Mykhailo Podolyak told the BBC in an interview that aired Thursday the daily loss of between 100 and 200 Ukrainian fighters resulted from a “complete lack of parity” between Ukraine and Russia, which has “thrown pretty much everything non-nuclear” at the war’s front in eastern Ukraine.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy last week put his country’s daily combat death toll at up to 100, but Podolyak said it had grown. Ukrainian officials have pointed at the mounting losses to emphasize their urgent requests for more Western weapons, which have been critical to the country’s unexpected success in holding off Russia’s larger and better-equipped forces.

After a bungled attempt to overrun Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital, in the early days of the war, Russia shifted its focus to an eastern region of coal mines and factories known as the Donbas. But its progress there has been plodding.

Podolyak said the delivery of state-of-the-art artillery systems would not only diminish Ukrainian casualties, it would help its the nation’s forces reclaim seized territory. The Ukrainian government also is seeking more multiple-rocket launchers.

“There’s something really important…that our partners need to understand, and that’s until Russia suffers a serious military defeat, no form of dialogue will be possible, and they will continue to be able to try and take parts of our country,” he said.

Podolyak also addressed Western fears that Ukraine’s forces would use Western-supplied rocket launchers to strike targets inside Russia and potentially escalate the conflict to a wider conflagration: “It won’t happen,” he said.

Street battles

Fighting in the Donbas has ground on for more than two months, and the slog continued Friday. A provincial governor said Russian and Ukrainian forces battled “for every house and every street” in Sievierodonetsk, a city that recently has been under steady attack.

Sievierodonetsk is in the last pocket of Luhansk province that has not yet been claimed by Russia or Moscow-backed separatists.

Luhansk Gov. Serhiy Haidai told The Associated Press that Ukrainian forces retain control of the industrial zone on the edge of the city and some other sections amid the painstaking block-by-block fighting.

An envoy for the Luhansk People’s Republic, a self-proclaimed separatist territory, reported Friday that some Ukrainian troops were trapped inside a chemical plant on the city’s outskirts.

“All escape routes have been cut off,” Rodion Miroshnik, Moscow ambassador for the unrecognized republic, wrote on social media.

“They are being told that no conditions will be accepted. Only the laying down of arms and surrender,” he said.

Miroshnik echoed earlier claims by a Russian defense official that civilians remained on the plant’s grounds. But he stopped short of reiterating allegations that Ukrainian forces were barring them from leaving.

As of Friday afternoon, there was no response from the Ukrainian side.

‘Sham’ trial

The British government said Russia must take responsibility for the “sham trial” of two Britons and a Moroccan who were sentenced to death for fighting against Russian forces in Ukraine.

Britons Aiden Aslin and Shaun Pinner and Moroccan Brahim Saadoun were convicted by a court run by pro-Moscow separatist authorities in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, which is not recognized internationally.

Separatist authorities argued that the men were “mercenaries” not entitled to the usual protections accorded prisoners of war.

Aslin’s and Pinner’s families have said the two men were long-serving members of the Ukrainian military. Saadoun’s father told a Moroccan online newspaper that his son is not a mercenary and holds Ukrainian citizenship.

British government minister Robin Walker said Friday that it was “an illegal court in a sham government” but that the U.K. would use “all diplomatic channels to make the case that these are prisoners of war who should be treated accordingly.”

British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss is due to speak to her Ukrainian counterpart, Dmytro Kuleba, later Friday about the case. The U.K. has not announced any plans to speak to Russian officials. It does not recognize the self-proclaimed Donetsk republic and will not officially contact the authorities there.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the ministry has so far not received any specific appeals about the men from Britain and as such, “we can make an unambiguous conclusion that until now the fate of these citizens was not of interest to London.”

Karmanau contributed from Lviv, Ukraine. Associated Press writers Jill Lawless in London and Jamey Keaten in Geneva contributed.

Ukrainian authorities, meanwhile, opened the first war crimes trial of the conflict, in proceedings that will be closely watched by international observers eager to ensure atrocities are fairly prosecuted. A Russian soldier stands accused of killing a Ukrainian civilian in the early days of the war.

The trial gets underway as Russia’s campaign in Ukraine’s eastern industrial heartland of the Donbas makes faltering progress.

Ukraine’s airborne forces command has released photos of what it said was a damaged Russian pontoon bridge over the Siversky Donets River and several destroyed or damaged Russian military vehicles nearby. Ukrainian news reports said troops thwarted Russian passage across the river earlier this week, leaving dozens of tanks or military vehicles damaged or forcing troops to abandon them.

Britain’s Defense Ministry said Friday that Russia lost “significant” elements of at least one battalion tactical group — about 1,000 troops — as well as equipment used to quickly deploy a makeshift floating bridge while trying to cross the river.

