Russia-Ukraine talks to continue despite deadly strikes

Russia and Ukraine conducted fresh talks on Monday in an effort to end Moscow's devastating war, despite deadly strikes on a Ukrainian television tower, the capital and a pro-Moscow separatist region.

On the 19th day of the invasion, the fourth round of talks made no breakthrough other than a planned resumption Tuesday, as Russian-backed separatists said fragments from a shot-down Ukrainian Tochka-U missile ripped the centre of Donetsk, killing 23 people.

Moscow called it a "war crime" and rebels published photos of bloody corpses strewn in the street, even as the Ukrainian army denied having fired a missile at Donetsk.

The United Nations estimates almost 2.8 million people have fled Ukraine since Russian President Vladimir Putin launched the full-scale land and air assault on February 24, most of them to Poland, struggling to provide for the arrivals.

Outside the western Ukrainian city of Rivne, nine people died and another nine were injured on Monday when Russian forces hit a television tower, local authorities said.

Rescuers were working to free survivors trapped under the rubble in the village of Antopil, the head of the regional administration, Vitaliy Koval, said on...