Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russian troops in southern Ukraine have been carrying out torture and kidnappings, and he called on the world Sunday to respond.
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"Torture chambers are built there," Zelenskyy said in an evening address to the nation. "They abduct representatives of local governments and anyone deemed visible to local communities."
Zelenskyy said humanitarian aid has been stolen, creating famine.
In occupied parts of the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions, he said, the Russians are creating separatist states and introducing Russian currency, the ruble.
Intensified Russian shelling of Ukraine's second-largest city, Kharkiv, has killed 18 people and wounded 106 in the last four days alone, Zelenskyy said.
"This is nothing but deliberate terror. Mortars, artillery against ordinary residential neighborhoods, against ordinary civilians," he said.
He said a planned Russian offensive in eastern Ukraine "will begin in the near future."
Zelensky again called for increased sanctions against Russia, including its entire banking sector and oil industry. "Everyone in Europe and America already sees Russia openly using energy to destabilize Western societies," Zelenskyy said. "All of this requires greater speed from Western countries in preparing a new, powerful package of sanctions."
Ukrainian authorities also condemned the continuing siege of the southern port city of Mariupol, of which Moscow said it had taken almost full control, following almost two months of bloody fighting.
After failing to overcome Ukrainian resistance in the north, the Russian military has refocused its ground offensive on Donbas, while launching long-distance strikes at targets elsewhere, including the capital, Kyiv.
Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said troops in the pulverized port of Mariupol were still fighting on Sunday, despite a Russian demand to surrender by dawn, and vowed they would fight "to the end."
"The city still has not fallen," he told ABC's "This Week" program, adding that Ukrainian soldiers continued to control some parts of the southeastern city.
On Saturday, Russia said it had control of urban areas, with some Ukrainian fighters remaining in the Azovstal steelworks overlooking the Sea of Azov.
The Russian military had warned that Ukrainian troops refusing to surrender in the besieged port of Mariupol will be destroyed.
The Russian Defense Ministry gave the Ukrainians at the Azovstal steel mill until 1 p.m. Sunday (1000 GMT) to surrender, saying that those who put down their weapons will be "guaranteed to keep their lives."
Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said that the Ukrainian military command had banned its troops from surrendering. He said the Russian military received the information from intercepted communications.
Konashenkov warned that "all those who will continue resistance will be destroyed."
He claimed that along with Ukrainian troops, there are about 400 foreign mercenaries encircled at Azovstal, most of them from European countries and Canada, communicating in six languages, according to intercepts. Konashenkov's claim couldn't be independently verified.
Capturing Mariupol, the main port in the Donbas region, would be a strategic prize for Russia, linking territory held by pro-Russian separatists in the east with the Crimea region Moscow annexed in 2014.
Serhiy Gaidai, the governor of the neighboring region of Luhansk, which has seen heavy fighting, repeated a plea for people to evacuate.
"The next week will be difficult," he said in a post on his Facebook page. "It may be the last time we have a chance to save you."
On the streets of Mariupol, small groups of bodies were lined up under colorful blankets, surrounded by shredded trees and scorched buildings.
Residents, some pushing bicycles, picked their way around destroyed tanks and civilian vehicles while Russian soldiers checked the documents of motorists.
Among them was Irina, who was evacuating with a niece wounded in the shelling.
"I have a daughter in DNR," she said, referring to the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic. "Maybe we will try to move there for the time being.
"I hope they will re-build [Mariupol]. The most important thing is utility systems. Summer will pass fast and in winter it will be hard."
About four million Ukrainians have fled the country, cities have been shattered and thousands have died since the start of the invasion on Feb. 24.
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The economic damage is significant. Shmyhal said Ukraine's budget deficit was about $5 billion a month and urged Western governments for more financial aid.
On Twitter, Zelenskyy said he had discussed ensuring Ukraine's financial stability and preparations for post-war reconstruction with International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva, quoting her as having said support was essential to lay the foundations for rebuilding.
Ukraine pressed on with efforts to swiftly join the European Union, as officials completed a questionnaire that is a starting point for the EU to decide on its membership. On Easter Sunday, Pope Francis implicitly criticized Russia, pleading for an end to the bloodshed and lamenting the "Easter of war" in a speech in St. Peter's Square after Mass.
"May there be peace for war-torn Ukraine, so sorely tried by the violence and destruction of the cruel and senseless war into which it was dragged," he said.