“Conducting river crossings in a contested environment is a highly risky maneuver and speaks to the pressure the Russian commanders are under to make progress in their operations in eastern Ukraine,” the ministry said in its daily intelligence update.

They have struggled to do so, even after diverting troops from other parts of the country to the Donbas, the statement said.

Some analysts initially thought the campaign in the Donbas might offer President Vladimir Putin an easier battleground, after his forces failed to overrun the capital. Instead, Russian and Ukrainian troops have fought village by village.

In that grinding fighting, the Ukrainian military chief for the eastern Luhansk region said Friday that Russian forces opened fire 31 times on residential areas the day before, destroying dozens of homes, notably in Hirske and Popasnianska villages, and a bridge in Rubizhne.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian officials claimed another success in the Black Sea, saying their forces took out another Russian ship, though there was no confirmation from Russia and no casualties were reported.

The Vsevolod Bobrov logistics ship was badly damaged but not thought to have sunk when it was struck while trying to deliver an anti-aircraft system to Snake Island, said Oleksiy Arestovych, an adviser to the Ukrainian president.

In April, the Ukrainian military sank the Moskva cruiser, the flagship of Russia’s Black Sea fleet. In March it destroyed the landing ship Saratov.

Not only has Russia struggled to make progress on the battlefield, but the invasion has also breathed new life into the western NATO alliance — which is poised to expand soon.

On Thursday, Finland’s president and prime minister announced that the Nordic country should apply right away for membership in the military defense pact founded in part to counter the Soviet Union.

Finland’s Parliament still has to weigh in, but the announcement means it is all but certain to apply — and gain admission. Sweden, likewise, is considering putting itself under NATO’s protection.

The Kremlin warned it may take retaliatory “military-technical” steps.

The support of NATO countries to Ukraine has been key in its surprising success in stymieing Russia’s invasion. Western nations have also imposed tough sanctions on Russia to punish it for the war — and outrage only grew after allegations of atrocities committed by Moscow’s troops began to emerge.

On Feb. 28, four days after Russia invaded Ukraine, Sgt. Vadim Shyshimarin, 21, was among a group of Russian troops that had been defeated by Ukrainian forces, according to the prosecutor general.

As the Russians fled, they headed to a village in the Sumy region, and Shyshimarin is accused of shooting a 62-year-old Ukrainian man in the head there. The killing is just one of several thousand potential war crimes that Ukrainian prosecutors are investigating.

Many of the alleged atrocities came to light last month after Moscow’s forces ended their bid to capture Kyiv and withdrew from around the capital, exposing mass graves and streets strewn with bodies in towns such as Bucha.

In a small Kyiv courtroom Friday, scores of journalists, many with cameras, packed together to see the start of the wartime proceeding. The suspect, dressed in a blue and gray hoodie and gray sweatpants, sat in a small glass cage during the proceedings, which lasted about 15 minutes.

Shyshimarin was asked a series of questions, including whether he understood his rights and whether he wanted a jury trial. He declined the latter. His attorney, Victor Ovsyanikov, has acknowledged that the case against him is strong, but said the final decision over what evidence to allow will be made by the court in Kyiv. The lawyer hasn’t indicated what defense he will offer.

Shyshimarin, a member of a tank unit that was captured by Ukrainian forces, admitted that he shot the civilian in a video posted by the Security Service of Ukraine, saying he was ordered to do so.

As the war grinds on, teachers were trying to restore some sense of normalcy after the war shuttered Ukraine’s schools and devastated the lives of millions of children. In Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, lessons are being given in a subway station used as a bomb shelter that has become home for many families.

“It helps to support them mentally. Because now there is a war, and many lost their homes … some people’s parents are fighting now,” said teacher Valeriy Leiko. In part thanks to the lessons, he said, “they feel that someone loves them.”

Primary school-age children joined Leiko around a table for history and art lessons in the subway station, where children’s drawings now line the walls.

An older student, Anna Fedoryaka, monitored lectures on Ukrainian literature being given by Kharkiv professor Mykhailo Spodarets online from his basement.

The internet connection was a problem for some, Fedoryaka said. And, “it is hard to concentrate when you have to do your homework with explosions by your window.”

Yesica Fisch in Bakhmut, Yuras Karmanau in Lviv, Mstyslav Chernov in Kharkiv, Jari Tanner in Helsinki, Elena Becatoros in Odesa, and other AP staffers around the world contributed to this report.

U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres condemned the atrocities visited on towns like Bucha where evidence of mass killings of civilians was found after Russia’s retreated from the area in the face of stiffer than expected Ukrainian resistance.

