A man walks with his dog near an apartment building damaged by shelling from fighting on the outskirts of Mariupol
(Picture: AP)Vladimir Putin has demanded the immediate surrender of Mariupol or Russian shelling will continue.
The Russian leader made the demand during a call with French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday night.
French officials claimed Putin had agreed to consider plans to evacuate citizens out of the city which the Elysee said had become a “catastrophic” situation.
A statement from the French government read: “Civilian populations must be protected and must leave the city if they wish to.
“They must have access to food aid, water and the medicines they need. This very degraded humanitarian situation is linked to the siege of the city by the Russian armed forces.”
In a separate statement, the Russian government said Putin had insisted Ukrainian “nationalists militants” must surrender.
Mariupol has suffered some of the worst shelling since the war began last month.
Vadym Boychenko, mayor of the city, has claimed up to 5,000 have been killed - including 210 children.
Images have also shown large parts of the city left in ruins due to the heavy artillery bombardment.
Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk has estimated thousands of people have been forcibly relocated from Mariupol and taken to a camp east of the city.
As many as 1,179 civilians have been killed as of March 29, according to the United Nations.
More than four million people have fled the country, the UN said.
These figures come as peace talks were held between Russian and Ukrainian officials, although Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said there had been no breakthrough on Wednesday morning.
He said: “What is positive is that the Ukrainian side has at least started to specifically formulating and putting on paper what it is proposing. Until now we had not managed to achieve that.
"As regards the rest, we cannot, put it this way, at present state there have been any breakthroughs, anything very promising.”
