Ukraine wants direct talks between President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Russia's Vladimir Putin, after a third round of negotiations between representatives of the two sides stalled.
"We have long wanted a direct conversation between the President of Ukraine and Vladimir Putin, because we all understand that it is he who makes the final decisions, especially now," Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said in a live television broadcast.
"Our President is not scared of anything, including a direct meeting with Putin.
"If Putin is also not scared, let him come to the meeting, let them sit down and talk."
After the latest attempt to ease the bloodshed at talks in Belarus, a Ukrainian negotiator said that although small progress on agreeing logistics for the evacuation of civilians had been made, things remained largely unchanged.
"As of now, there are no results that significantly improve the situation," Mr Zelenskyy's advisor Mykhailo Podolyay said in a video statement.
Russian negotiators said they had no positive developments to report, warning not to expect the next round of negotiations to bring a final result.
Russian negotiator Vladimir Medinsky told journalists the talks were "not easy".
"It is too early to talk about something positive," Mr Medinsky said.
"We hope that from tomorrow these [evacuation] corridors will finally work."
Repeated attempts to implement ceasefires to allow civilians to leave some encircled cities have failed, with each side blaming the other for the resumption of hostilities.
A fourth round of talks will take place very soon, Russian negotiator Leonid Slutsky told Russian state television.
French President Emmanuel Macron said he did not expect a negotiated end to the war in Ukraine for weeks.
He said that he had told the Russian leader that a ceasefire must come before any real dialogue, but that Mr Putin had refused, making their regular talks "difficult".
Foreign ministers to meet
The countries' foreign ministers are also scheduled to meet in Turkey on Thursday, according to Turkey's top diplomat.
Ahead of the latest meeting, Russia told Ukraine it was ready to halt military operations "in a moment" if Kyiv met a list of conditions.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Monday that Moscow was demanding that Ukraine cease military action and change its constitution to enshrine neutrality.
He also said Ukraine must acknowledge Crimea as Russian territory and recognise the separatist republics of Donetsk and Lugansk as independent states.
It was the most explicit Russian statement so far of the terms it wants to impose on Ukraine to halt what it calls its "special military operation", now in its 12th day.
Mr Peskov said that Ukraine was aware of the conditions.
Ukraine calls Russia's evacuation offer 'immoral'
Russian plans for new "humanitarian corridors" to allow civilians to evacuate to Russia itself and its ally Belarus were rejected by Ukraine.
The new "corridors" would allow people to leave the capital Kyiv and the eastern cities of Kharkiv and Sumy, as well as Mariupol, Russia's defence ministry said.
According to maps published by Russian state news agency RIA, the corridor from Kyiv would lead to Belarus, while civilians from Kharkiv would be permitted to go only to Russia.
Russia would also mount an airlift to take Ukrainians from Kyiv to Russia, the ministry said.
A spokesperson for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called the move "completely immoral".
"They are citizens of Ukraine, they should have the right to evacuate to the territory of Ukraine," the spokesperson said.
Lviv at breaking point
The mayor of Lviv said the western Ukrainian city had reached the limits of its capacity to help people displaced by Russia's assault on Ukraine, and appealed to international organisations for help.
Mayor Andriy Sadoviy said several hundred thousand people had already passed through Lviv as they headed west seeking safety.
He said some 200,000 internally displaced persons were now staying in Lviv, and 50,000 were going through Lviv railway station daily.
"We understand there will be another wave [of refugees] … and call on international humanitarian organisations to come here and help," he said.
More than 1.7 million Ukrainians fleeing Russia's invasion have so far crossed into Central Europe, the United Nations refugee agency said on Monday, as thousands more streamed across the borders.
Poland, which has the largest Ukrainian community in Central Europe, has received more than 1 million Ukrainian refugees since the conflict began.
Russia skips day in court
Ukraine sought an emergency order from the United Nations' highest court on Monday to halt hostilities on its territory, arguing that Russia had falsely applied genocide law to justify its invasion.
The hearing was held at the International Court of Justice without legal representation for Russia.
Ukrainian envoy Anton Korynevych said the fact that Russia missed the meeting "speaks loudly".
"They are not here in this court of law — they are on a battlefield waging an aggressive war against my country."
The court said it regretted Russia's non-attendance.
After Ukraine presented its arguments the court said it would start deliberations and rule "as soon as possible".
Countries usually, but not always, follow the court's orders, which are legally binding.
After the hearing Mr Korynevych stressed that Russia's absence would not impact the proceedings and Moscow would have to heed any court orders.
"They need to listen and they must listen to the court, under international law," he told reporters.
Australia labelled unfriendly actor by Russia
Russia said all corporate deals with companies and individuals from what it called "unfriendly countries" would now have to be approved by a government commission.
The government said it had approved a list of countries and territories taking "unfriendly actions" against Russia, its companies and citizens, in the wake of severe economic sanctions over the invasion of Ukraine.
The list follows a presidential decree on March 5 allowing the Russian government, companies and citizens to temporarily pay foreign currency debts owed to overseas creditors from "unfriendly countries" in roubles.
The rouble has been crippled by the economic sanctions placed on Russia by Western nations.
The list includes: Australia, the US, Canada, the EU states, the UK, Ukraine, Montenegro, Switzerland, Albania, Andorra, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Monaco, Norway, San Marino, North Macedonia, Japan, South Korea, Micronesia, New Zealand, Singapore, and Taiwan.
The countries and territories mentioned in the list have all imposed sanctions against Russia since its invasion of Ukraine.
To make such payments, the government said debtors should open a special type of rouble account with a Russian bank and transfer into it the rouble equivalent of the foreign currency amount owed according to the central bank's official exchange rate on the day of payment.
This temporary arrangement for paying foreign debts applies to payments exceeding 10 million roubles a month.
ABC/Reuters