Forced to regroup after failing to take the capital, Russia switched its focus to the vital eastern industrial heartland, where fighting is now picking up pace. Ukraine’s military said several areas in the Donbas have come under intense fire in the past day, and satellite images showed new damage from bombardments on the last known pocket of Ukrainian resistance in Mariupol.

Ukrainian authorities warned that civilians who are still in the southeastern port city face dangerously unsanitary conditions, while many of the dead from a two-month siege remain unburied.

“Wherever there is a war, the highest price is paid by civilians,” said Guterres as he visited the bombed out Kyiv suburb of Irpin.

He sought to drive home the devastation, saying he imagined his own family having to flee from bombs falling on their home, and he reiterated how important it was that the war crimes alleged be investigated.

“But when we talk about war crimes, we cannot forget that the worst of crimes is war itself,” he added, in his stop in Bucha.

The revelation of mass killings around Kyiv helped to galvanize support for Ukraine in the West, which has slapped sanctions on Russia and sent arms to Ukraine. Bulgarian Prime Minister Kiril Petkov vowed his country would join others in providing military assistance as he toured another scene of atrocities outside Kyiv, Borodyanka.

“We cannot be indifferent. We cannot say that this is a Ukrainian problem, we cannot say some people are dying but we are not interested in that,” he said. “This is not just the battle for Ukraine, but it is a matter for civilization to choose which side to take.”

Bulgaria, under a new liberal government that took office last fall, has cut many of its old ties to Moscow and supported punitive measures against the Kremlin.

The visit by the Bulgarian leader comes a day after Russia suddenly cut off natural gas to his country and fellow NATO member Poland, in what was seen as a bid to punish and divide the West over its support for Ukraine ahead of the potentially pivotal battle in the eastern industrial region of the Donbas.

As Russia presses that offensive, civilians again bear the brunt.

“It’s not just scary. It’s when your stomach contracts from pain,” Tatiana Pirogova, a resident of the northeastern city of Kharkiv, said. “When they shoot during the day, it’s still OK, but when the evening comes, I can’t describe how scary it is.”

The General Staff of Ukraine’s military said Russian forces were “exerting intense fire” in several places in the Donbas. It said that over the past 24 hours, the Ukrainian forces have repelled six attacks in the region.

The most intensive action was around Donetsk and close to Kharkiv, which lies outside the Donbas but is seen as key to Russia’s apparent bid to encircle Ukrainian troops there.

Luhansk governor Serhiy Haidai said the Russian army also heavily shelled residential areas in his region, also in the Donbas, saying that four civilians died in the past day and four more were wounded.

Satellite photos analyzed by The Associated Press also showed evidence of intense Russian fire on Mariupol in recent days. The images show how concentrated attacks have greatly damaged a central facility at the Azovstal steelworks, the last redoubt of Ukrainian fighters in the key battleground city.

An estimated 1,000 civilians are sheltering along with about 2,000 Ukrainian fighters in the steelworks, a massive Soviet-era complex with a warren of underground facilities built to withstand airstrikes.

Hundreds of thousands of Mariupol’s residents have fled, but the city council said Thursday that the 100,000 who remain behind face a “deadly danger,” at risk of catching diseases like cholera and dysentery because of deeply unsanitary conditions in the city that has largely been reduced to rubble by Russia’s siege.

“Deadly epidemics may break out in the city due to the lack of centralized water supply and sewers,” the council said on the messaging app Telegram. It added that bodies were decomposing under rubble and there was a “catastrophic” shortage of drinking water and food.

Russia, meanwhile, said a city under its control in the south came under fire. In what could be a Ukrainian counterattack, a series of explosions boomed near the television tower late Wednesday in Kherson, which has been occupied by Russian forces since early in the war. The blasts at least temporarily knocked Russian channels off the air, Ukrainian and Russian news organizations reported.

Ukraine has urged its allies to send even more military equipment so it can continue its fight.

NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said Thursday that “up to date, NATO allies have pledged and provided at least 8 billion U.S. dollars in military support to Ukraine. And we see the importance of further stepping up our support to Ukraine.”

While Russia’s initial blitz was stunted — and it suffered the humiliating loss of a massive warship — Britain’s Defense Ministry said the Russian navy still has the ability to strike coastal targets in Ukraine.

In an intelligence briefing posted Thursday morning, the ministry says that about 20 Russia naval vessels, including submarines, are currently operating the Black Sea zone.

But the ministry says Russia isn’t able to replace the guided-missile cruiser Moskva, which sank earlier this month in the Black Sea, because the Bosporus Strait remains closed to all non-Turkish warships. Russia also lost the landing ship Saratov, which was destroyed by explosions and fire on March 24.

