Ukrainian port city evacuation bid again fails as civilian toll grows

A civilian disaster is growing in Ukraine as attempts to evacuate residents of besieged port city Mariupol failed for a second day, with President Volodymyr Zelensky denouncing "murder" as he warned of more shelling to come Monday. New shelling and attacks have sent soaring numbers of refugees fleeing, sometimes under fire, as the death toll mounts.

"It's murder, deliberate murder," Zelensky raged in an address. "We will not forgive, we will not forget, we will punish everyone who committed atrocities in this war on our land," he said.

"There will be no quiet place on this Earth except the grave."  He said Russia has announced new shelling Monday of defence targets in Ukrainian cities and denounced what he branded the "silence" of Western governments failing to speak out.

Russia's invasion of Ukraine, now in its twelfth day, has seen more than 1.5 million people flee the country in what the UN has called Europe's fastest growing refugee crisis since World War II.

Pope Francis on Sunday deplored the "rivers of blood and tears" flowing in Ukraine, as Washington cited "very credible reports" that Russia had committed war crimes by deliberately attacking civilians. Hundreds of civilians have been killed and thousands wounded, with hundreds of thousands of people -- mostly women and children -- pouring into neighbouring countries such as Poland, Romania or Moldova for refuge. Efforts to get people out of Mariupol -- the scene of some of the war's greatest ferocity -- collapsed for a second day running Sunday with both sides accusing each other of breaching a ceasefire agreement.

Very few refugees from the strategic city on the Azov Sea made it out on Saturday, but one family, who did not give their names, arrived in the central city of Dnipro and recounted their harrowing experience.