Rescuers are continuing to search for hundreds of civilians feared trapped under the wreckage of a bombed theatre in the Ukraine city of Mariupol.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said 130 people had been brought out of the Mariupol Drama Theatre, where civilians were sheltering in the besieged city.
However, it is believed there are still hundreds yet to be rescued from under the rubble after repeated air strikes from Russian forces.
On March 14, the words "дети" — or "children" in Russian — were photographed by satellites after being displayed on the ground on either side of the three-storey building.
Human Rights Watch says the civilians had spelled out the giant words in tape, hoping the laws of war would be respected.
The theatre was destroyed in an attack on Wednesday.
Russia has denied it was its military that destroyed the theatre.
In an online address, Mr Zelenskyy said shelling by Russian forces continued to prevent the authorities from establishing effective humanitarian corridors to the encircled port city in southern Ukraine.
"There are still hundreds of Mariupol residents under the rubble. Despite the shelling, despite all the difficulties, we will continue the rescue work," he said.
The Ukrainian authorities have not confirmed the number of possible casualties.
Earlier, human rights ombudswoman Lyudmyla Denisova said there was no information on more than 1,000 other people official figures suggest were sheltering there when the bomb fell.
"According to our data there are still more than 1,300 people there who are in these basements, in that bomb shelter," she said, referring to underground shelters below the theatre.
Meanwhile, Oleksiy Arestovych, the advisor to the head of the Ukrainian Presidential Office, said Mariupol was good as lost to the Russians since the Ukrainian military was incapable of winning it back under the current circumstances.
In a video posted on his Facebook page, Mr Arestovych explained that there was no substantial Ukrainian military presence around the Sea of Azov coastal city and that the nearest subdivisions faced overwhelming odds of ever getting anywhere near it.
"There is currently no military solution to Mariupol," he said.
The strategic city of some 200,000 people has become the scene of a humanitarian crisis as Russian and breakaway Donetsk forces have besieged and subjected it to daily bombings.
AFP with wires/ABC
