Ukraine accuses Moscow of forcibly removing civilians to Russia

Ukraine accused Moscow of forcibly removing hundreds of thousands of civilians from shattered Ukrainian cities to Russia to pressure Kyiv to give up, while President Volodymyr Zelensky urged his country to keep up its military defense and not stop "even for a minute".

Lyudmyla Denisova, Ukraine’s ombudsperson, said 402,000 people, including 84,000 children, had been taken against their will into Russia, where some may be used as "hostages" to pressure Kyiv to surrender.

The Kremlin gave nearly identical numbers for those who have been relocated, but said they wanted to go to Russia. Ukraine’s rebel-controlled eastern regions are predominantly Russian-speaking, and many people there have supported close ties to Moscow.

With the war headed into a second month, the two sides traded heavy blows in what has become a devastating war of attrition.

Ukraine’s navy said it sank a large Russian landing ship near the port city of Berdyansk that had been used to bring in armored vehicles.

Russia claimed to have taken the eastern town of Izyum after fierce fighting.

Zelensky used his nightly video address to rally Ukrainians to "move toward peace, move forward".

"With every day of our defense, we are getting closer to the peace that we need so much. We can’t stop even for a minute, for every minute determines our fate, our future, whether we will live."

He said thousands of people, including 128 children, have died in the first month of the war.

Across the country, 230 schools and 155 kindergartens have been destroyed. Cities and villages "lie in ashes," he said.

At an emergency NATO summit in Brussels Thursday, Zelensky pleaded with the Western allies via video for planes, tanks, rockets, air defense systems and other weapons, saying his country is "defending our common values".

US President Joe Biden, in Europe for the summit and other high-level meetings, gave assurances that more aid was on the way, though it appeared unlikely the West would give Zelensky everything he wanted, for fear of triggering a much wider war.

Around the capital, Kyiv, and other areas, Ukrainian defenders have fought Moscow’s ground troops to a near-stalemate, raising fears that a frustrated Russian President Vladimir Putin will resort to chemical, biological or nuclear weapons.