Moscow, Apr 6 (AP) Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov says negotiations with Ukraine are continuing despite allegations of war crimes against civilians in the Kyiv suburb of Bucha.

Peskov said Wednesday the talks continued with Ukraine but that the Bucha revelations - which he referred to as a “staging” - had hampered talks and there was “a fairly long road ahead”.

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“The working process continues but it is going much more tough than we would like. Of course we would like to see more dynamism from the Ukrainian side, but the process has not been broken off and is continuing,” Peskov said.

Russia retreated from areas around Kyiv and the northern cities of Chernihiv and Sumy after talks with Ukraine in Turkey last week. Ukrainian troops entering the areas found evidence of widespread killings of civilians. Russia denies any war crimes and has alleged Ukraine has faked the incidents.

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Since the talks in Turkey, Russia and Ukraine's delegations have continued talks via video link.

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Geneva: The International Committee of the Red Cross says one of its teams in Ukraine has led some 500 people who fled Mariupol on their own initiative in a humanitarian convoy of buses and private cars to a safer location in the embattled country.

The ICRC says its team that has been trying to enter Mariupol since last Friday got within 20 km (12 miles) of the besieged city, but security conditions made it impossible to enter. The convoy escorted the civilians from coastal Berdyansk to Zaporizhzhia, to the north.

“This convoy's arrival to Zaporizhzhia is a huge relief for hundreds of people who have suffered immensely and are now in a safer location,” said Pascal Hundt, ICRC's head of delegation in Ukraine. “It's clear, though, that thousands more civilians trapped inside Mariupol need safe passage out and aid to come in.”

He said the Geneva-based organisation remains available as “a neutral intermediary” to help escort civilians out of Mariupol “once concrete agreements and security conditions allow it.”

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Berlin: The aid group Doctors without Borders says its staff have witnessed an attack on a hospital in the Ukrainian city of Mykolaiv.

The group, known by its French acronym MSF, said Wednesday that a four-member team had just entered the city's cancer hospital when the area came under fire.

It quoted team leader Michel-Olivier Lacharite saying Monday's attack lasted about 10 minutes. Upon leaving the hospital the team saw several injured people and dead bodies.

Lacharite was quoted as saying the bombardment of the hospital, located in a residential area, was likely to have caused civilian casualties and called on medical facilities not to be targeted.

The group didn't provide information on which side in the war might have carried out the attack. Under international law, attacks on medical facilities and workers are deemed war crimes.

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Rome: Italian firefighters have put out a fire at a villa on Lake Como reportedly owned by the pro-Putin Russian television personality Vladimir Soloyvev, who has been hit with European Union sanctions.

An official at the Como fire station confirmed that firefighters extinguished the early morning blaze Wednesday at the villa in Menaggio, one of the picturesque towns that dot the lake in northern Italy.

He said police were investigating the fire as a suspected act of protest. The villa was under renovation and the blaze involved tires at the site, said the official who declined to be identified by name, citing official policy.

Italian daily Corriere della Sera and news agency LaPresse said the villa was owned by Solovyev, a presenter on state run Channel One.

According to the EU list of sanctions, Solovyev is “known for his extremely hostile attitude towards Ukraine and praise of the Russian government.” The EU says he was targeted because of his support for “actions or policies which undermine the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine.”

Italian carabinieri are investigating.

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London: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has accused Russia of using hunger as a weapon of war by deliberately targeting Ukraine's essential food supplies.

In an address to Irish lawmakers Wednesday, Zelenskyy said Russian forces “are destroying things that are sustaining livelihoods” including food storage depots, blocking ports so Ukraine could not export food and “putting mines into the fields.”

“For them hunger is also a weapon, a weapon against us ordinary people,” he said, accusing Russia of “deliberately provoking a food crisis” in Ukraine, a major global producer of staples including wheat and sunflower oil.

He said it would have international ramifications, because “there will be a shortage of food and the prices will go up, and this is reality for the millions of people who are hungry, and it will be more difficult for them to feed their families”.

Zelenskyy spoke by video to a joint session of Ireland's two houses of parliament, the latest in a string of international addresses he has used to rally support for Ukraine. (AP)

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)