Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a video address released early on Wednesday that the positions of Ukraine and Russia at peace talks were sounding more realistic but more time was needed.
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A senior Ukrainian official said on Tuesday that talks with Russia were very difficult but there was "certainly room for compromise," adding that negotiations would continue on Wednesday.
"The meetings continue, and, I am informed, the positions during the negotiations already sound more realistic. But time is still needed for the decisions to be in the interests of Ukraine," said Zelenskyy.
US President Joe Biden will travel to Europe next week for face-to-face talks with European leaders about the Russian invasion of Ukraine, White House press secretary Jen Psaki announced Tuesday.
Biden will meet with European leaders at an extraordinary NATO summit in Brussels on March 24. He will also attend a scheduled European Council summit, where efforts to impose sanctions and further humanitarian efforts are underway.
"While he's there, his goal is to meet in person face-to-face with his European counterparts and talk about, assess where we are at this point in the conflict in the invasion of Ukraine by Russia. We've been incredibly aligned to date," Psaki said. "That doesn't happen by accident. The president is a big believer in face-to-face diplomacy. So it's an opportunity to do exactly that."
The White House announced the president's travel shortly before Biden on Tuesday signed a bill providing $13.6 billion in additional military and humanitarian aid to Ukraine as part of a $1.5 trillion government spending measure.
Biden said at the bill signing ceremony that the US was "moving urgently to further augment the support to the brave people of Ukraine, as they defend their country."
The trip follows Vice President Kamala Harris' visit to eastern flank NATO countries of Poland and Romania last week to discuss with leaders the growing refugee crisis in Eastern Europe sparked by the Russian invasion and to underscore the Biden administration's support for NATO allies.
Meanwhile, the US Senate on Tuesday unanimously passed a resolution condemning Russian President Vladimir Putin as a war criminal, a rare show of unity in the deeply divided Congress.
The resolution, introduced by Republican Senator Lindsey Graham and backed by senators of both parties, encouraged the International Criminal Court in The Hague and other nations to target the Russian military in any investigation of war crimes committed during Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
"All of us in this chamber joined together, with Democrats and Republicans, to say that Vladimir Putin cannot escape accountability for the atrocities committed against the Ukrainian people," Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a speech on the Senate floor ahead of the vote.
Russia calls its actions a "special military operation" to demilitarize and "de-Nazify" Ukraine. Putin has also called the country a US colony with a puppet regime and no tradition of independent statehood.
Moscow has not captured any of the 10 biggest cities in the country following its incursion that began on Feb. 24, the largest assault on a European state since 1945.
The White House's announcement of Biden's visit to Brussels came on the same day that leaders of Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovenia set out for Kyiv by train despite the security risks to show their support for Ukraine. It was a visit EU officials said was not sanctioned by other members of the 27-nation bloc.
Just over 3 million people have now fled Ukraine, according to the United Nations, with over 1.8 million arriving in neighboring Poland.
In Kyiv, around half of the 3.4 million residents have fled and some spend nights sheltering in metro stations.
Local authorities said Tuesday's bombardments on Kyiv killed at least five people as buildings were set ablaze and people were buried under rubble. Russia denies targeting civilians.
About 2,000 cars left the besieged southern port city of Mariupol, the location of the worst humanitarian crisis, the local council said.
But a convoy with supplies for Mariupol, where residents have been sheltering from repeated Russian bombardments and are desperate for food and water, was stuck at nearby Berdyansk, Ukraine's Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said.
More than 100 buses carrying a few thousand civilians left the besieged northeastern city of Sumy in a "safe passage" operation, the International Committee of the Red Cross said on Tuesday. They were heading towards Lubny in central Ukraine after Russians gave a green light for the evacuation.
Russia said it now controlled the Kherson region in southern Ukraine.
Fox News said a second journalist working for the cable network was killed in Ukraine in the same incident in which a Fox cameraman died when their vehicle was struck on Monday by incoming fire.
The conflict has brought economic isolation upon Russia and the economic cost was fully exposed on Wednesday as its sanctions-ravaged government teetered on the brink of its first international debt default since the Bolshevik revolution.
Moscow was due to pay $117 million in interest on two dollar-denominated sovereign bonds it had sold back in 2013, but it faces limits on making payments and has talked of paying in roubles, which would trigger a default.
The crisis is also being felt in the form of spiraling energy costs in many Western countries with some heavily reliant on exports from Russia and after a US ban on imports of oil from the country.
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British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was expected to visit the Middle East on Wednesday to meet Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed in the United Arab Emirates before seeing Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Saudi Arabia in efforts to secure more oil flows.
"We will work with them to ensure regional security, support the humanitarian relief effort and stabilize global energy markets for the longer term," said Johnson.
The United States, the European Union and Britain announced further sanctions on Tuesday, while Moscow retaliated by putting Biden and other US officials on a "stop list" that bars them from entering Russia.
The latest EU sanctions include bans on energy sector investments, luxury goods exports to Moscow, and imports of steel products from Russia.
They also freeze the assets of more business leaders believed to support the Russian state, including Chelsea football club owner Roman Abramovich.
