Russia’s large military contingent sent a barrage of missiles into residential areas of Ukraine’s second city while a huge convoy of vehicles made its way towards Kyiv.

The shelling killed dozens of people in Kharkiv, Ukrainian officials said, while delegations from the two sides held an initial round of talks on the border with Belarus, Russia’s long-standing ally.

The talks, during which Ukraine sought a ceasefire, produced little more than an agreement to hold further discussions.

Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, took advantage of world-wide attention on his country to ask the European Union for immediate admission.

Russians began to feel the pinch of stiff sanctions imposed by Western countries. The rouble plunged more than 25 percent and the stock market remained closed for an entire day.

Shell pulled out of all its joint ventures with Russian gas giant Gazprom, following  BP’s example two days earlier.

“We are shocked by the loss of life in Ukraine, which we deplore, resulting from a senseless act of military aggression which threatens European security,” Shell CEO Ben van Beurden said in a statement.

In New York, both the U N. General Assembly and Security Council devoted sessions to the Ukraine crisis, with dozens of countries queuing up to tell Kremlin leader Vladimir  Putin to pull Russian troops out of the country.

Focus on Ukraine’s second city

But it was Kharkiv, a city of elite industries, that was the focus of military activity, Russian forces repeatedly lobbed rockets into the city even as the talks proceeded. Plumes of smoke billowed over various districts.

“Kharkiv has been subjected to massive grad shelling,” Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to Ukraine’s interior minister said in a text, referring to Russian short-range rockets. Officials said at least 11 people had been killed.

Many of the attacks were on residential areas of the city.

Russian forces had briefly moved into Kharkiv at the weekend, but were repelled by Ukrainian troops.

Russian forces – advancing into the country from three directions – also pounded the northern city of Chernihiv, advanced on the key southern port and steel making port of Mariupol and captured a second port, Berdyansk.

Later in the day, satellite images showed a column of Russian vehicles many km long making their way towards Kyiv. Explosions resounded as residents scurried to buy food and supplies as a two-day round-the-clock curfew was lifted.

Putin proceeded with the invasion last week – eight years after Russia annexed the Crimean peninsula and fomented a rebellion by proxies in eastern Ukraine which had liked 14,000.

Putin says the incursion was the only way to ensure Russian security after he said the West ignored Moscow’s calls for “security guarantees” including a pledge that Ukraine would never join NATO.

The Russian military announced on Monday that it had provided an “open and safe” corridor for people to leave the city.

The U.N. said more than half a million people had crossed international borders – mostly to Poland, Hungary and Moldova – to escape the violence.

At the talks on the border, Ukraine demanded an immediate cease-fire and withdrawal of Russian troops. Ukrainian presidential adviser Mikhailo Podolyak told reporters the two sides “discussed holding another round of negotiations where these decisions can develop”.

Russian negotiator Vladimir Medinsky called for agreements as soon as possible that “should be for the benefit of both sides”.

Zelensky had said prior to the talks that he had little hope of a breakthrough.

He expressed outrage at the attacks on Kharkiv, saying they were timed to coincide with the negotiations.

“We do not accept such tactics,” Zelensky said. “Fair negotiations are when one side does not hit the other with rocket artillery at the very moment of negotiations.”

France’s Macron tells Putin to pull out

French President Emmanuel  Macron, who led a dogged attempt to secure a diplomatic solution in the days before the invasion called Putin on Monday to demand a cease-fire and urged the Kremlin leader to stop attacks on civilians.

But France’s ambassador to the United States was far from certain the call would have any effect.

Zelensky, in a speech aimed at rallying Ukrainians to keep up their resistance to the Russian advance, urged the EU to admit Ukraine now as a member.

“We appeal to the European for Ukraine’s immediate accession under a new special procedure, “ he said. “Our goal is to stand alongside all Europeans and, most importantly, to stand on their level .“

But procedures for EU membership are notoriously long and complicated in order to meet EU standards and officials were sceptical.

The EU Executive Commission President Ursula Bon der Leyen said on Sunday that Ukraine “belonged” in the EU and hoped to see it there one day.

At the U.N. General Assembly, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said: “The guns are doing the talking now, but the path must always remain open. We need peace now.”

The Assembly debate was due to last several days. In the Security Council, where permanent member Russia vetoed a resolution last week, the debate focused on humanitarian issues.