Ukraine says lost access to Sea of Azov as Russia tightens grip on Mariupol

Ukraine's defence ministry acknowledged on Friday it had 'temporarily' lost access to the Azov Sea, a strategic link with the Black Sea

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy called on Saturday for comprehensive peace talks with Moscow to stop its invasion of Ukraine, saying it would otherwise take Russia "several generations" to recover from its losses in the war.

Since Russian President Vladimir Putin launched the assault on Feb. 24, Russian forces have taken heavy losses and their advance has largely stalled, with long columns of troops that bore down on Kyiv halted at its suburbs.

However they have laid siege to cities, blasting urban areas to rubble, and in recent days have intensified missile attacks on scattered targets in western Ukraine, away from the main battlefields