Ukraine urges civilians to flee offensive in east; Mariupol battle in key phase

KVIV/MOSCOW • Ukrainian officials urged civilians to flee eastern areas ahead of an anticipated Russian offensive, while the battle for the southern port city of Mariupol was reaching a decisive phase, with Ukrainian marines holed up in the Azovstal industrial district.

Should the Russians seize Azovstal, they would be in full control of Mariupol, the lynchpin between Russian-held areas to the west and east.

The port city has already been laid waste by weeks of Russian bombardments and officials say about 20,000 people or more may have been killed.

After Russian troops got bogged down in the face of Ukrainian resistance to capture the capital Kyiv, they are redoubling their efforts in the east and south.

The governor of eastern Luhansk region, Mr Serhiy Gaidai, urged residents to evacuate using agreed humanitarian corridors.

"It's far more scary to remain and burn in your sleep from a Russian shell," he wrote on social media. "Evacuate; with every day the situation is getting worse. Take your essential items and head to the pick-up point."

A humanitarian corridor from Mariupol had also been agreed, Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said.

Since Russia sent its troops over the border on Feb 24, about a quarter of Ukraine's 44 million population have been forced from their homes, cities turned into rubble, and thousands of people have been killed or injured - many of them civilians.

Ukrainian Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Malyar said the government was checking unverified information that Russia may have used chemical weapons while besieging Mariupol.

"There is a theory that these could be phosphorous munitions," Ms Malyar said in televised comments.

The governor of the eastern Donetsk region, Mr Pavlo Kyrylenko, said he had seen incident reports on possible chemical weapons use in Mariupol but could not confirm them. "We know that last night around midnight, a drone dropped some so-far unknown explosive device, and the people that were in and around the Mariupol metal plant - there were three people - they began to feel unwell," he told CNN.

They were taken to hospital and their lives were not in danger, he said.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Monday night that Russia could resort to chemical weapons as it massed troops in Donbass in the east for a new assault. He did not say if they actually had been used. The United States and Britain said they were trying to verify the reports.

Chemical weapons production, use and stockpiling are banned under the 1997 Chemical Weapons Convention. Although condemned by human rights groups, white phosphorous is not banned under the convention.

Russia's defence ministry has not responded to a Reuters request for comment. Russian-backed separatist forces in the east denied using chemical weapons in Mariupol, the Interfax news agency reported.

Mr Zelensky pleaded overnight for more weapons from the West to help it end the siege of Mariupol and fend off the expected eastern offensive. "Unfortunately we are not getting as much as we need to end this war faster... in particular, to lift the blockade of Mariupol."

Meanwhile, the authorities in four Russian regions bordering Ukraine - Belgorod, Voronezh, Bryansk and Krasnodar - as well as in Russian-controlled Crimea announced they were stepping up security measures on Monday over what they said were "possible provocations" from the Ukrainian side.

They said they were boosting security and urged citizens to be more vigilant.

Another region bordering Ukraine, Kursk, was the first to announce such measures on Sunday.

On Sunday, the region's governor, Mr Roman Starovoit, said police and military officers would set up checkpoints, less than a week after border guards allegedly came under fire in the region.

REUTERS, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE