporting by AP, AFP, and Reuters