The humanitarian crisis in Ukraine deepened Monday as Russian forces intensified their shelling and food, water, heat and medicine grew increasingly scarce, in what the country condemned as a medieval-style siege by Moscow to batter it into submission.

 India, which has managed to safely bring back over 20,000 of its nationals from Ukraine amid the ongoing war, said it is deeply concerned that despite its repeated urgings to both Russia and Ukraine, the safe corridor for Indian students stranded in eastern Ukrainian city of Sumy did not materialise.

London: Leading Russian banks are looking into issuing cards that operate on a Chinese payment system after Visa and Mastercard said they would cut their services in Russia over the invasion of Ukraine.

Budapest: The International Judo Federation has removed the titles and jobs Vladimir Putin and a long-time Kremlin-supporting oligarch held at the organization.

 Russia announced a ceasefire starting Monday morning and the opening of humanitarian corridors in several areas, a day after hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian civilians attempting to flee to safety were forced to shelter from Russian shelling that pummelled cities in Ukraine's center, north and south.

Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian civilians attempting to flee to safety were forced to shelter from Russian shelling that pummeled cities in Ukraine's center, north and south, leaving corpses in the streets. As Ukraine officials described a catastrophic situation during failed evacuation efforts in Kyiv's suburbs, officials from both sides planned a third round of talks Monday.

The price of oil jumped more than 10 a barrel and shares were sharply lower Monday as the conflict in Ukraine deepened amid mounting calls for harsher sanctions against Russia.

Russian forces intensified shelling of cities in Ukraine's centre, north and south, a Ukrainian official said, as a second attempt to evacuate besieged civilians collapsed.