GENEVA — The International Committee of the Red Cross says a team intending to help people leave the besieged city of Mariupol was unable to reach the port city on Friday.

The Red Cross said in a statement that the team hopes to try again Saturday.

“Arrangements and conditions made it impossible” for the convoy of three vehicles to get safely to Mariupol and they returned to Zaporizhzhia, it said.

“For the operation to succeed, it is critical that the parties respect the agreements and provide the necessary conditions and security guarantees,” the organization said.

Ukrainian officials denied Russia's accusation that Ukraine was behind a fiery blast at an oil depot Friday in the Russian city of Belgorod, which would mark the first instance of Ukrainian forces launching an airstrike on Russian soil since the invasion of Ukraine began.

"For some reason they say that we did it, but according to our information this does not correspond to reality," Ukraine Security Council Secretary Oleksiy Danilov said on Ukrainian television.

Footage verified by NBC News showed a large fire at the oil and natural gas fuel depot. NBC News, however, could not independently verify the claim that Ukrainian forces were responsible.

Russia's Defense Ministry reiterated its claim that Ukraine was to blame for the blast, which they said occurred at 5 a.m. local time. Two Ukrainian helicopters fired missiles at the storage facility on the outskirts of the city, and led tanks on the site to catch fire, officials said.

"The oil depot has nothing to do with the Russian armed forces," Igor Konashenkov, a Defense Ministry spokesman, said.

KYIV, Ukraine – The mayor of Kyiv said the bombardment of satellite towns near the Ukrainian capital was ongoing despite Russian promises of scaling back troops from the region.

Vitali Klitschko told British broadcaster Sky News on Friday he could hear the sounds of explosions “nonstop during the day and night.”

Klitschko said that the cities northwest of Kyiv such as Irpin, Borodyanka and Hostomel were being targeted after Ukrainian fighters moved back Russian troops, and that fighting also persisted in Brovary, east of Kyiv.

For those who may want to return to Kyiv in light of the supposed Russian withdrawal, he urged people to wait a “couple of weeks” to see how the situation develops.

Antigua and Barbuda is willing to help Britain seize yachts owned by sanctioned Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich, the Caribbean nation said on Friday, adding London must seek such assistance via an international treaty.

The vessels Halo and Garcon, currently moored in Antigua and Barbuda, were owned by Abramovich via a British Virgin Islands company that was on the Britain's sanctions list. The Financial Times first was first reported the story. 

Antigua alone would have no way to seize or detain the vessels because they have not been linked to any crimes committed there, said Ronald Sanders, the country's ambassador to the United States.

Doing so would require a formal request under the two countries' mutual legal assistance treaty, a common mechanism by which nations cooperate with one another to help enforce laws.

"We've said that we're quite happy to cooperate, but under the rule of law," Sanders said in a telephone interview.

Volunteers fill sandbags to protect buildings and monuments in the central Ukrainian city of Vinnytsia. 

The International Committee of the Red Cross said a convoy sent Friday to the besieged southern Ukrainian port city of Mariupol was unable to get passage to help civilians evacuate, while local officials accused Russia of failing to abide by a promise of a humanitarian corridor.

The Red Cross said it would attempt to send its three vehicles and nine personnel to Mariupol on Saturday, but for the operation to succeed, "it is critical that the parties respect the agreements and provide the necessary conditions and security guarantees."

Pavlo Kyrylenko, head of the Donetsk regional military administration, said on Ukrainian television that the city remained under a blockade that has not allowed movement.

"Humanitarian deliveries, despite all the agreements and promises of the Russian side, are not being carried out," Kyrylenko said. "The humanitarian corridor ... is essentially not operational."

Both Russia and Ukraine have blamed one another for the repeated failure of humanitarian corridors.

The Mariupol City Council said on Friday that it estimates that it will take a minimum of $10 billion to repair damage to the city's infrastructure.

"Every crime, every murder and destruction committed by the aggressor must be recorded and brought before an international court.  War criminals must be punished.  We are currently working closely with the government and the Donetsk Civil-Military Administration to obtain from Russia not only reparations for the complete reconstruction of our beloved Mariupol, but also large payments to all Mariupol residents for suffering and damage," Mariupol Mayor Vadym Boychenko said, according to the City Council. 

The port city has been under siege since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, with residents contending with food shortages and a lack of running water or electricity.

WASHINGTON ⁠— A U.S. test launch of a missile that can deliver nuclear warheads to Russia has been canceled to avoid “misinterpretation” by the Russians, say Pentagon officials.

The officials said the test launch of the Minuteman III was canceled because of concerns Vladimir Putin could view it as escalatory. Minuteman missiles have formed the core of the U.S. land-based nuclear capability for 60 years. The launch had already been postponed once in March, and then was expected to occur in April.

“The Department of the Air Force recently cancelled the routinely planned test flight of an LGM-30G Minuteman III missile,” Pentagon Deputy Press Secretary Todd Breasseale said in a statement to NBC News. “The launch had been previously delayed due to an overabundance of caution to avoid misinterpretation or miscommunication during the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine.”

On March 2, in announcing that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin had ordered the postponement, Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby said Austin wanted to show the U.S. was “a responsible nuclear power” with “no intention of engaging in any actions that can be misunderstood or misconstrued.”

The Air Force generally tests four Minuteman III rockets per year from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. The tests are planned months and even years in advance and canceling or postponing one because of concerns the launch could be provocative is very rare.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Friday that some progress had been made during another round of negotiations between Ukraine and Russia, but that "peace talks inevitably have to continue."

Lavrov, who spoke publicly at the end of a visit to India, said Ukraine and Russia came closer to an understanding on the impossibility of Ukraine joining NATO and the need for its nuclear neutrality. He added that there was an increased understanding between the status of Crimea, which Russia seized from Ukraine in 2014.

Lavrov's comments on the latest peace talks diverge from earlier remarks this week made by Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov, who said that Russia had welcomed Kyiv making demands for an end to the fighting but there was no breakthrough between the two sides.