In addition to its maneuvers on the battlefield, Moscow has also piled on the pressure by leveraging its crucial energy exports.

European leaders blasted the decision to cut off Poland and Bulgaria as “blackmail,” saying the move and the Kremlin’s warning that it might cease shipments to other countries is a failed attempt to divide the West over its support for Ukraine.

The tactic against the two EU countries could eventually force targeted nations to ration gas and deal another blow to economies suffering from rising prices. At the same time, it could deprive Russia of badly needed income to fund its war effort.

The gas cuts do not immediately put the two countries in any dire trouble. Poland, especially, has been working for many years to line up other suppliers, and the continent is heading into summer, making gas less essential for households.

Gazprom said it shut off the two countries because they refused to pay in rubles, as President Vladimir Putin has demanded of “unfriendly” nations.

European countries have balked at Russia’s demand for rubles. Moscow has since proposed a system that it says satisfies its demand — but that the Europeans say means they are still paying in either euros or dollars.

“Europe (and) Germany will make payments in euros and others may pay in dollars, and not in rubles,” Germany’s Economy Minister Robert Habeck said Wednesday. “The conversion, once the payments have been made, is a matter for Gazprom. We have discussed this with the European Union. We will continue down this path.”

Keyton reported from Kyiv, Ukraine. Associated Press journalists Jon Gambrell and Yuras Karmanau in Lviv, Mstyslav Chernov in Kharkiv, Yesica Fisch in Sloviansk, and AP staff around the world contributed to this report.

Meanwhile, two fires were reported at oil facilities in western Russia. It was not clear what caused the blazes.

As both sides in the 2-month-old war brace for what could be a grinding battle of attrition in the country’s eastern industrial heartland, top American officials pledged more help to ensure Ukraine prevails.

In meetings with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv on Sunday, the American secretaries of state and defense said Washington had approved a $165 million sale of ammunition for Ukraine’s war effort, along with more than $300 million in foreign military financing.

“The strategy that we’ve put in place — massive support for Ukraine, massive pressure against Russia, solidarity with more than 30 countries engaged in these efforts — is having real results,” Blinken told reporters in Poland the day after the meeting.

“When it comes to Russia’s war aims, Russia is failing. Ukraine is succeeding,” he added.

Speaking Monday to top officials at the Prosecutor General’s office, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the U.S. and its allies have tried and failed to “split Russian society and to destroy Russia from within.”

When Russia invaded on Feb, 24, its apparent goal was a lightning offensive that would quickly take the capital and perhaps even topple the government in Kyiv. But the Ukrainians, aided by Western weapons, bogged Putin’s troops down and thwarted their push to Kyiv.

Moscow now says its focus in the eastern region of the Donbas, but one senior military official says it also wants to control southern Ukraine. While both sides said the campaign in the east has begun, it has yet to gather steam.

A small group of Ukrainian troops holed up in a steel plant in the strategic city of Mariupol are tying down Russian forces, and keeping them from being added to the offensive elsewhere in the Donbas, Britain’s Ministry of Defense said Monday.

Over the weekend, Russian forces launched fresh airstrikes on the steel plant in an attempt to dislodge the estimated 2,000 fighters inside. An estimated 1,000 civilians are also sheltering in the steelworks, and the Russian military pledged to open a humanitarian corridor Monday for them to leave.

Mariupol has endured fierce fighting since the start of the war because of its strategic location on the Sea of Azov. In addition to freeing up Russian troops, its capture would deprive Ukraine of a vital port and allow Moscow to establish a land corridor to the Crimean Peninsula, which it seized from Ukraine in 2014.

But for now, the British Defense Ministry said that Russia has “yet to achieve a significant breakthrough” since shifting its focus to the Donbas. Ukrainian forces have repelled numerous assaults in the past week and “inflicted significant cost on Russian forces,” it said.

Instead, Russian missiles and war planes struck far behind the frontline of that offensive on Monday.

Oleksandr Kamyshin, the head of the state-run Ukrainian Railways, said five railway facilities in central and western Ukraine were hit early Monday, including a missile attack near the western city of Lviv.

Serhiy Borzov, the governor of Ukraine’s central Vinnytsia region, said there were casualties after rocket strikes targeting “critical infrastructure.” It was not clear if that referred to the attacks on the railways.

Russia also destroyed an oil refinery in Kremenchuk in central Ukraine, along with fuel depots there, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said Monday. In all, Russian warplanes destroyed 56 Ukrainian targets overnight, he said.

Meanwhile, a major fire erupted early Monday at an oil depot in a Russian city about 100 kilometers (60 miles) from the Ukrainian border, Russia’s Emergencies Ministry said. No cause was given for the blaze.

