After the 44-day “Second Karabakh War” in 2020 in which Azerbaijan took back control over large swathes of territory in an around Karabakh held by Armenian forces for three decades, the leaders of the two countries began to make progress in moving towards a peace accord.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, addressing Western leaders at a rare “triple summit” in Brussels, said he needed more weaponry and more fighter aircraft

President Joe Biden, due to attend summits in Europe this week of NATO, the European Union and the G7, said the stiff resistance of Ukrainian offenders three weeks into the Kremlin’s invasion had put Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin’s "back against the wall”.

Officials in Mariupol, where residents have been subject to bombardments and without power, water and heat, said fighting had engulfed districts where Russian troops had broken through defences.

Western defence analysts suggested Russian troops were bogged down, particularly outside the capital, the invaders’ supply lines unable to provide troops with food and fuel. One U.S. estimate said the Russian death toll stood at 7,000 troops.

Veteran Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said some progress had been made, particularly in establishing Ukraine as a neutral country. But Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin said Moscow would not be deflected from the aims of its military campaign, while U.S. President Joe Biden described Putin as a war criminal.

The 160 carloads of residents able to make their way out of Mariupol were among some 4,000 evacuees escaping bombardments in cities besieged by the Russian military since Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin launched an invasion of Ukraine on 24th February.

Ukrainian officials said some 140,000 people had been evacuated from cities under threat from Russian attack, but no such operation has yet been launched in the besieged southern port of Mariupol owing to constant shelling. The death toll in the city was put at 2,100.

More than 12,000 residents were evacuated from several towns, but not from Mariupol, surrounded for more than a week, its residents deprived of heating, water and running dangerously low on food.

Biden pointedly drove home the fundamental U.S. retaliatory plan to Russia's invasion - Washington was prepared to do everything to defend NATO from attack, but would not risk triggering “World War Three” by engaging directly with Russia.