More Ukraine-Russia talks scheduled as attack on base kills dozens

Diplomatic efforts to end the war inUkrainewere gearing up on Monday, with Ukrainian andRussian negotiators set to talk again after both sides cited progress, even thoughRussiaattacked abasenear the Polish border and fighting raged elsewhere.

A barrage ofRussian missiles hitUkraine's Yavoriv International Centre for Peacekeeping and Security, abasejust 15 miles (25 km) from the Polish border that has previously hosted NATO military instructors, killing 35 people and wounding 134, a Ukrainian official said on Sunday.

Russia's defence ministry said up to 180 "foreign mercenaries" and a large number of foreign weapons were destroyed. Reuters could not independently verify the casualties reported by either side.

Thousands of people have died since Feb. 24, whenRussian President Vladimir Putin launched what he called a special military operation to ridUkraineof dangerous nationalists and Nazis.

The United States, which had watchedRussia's build-up onUkraine's borders with mounting alarm for weeks, says it was a premeditated, unjustified and unlawful "war of choice".

In a telephone call, U.S. President Joe Biden and France's Emmanuel Macron underscored their commitment to holdingRussiaaccountable for the invasion, the White House said.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and his Ukrainian counterpart, Dmytro Kuleba, also discussed diplomatic efforts to stopRussia's invasion, the State Department said.

Hopes were boosted afterRussiaandUkrainegave their most upbeat assessments following weekend negotiations.

"Russiais already beginning to talk constructively," Ukrainian negotiator Mykhailo Podolyak said in a video online. "I think that we will achieve some results literally in a matter of days."

ARussian delegate to thetalks, Leonid Slutsky, was quoted by the RIA news agency as saying they had made significant progress and it was possible the delegations could soon reach draft agreements.

Ukrainesaidtalksvia video were set to start at 10:30 a.m. (0830 GMT). Neither side has said what they would cover. Three rounds oftalksin Belarus, most recently last Monday, had focused mainly on humanitarian issues.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said the countries' delegations had been speaking daily by video link and a clear aim of his negotiators was to "do everything" to arrange for him to meet Putin.

"We must hold on. We must fight. And we will win," Zelenskiy said in a late night video speech.

Harsh Sanctions

Global financial markets, battered by fears the conflict could spread and drag in NATO, rallied on hopes for progress in peacetalks. Stocks rose while oil prices gave up some of their massive recent gains.

Soaring energy costs and disruptions to supply chains caused by the fighting and sanctions have fuelled inflationary pressures worldwide.

Russian coal and fertiliser king Andrei Melnichenko said the war inUkraine, a top producer of grains, must be stopped or there would be a global food crisis as fertilizer prices were already too high for many farmers.

"The events inUkraineare truly tragic. We urgently need peace," Melnichenko told Reuters.

The West has sanctionedRussian businessmen, including European Union sanctions on Melnichenko, frozen state assets and cut off much of theRussian corporate sector from the global economy in an attempt to force Putin to change course.

Russia's finance ministry said on Monday it had approved a temporary procedure for repaying foreign currency debt, but warned payments would be made in roubles if sanctions prevented banks from honouring debts in the currency of issue.

Also,Russiahas asked China for military equipment, sparking concern in the White House that Beijing may undermine Western efforts to help Ukrainian defenders, several U.S. officials said.

U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, who is set to meet China's top diplomat Yang Jiechi in Rome on Monday, warned Beijing it would "absolutely" face consequences if it helped Moscow evade sanctions.

Asked aboutRussia's request for military aid, Liu Pengyu, spokesperson for China's embassy in Washington, said, "I've never heard of that."

China found the current situation inUkraine"disconcerting", he said, adding, "We support and encourage all efforts that are conducive to a peaceful settlement of the crisis."

Still, violence and bloodshed continued.

Air raid sirens sounded before dawn in many cities and regions ofUkraine, including Kyiv, Lviv, Odessa, Ivano-Frankivsk and Cherkasy.

In Kyiv, at least one person was killed and three injured when a shell hit a residential building, state television said, while the city administration said the Antonov aircraft plant there had been shelled.

Authorities said they were stockpiling two weeks' worth of food for the 2 million people who have not yet fled fromRussian forces attempting to encircle the capital.

An American journalist was shot and killed byRussian forces in the town of Irpin, northwest of Kyiv, and another journalist was wounded, the regional police chief said.

Britain's defence ministry saidRussian naval forces had established a distant blockade ofUkraine's Black Sea coast, isolating the country from international maritime trade.

In easternUkraine,Russian troops were trying to surround Ukrainian forces as they advance from the port of Mariupol in the south and the second city Kharkiv in the north, it added.

Russia's invasion has sentmorethan 2.5 million people fleeing acrossUkraine's borders and trapped hundreds of thousands in besieged cities.

The United Nations says at least 596 civilians have died since the invasion began and the toll is probably considerably higher as it is difficult to confirm deaths in places such as Mariupol.

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The city council in Mariupol said 2,187 residents had been killed since the start of the invasion. Reuters was not able to verify that toll.

Moscow denies targeting civilians. It blamesUkrainefor failed attempts to evacuate civilians from encircled cities, an accusationUkraineand its Western allies strongly reject.