The oil depot in Bryansk is owned by a subsidiary of the Russian state-controlled company Transneft, which operates the Druzhba pipeline that carries crude west to other European countries. It wasn’t clear if the depot was part of the pipeline infrastructure and whether the blaze could affect those deliveries.

The ministry said in a statement that the huge blaze damaged a depot containing diesel fuel. It noted that the region has enough diesel for 15 days.

A Russian news report said that another oil storage facility in Bryansk also caught fire early Monday, and the cause wasn’t immediately known.

Last month, two Ukrainian helicopter gunships hit an oil reservoir in Russia’s Belgorod region, which lies on the Ukrainian border, causing a fire.

In a video address Monday, Zelenskyy described his meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin as “encouraging and, importantly, effective.”

The Ukrainian leader added that they agreed “on further steps to strengthen the armed forces of Ukraine and meet all the priority needs of our army.” Earlier, he praised U.S. President Joe Biden for his “personal support.”

The three-hour meeting came Sunday, the 60th day since the start of the invasion, as Ukraine pressed the West for more powerful weapons against Russia’s campaign in the Donbas, where Moscow-backed separatists controlled some territory before the war.

With Russia’s shift in focus, Austin said Ukraine’s military needs are changing, and Zelenskyy is now focused on more tanks, artillery and other munitions.

Asked about what the U.S. sees as success, Austin said that “we want to see Ukraine remain a sovereign country, a democratic country able to protect its sovereign territory, we want to see Russia weakened to the point where it can’t do things like invade Ukraine.”

As Blinken and Austin left Ukraine, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was scheduled to travel to Turkey on Monday and then Moscow and Kyiv. Zelenskyy criticized Guterres for visiting Russia before Ukraine.

Blinken said he had spoken with Guterres on Friday ahead of the trip.

“Our expectation is that he’s going to carry a very strong and clear message to Vladimir Putin, which is the need to end this war now,” he said.

In a boost for Ukraine, French President Emmanuel Macron comfortably won a second term Sunday over far-right challenger Marine Le Pen, who had pledged to dilute France’s ties with the European Union and NATO. Le Pen had also spoken out against EU sanctions on Russian energy and had faced scrutiny during the campaign over her previous friendliness with the Kremlin.

Associated Press journalists Yesica Fisch in Sloviansk, Ukraine, Mstyslav Chernov and Felipe Dana in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Yuras Karmanau and Jon Gambrell in Lviv, Cara Anna, Inna Varenytsia and Oleksandr Stashevskyi in Kyiv and AP staff around the world contributed.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced the planned visit by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin during a lengthy Saturday night news conference held in a Kyiv subway station. The White House has not commented.

Zelenskyy said he was looking for the Americans to produce results, both in terms of arms and security guarantees. “You can’t come to us empty-handed today, and we are expecting not just presents or some kind of cakes, we are expecting specific things and specific weapons,’’ he said.

The visit would be the first by senior U.S. officials since Russia invaded Ukraine 60 days ago. Blinken stepped briefly onto Ukrainian soil in March to meet with the country’s foreign minister during a visit to Poland. Zelenskyy’s last face-to-face meeting with a U.S. leader was Feb. 19 in Munich with Vice President Kamala Harris.

The meeting was set to take place as Ukrainians and Russians observed Orthodox Easter, when the faithful celebrate the resurrection of Jesus, considered the most joyful holiday on the Christian calendar.

Speaking Sunday from the ancient St. Sophia Cathedral, Zelenskyy, who is Jewish, highlighted the allegorical significance of the occasion to a nation wracked by nearly two months of war.

“The great holiday today gives us great hope and unwavering faith that light will overcome darkness, good will overcome evil, life will overcome death, and therefore Ukraine will surely win!” he said.

Still, the war cast a shadow over celebrations. Residents of rural villages battered by the war approached the day with some cautious defiance.

“How do I feel? Very nervous. Everyone is nervous,” Olena Koptyl said as she prepared her Easter bread in the northern village of Ivanivka, where Russian tanks still littered the roads. “The Easter holiday doesn’t bring any joy. I’m crying a lot. We cannot forget how we lived.”

Earlier, during his nightly address to the nation, Zelenskyy claimed that intercepted communications recorded Russian troops discussing “how they conceal the traces of their crimes” in Mariupol. The president also highlighted the death of a 3-month old girl in a Russian missile strike Saturday on the Black Sea port of Odesa.

Zelenskyy said the military equipment received from Western supporters had been a big help so far, but he also has stressed that Ukraine needs more heavy weapons, including long-range air defense systems, as well as warplanes to fend off the Russian attacks.

