Kremlin says Biden's Putin comments 'alarming'

U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said Monday he has asked an official to explore a humanitarian cease-fire in Ukraine.

Guterres said he asked Martin Griffiths, under-secretary-general at the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, to start immediately and that "he already made some contacts."

"I think this is the moment in which I believe it makes sense for the U.N. to assume the initiative," Guterres told reporters.

There have been agreements for humanitarian corridors in Ukraine, but relief efforts for some areas, including the besieged city of Mariupol, have been disrupted by shelling.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a video address Monday that "the Russian army did not let us organize a single humanitarian corridor today, did not provide cease-fire."

Russia attacked and invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24 in an assault that has been condemned by the U.S., European countries and other nations.

Guterres also called for "military de-escalation and rhetoric de-escalation" after he was asked about President Joe Biden's remark in Poland that Russian President Vladimir Putin "cannot remain in power." Biden said he was expressing his moral outrage, not signaling a policy change.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called Monday for tougher sanctions against Russia.

He criticized what he said were hints surrounding conditions for Europe to impose an embargo on Russian oil.

"Right now there are a lot of hints and warnings that strengthening of sanctions, for example an embargo on Russian oil to Europe, will happen only if Russia uses chemical weapons," Zelenskyy said in a video address. "I am simply speechless. Just think about what it all came to, waiting for chemical weapons."

President Joe Biden announced a ban on Russian oil imports on March 8, but most of Europe has not. Europe is more reliant on Russian oil than the U.S.

The United Kingdom said it will phase out Russian oil imports by the end of the year. Germany, Europe's largest economy, has said introducing such an embargo would trigger recession and mass unemployment, Reuters reported.

Zelenskyy said Russia has used phosphorus bombs in Ukraine and fired at nuclear power plants.

The United Nations' human rights office has recorded more than 100 deaths of children in Ukraine since Russia invaded last month.

The real numbers of civilian casualties —  which include 1,151 killed, 103 of whom were children — are much higher, the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights said Monday.

Ukrainian officials have given higher numbers of civilians killed. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Monday that 143 have died since Russia invaded on Feb. 24.

The U.N. human rights office has a process to corroborate reports of civilian casualties, and it says fighting has delayed reports from some areas and that other reports are still being corroborated.

"OHCHR believes that the actual figures are considerably higher," it said in Monday's update.

LVIV, Ukraine — A missile attack hit an oil depot in western Ukraine late Monday, Rivne’s regional governor said, marking the second attack on oil facilities in the region and the latest in a series of such attacks in recent days.

Western Ukraine has not seen ground combat, but missiles have struck oil depots and a military plant in Lviv, a major city close to Poland where hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians have gone to escape fighting elsewhere.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy suggested in an interview with Russian journalists released Sunday that the attacks on oil depots are intended to disrupt the planting season in Ukraine, which is a major grain producer.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy reiterated his refrain Monday that countries must ramp up their sanctions against Russia and military assistance to Ukraine.

The escalation of sanctions, he said, is influenced by whether Russia uses chemical weapons in the conflict, but Ukrainians have endured enough. 

He criticized hesitation based on the political implications of opposing Russia, saying countries that aren't supporting Ukraine have become complicit in the war.

"No one has the right to use the lives of Ukrainians to save any income in Russia," Zelenskyy said. "Ukrainians should not die just because some cannot find the courage to hand over the necessary weapons to Ukraine."

President Joe Biden refused Monday to walk back his comment over the weekend that Russian President Vladimir Putin shouldn’t remain in power, saying his statement reflected "moral outrage," not a policy change. 

Some said Biden's words seemed to suggest he was pushing for regime change in Russia in the ab-libbed line in remarks in Poland. “For God’s sake, this man cannot remain in power,” Biden said Saturday in reference. 

Although Biden said he doesn't believe the comment will spark further escalation, some world leaders and experts saw the statement as a risky and escalatory move.

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A regional official said Monday that a hospital was severely damaged and that a railway station, bus stations and a five-story apartment building were "completely destroyed" in the town of Trostyanets, about 150 miles east of Kyiv. 

Dmytro Zhyvytskyi, the head of the Sumy Regional State Administration, said Trostyanets has received Starlink internet and generators since Ukrainian forces recaptured the area. Beforehand, Zhyvytskyi said, people in the region were "cut off from the world, cut off from information."

A senior U.S. Defense Department official confirmed Monday that Ukraine had recaptured Trostyanets from Russia.

Ambulances have taken the seriously wounded to the nearest hospitals, he said, adding that people who lost their homes are being resettled in Sumy and provided with food, medicine and clothing.