Maxar Technologies said fire was seen in the western part of the Black Sea port city and severely damaged dozens of high-rise apartment buildings. The images could not be independently verified.

Mariupol is facing what Ukraine calls a “humanitarian catastrophe” in which more than 1,500 civilians have been killed in 12 days.

A Russian officer described the situation in the country saying, “Unfortunately, the humanitarian situation in Ukraine is continuing to deteriorate rapidly, and in some cities, it has reached catastrophic proportions,” said the head of the Russian National Defence Control Centre, Mikhail Mizintsev.

The UN has cited reports of “looting and violent confrontations” among civilians over the few resources available.

According to Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk, About 13,000 people were evacuated from a number of Ukrainian cities on Saturday, almost double the number for the day before. She did however say that no one had managed to leave the besieged city of Mariupol and blamed obstruction by Russian forces. Moscow had earlier accused Ukrainian forces of intentionally trapping people there.

The UN Refugee Agency says at least 2.5 million people have fled Ukraine in the two weeks since the Russian invasion started.

According to a report by Al Jazeera, about 60 children, cancer patients, have boarded a medical train in a Polish town, bound for hospitals in Warsaw and elsewhere. Medical workers carried some young patients in their arms, on stretchers and in a wheelchair at a station in Medyka, near the Ukrainian border.

“Some of them will require oxygen, will require some form of intensive care, and some have COVID-19 and have to be kept separate from others,” said Dominik Daszuta, an anaesthetist from Warsaw Hospital. He said the train has transported 120 children with cancer so far.