The Russian military reported that it hit 423 Ukrainian targets overnight, including fortified positions and troops concentrations, while Russian warplanes destroyed 26 Ukrainian military sites, including an explosives factory and several artillery depots.

Most of the fighting Sunday focused on the eastern Donbas region, where Ukrainian forces are concentrated and where Moscow-backed separatists controlled some territory before the war. Since failing to capture Kyiv, the Russians are aiming to gain full control over Ukraine’s eastern industrial heartland.

Russian forces launched fresh airstrikes on a Mariupol steel plant where an estimated 1,000 civilians are sheltering along with about 2,000 Ukrainian fighters. The Azovstal steel mill where the defenders are holed up is the last corner of resistance in the city, which the Russians have otherwise occupied.

Mykhailo Podolyak, a Ukrainian presidential adviser, called for a localized Easter truce. He urged Russia to allow civilians to leave the plant and suggested talks to negotiate an exit for the Ukrainian soldiers.

Podolyak tweeted that the Russian military was attacking the plant with heavy bombs and artillery while accumulating forces and equipment for a direct assault.

Mariupol has been the focus of fierce fighting since the start of the war due to its location on the Sea of Azov. Its capture would deprive Ukraine of a vital port, free up Russian troops to fight elsewhere, and allow Moscow to establish a land corridor to the Crimean Peninsula, which it seized from Ukraine in 2014.

More than 100,000 people — down from a prewar population of about 430,000 — are believed to remain in Mariupol with scant food, water or heat. Ukrainian authorities estimate that over 20,000 civilians have been killed.

Satellite images released this week showed what appeared to be mass graves dug in towns to the west and east of Mariupol.

Zelenskyy accused the Russians of committing war crimes by killing civilians, as well as of setting up “filtration camps” near Mariupol for people caught trying to leave the city. From there, he said, Ukrainians are sent to areas under Russian occupation or to Russia itself, often as far as Siberia or the Far East. Many of them, he said, are children.

The claims could not be independently verified.

In attacks on the eve of Orthodox Easter, Russian forces pounded cities and towns in southern and eastern Ukraine. The 3-month-old baby was among eight people killed when Russia fired cruise missiles at Odesa, Ukrainian officials said.

Ukrainian news agency UNIAN, citing social media posts, reported that the infant’s mother, Valeria Glodan, and grandmother also died when a missile hit a residential area. Zelenskyy promised to find and punish those responsible for the strike.

“The war started when this baby was one month old,’’ he said. Can you imagine what is happening? “They are filthy scum, there are no other words for it.””

For the Donbas offensive, Russia has reassembled troops who fought around Kyiv and in northern Ukraine earlier. The British Ministry of Defense said Sunday that Ukrainian forces had repelled numerous assaults in the past week and “inflicted significant cost on Russian forces.”

“Poor Russian morale and limited time to reconstitute, re-equip and reorganize forces from prior offensives are likely hindering Russian combat effectiveness,” the ministry said in an intelligence update.

The spiritual leaders of the world’s Orthodox Christians and Roman Catholics appealed for relief for the suffering population of Ukraine.

From Istanbul, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I said a “human tragedy” was unfolding. , Bartholomew, considered the first among his Eastern Orthodox patriarch equals, citing in particular “the thousands of people surrounded in Mariupol, civilians, among them the wounded, the elderly, women and many children.”

Pope Francis, speaking from a window overlooking St. Peter’s Square, renewed his call for an Easter truce, calling it “a minimal and tangible sign of a desire for peace.”

“The attacks must be stopped, to respond to the suffering of the exhausted population,” Francis said without naming the aggressor.

Associated Press journalists Yesica Fisch in Sloviansk, Ukraine, Mstyslav Chernov and Felipe Dana in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Yuras Karmanau in Lviv, Cara Anna and Inna Varenytsia in Kviv and Associated Press staff members around the world contributed to this story.

Tensions over a Russian troop buildup along the border of Ukraine have been a focus of Blinken’s weeklong Europe trip and topped the agenda of his meeting Wednesday with NATO counterparts in Latvia. The Ukrainian government is seeking to align with NATO and the West.

“We don’t know whether President Putin has made the decision to invade. We do know that his is putting in place the capacity to do so on short order should he so decide,” Blinken told reporters in Riga, Latvia’s capital. “We must prepare for all contingencies.”

“We’re also urging Ukraine to continue to exercise restraint because, again, the Russian playbook is to claim provocation for something that they were planning to do all along,” he said.

Blinken said the U.S. has “made it clear to the Kremlin that we will respond resolutely, including with a range of high-impact economic measures that we’ve refrained from using in the past.” He gave no details on what kind of “high-impact” sanctions were under consideration if Russia did invade Ukraine.

The European Union’s Parliament approved a nonbinding resolution in April to cut off Russia from the so-called SWIFT system of international payments if its troops entered Ukraine.

Such a move would go far toward blocking Russian businesses from the global financial system. Western allies reportedly considered such a step in 2014 and 2015, during earlier Russian-led escalations of tensions over Ukraine. Then-Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said at the time the Russian response to that financially crippling move would be “without limits.”

Apart from targeting Russia for sanctions, Blinken said that “NATO is prepared to reinforce its defenses on the eastern flank.” He did not elaborate. The military organization already has forces stationed in the Baltic states – Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania – and Poland.

Blinken is scheduled to meet Thursday in Sweden with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. He said he would encourage Russia’s top diplomat to return to talks under the “Normandy” format, with France and Germany.

“There is a diplomatic path forward. We are certainly not looking for conflict,” Blinken said.

A 2015 peace deal brokered by France and Germany helped end large-scale battles in eastern Ukraine sparked after Russia annexed the Crimean Peninsula the previous year. But efforts to reach a political settlement failed and sporadic skirmishes continue along the tense line of contact.

While in Stockholm on Thursday, Blinken also plans to hold talks with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba on the sidelines of a minister-level meeting of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

NATO is worried about a Russian buildup of heavy equipment and troops near Ukraine’s northern border, not far from Belarus. Ukraine says Moscow kept about 90,000 troops in the area following massive war games in western Russia earlier this year, and could easily mobilize them.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said last week that his country’s intelligence service had uncovered plans for a Russia-backed coup d’état. Russia denied the allegation and rejected the assertion that it is planning to invade Ukraine.

“You can discuss whether the likelihood for an incursion is 20% or 80%, it doesn’t matter. We need to be prepared for the worst,” Stoltenberg told reporters in Riga, Latvia, after chairing talks among NATO foreign ministers focused on the threat posed by Russia.

“There is no certainty, no clarity about exactly what are the Russian intentions, and they may actually evolve and change,” the NATO chief continued. Referring to Russia’s seizure in 2014 of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula, Stoltenberg added: “They’ve done it before.”

Asked about the decision to activate NATO’s crisis response planning system, which helps analyze potential crises and prepare a response to them, he said: “Allies agree that we need to have the plans in place to be sure that we are always able to protect all allies against any potential threat.”

The United States has shared intelligence with European allies warning of a possible invasion. European diplomats acknowledge the Russian troop movements, but some countries have played down the threat of any imminent invasion ordered by Moscow.

“We are very concerned about the movements we’ve seen along Ukraine’s border. We know that Russia often combines those efforts with internal efforts to destabilize a country. That’s part of the playbook, and we’re looking at it very closely,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said.

“Any renewed aggression would trigger serious consequences,” Blinken warned.

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas also said “Russia would have to pay a high price for any form of aggression.”

Maas said “honest and sustainable de-escalation steps, which can only go via the route of talks, are all the more important now.”

Russia annexed Crimea in 2014 after Ukraine’s Moscow-friendly president was driven from power by mass protests. Weeks later, Russia threw its weight behind a separatist insurgency that broke out in Ukraine’s east.

Ukraine and the West have accused Russia of sending troops and weapons to back the rebels. Moscow denies that, saying that Russians who joined the separatists were volunteers. More than 14,000 people have died in more than seven years of fighting, which also has devastated Ukraine’s eastern industrial heartland, known as Donbas.

A 2015 peace agreement brokered by France and Germany helped end large-scale battles, but efforts to reach a political settlement have failed and sporadic skirmishes have continued along the tense line of contact. Russia has refused recent overtures for talks with France and Germany.

But Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said it is NATO that threatens peace in the region.

“Significant units and military equipment of NATO countries, including the U.S. and Britain, are being deployed closer to our borders,” Lavrov said during a news conference in Moscow. He alleged that the West has long provoked Ukraine “into anti-Russian actions.”

Whatever Russia’s intentions, NATO would not be able to provide Ukraine with any substantial military support in time to make a difference against Russian forces, so economic measures like Western sanctions are more likely to be used to inflict a financial cost on Moscow.

Stoltenberg underlined that Ukraine is not part of the military organization and so cannot benefit from the collective security guarantee available to member countries.

Meanwhile, Belarusian Defense Minister Viktor Khrenin announced that Belarus will conduct joint military drills with Russia “to cover the southern borders,” a reference to the border area near Ukraine, according to Belarus state news agency Belta. It’s unclear when this would happen.

Cook reported from Brussels. Dasha Litvinova in Moscow, Geir Moulson in Berlin and Jill Lawless in London contributed.

Trump stunned Washington’s allies during the U.S. election campaign by suggesting that American military guarantees to NATO members could depend on whether they are paying enough on defense.

In separate interviews with The Associated Press this week, Lithuania’s foreign and defense ministers said that they believed that some of Trump’s language during the campaign shouldn’t be taken too seriously. They also said that they are confident that he would continue a decades-long American tradition of standing by allies in Europe and the world.

“I hope and believe — and I can’t imagine otherwise — that the U.S. will remain a key player in the world and also a leader of NATO,” Foreign Minister Linas Linkevicius said Tuesday.

Defense Minister Juozas Olekas shared similar optimism, and said Trump is right that the U.S. shouldn’t have to bear most of the cost of defending the Western alliance.

“President Donald Trump said that Europe in general should put more attention on defense and we fully agree,” Olekas said Monday. “The peace and independence of our country is very important and we should put attention on that and not only waiting and relying for everything on the United States.”

Lithuanian soldiers take part in a NATO military exercise, ‘Iron Sword,’ at the Rukla military base some 130 km (80 miles) west of the capital Vilnius, Lithuania, Monday, Nov. 28, 2016.

Photo Credit: /Mindaugas Kulbis/AP

Lithuania and the other Baltic states, Estonia and Latvia, are nervous about Russia’s new assertiveness in the region, something that prompted Lithuania to ramp up its spending on its army already before Trump made his comments on NATO to The New York Times in July.

Lithuania, an Eastern European nation of 3 million people, vowed in 2014 to reach the NATO target of spending 2 percent of GDP by 2020. But Olekas said it would reach that target two years earlier, in 2018. This year the country is on target to spend 1.8 percent on defense.

Trump’s praise of Russian President Vladimir Putin has also raised concerns across a region where Putin is feared.

Linkevicius noted that Trump made many statements during the campaign that he has already stepped away from, but that his criticism related to defense spending was “legitimate.”

“Frankly it was true and Europeans must deliver more,” he said.

The Baltics have been shaken by Russian military interventions in Georgia, Ukraine and Syria, and many strategic analysts feel the small Baltic states — all former Soviet republics — are the most vulnerable if Russia were to continue its expansionist policies.

NATO troops this week are conducting exercises in Lithuania and in general NATO membership has given some feeling of security to a region that has come under Russian occupation in the past.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, who joined Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite for the opening ceremony, described the new unit as a “big step forward toward greater solidarity, greater strength and greater readiness.”

The NATO force integration unit in Vilnius is one of six small headquarters — manned by some 40 staff each — that opened this month in Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Poland and Romania, as part of the alliance’s biggest reinforcement of collective defense since the end of the Cold War.

Grybauskaite welcomed the new units, saying they would ensure the quick and effective movement of troops. “And they help send a very clear message — no NATO ally stands alone,” she said, pointing to Russian aggression in Ukraine as threatening the security of Europe. “This is why we have decided to bolster our security.”

Lithuania and its Baltic neighbors, Latvia and Estonia, were occupied for nearly five decades by the Soviet Union. After regaining independence in 1991 they joined the European Union and NATO in 2004, but continue to be suspicious of Moscow’s intentions.

Earlier this year, Lithuania distributed wartime survival manuals to schools across the country — a 98-page booklet with advice on building basement shelters to handling hostage dramas and evacuating from fighting zones. It also organized survival camps for families, teaching them to shoot and how to survive in war zones and threatening situations.

In February, the government restored compulsory military service for men aged 19 to 27, but is reconsidering the measure after a flood of applications from volunteers wanting to serve in the armed forces, expected to reach 3,000 by the end of the year.

Drilling at a parade ground in the coastal city of Klaipeda, Junior Pvt. Saulius Sirvinskas learns how to disassemble, clean and repair his rifle until it becomes second nature. “I love my country and it’s like I’m returning the favor to my country by serving this military duty,” he said.

Lithuanian Defense Minister Juozas Olekas recalled the events in Hungary and Czechoslovakia during the Soviet era and said that similar aggression in Ukraine now should be met by “showing our readiness” to act.

“This is the only answer which can be understood by Russian President (Vladimir) Putin,” he said in an interview with The Associated Press earlier this week.

Although Moscow has made no moves against its small Baltic neighbors, which all have sizeable Russian-speaking minorities, they are worried about its increased military presence in the vicinity of the outpost of Kaliningrad, partly a Russian military base, sandwiched between Lithuania and Poland.

NATO, which patrols the airspace of the three Baltic allies, has reported more than 400 intercepts by NATO fighter jets of Russian military aircraft flying near the borders of the Baltic countries last year, an increase of 50 percent over 2013.