Russia-Ukraine war: Kyiv-Moscow talks, Zelensky's bid to join EU. 10 key points

Russia-Ukraine war: The fifth day witnessed ferocious fighting in Ukrainian cities of Kharkiv and Chernihiv, even as the United Nations reiterated call for immediate ceasefire at the 11th special emergency session

Fierce fighting between the Russian and Ukraine forces continued on the fifth day. This comes amid the first round of negotiations between the two warring countries in Belarus. Claims and counter-claims flew thick and fast as civilians continued to bear the brunt of the conflict that seems to show no signs of defusing.

The Ukrainian government on Monday claimed to have killed over 3,500 Russian troops since February 24 when Vladimir Putin announced a full-scale invasion on the eastern European country.

Here we break down ten big developments that transpired through the day

1. Fighting continued for the fifth straight day in Ukraine with northern cities of Kharkiv and Chernihiv coming under heavy missile fire from the Russian forces. The local Ukrainian government claimed 11 civilians were killed and dozens wounded, an allegation rejected by Kremlin.

This photograph shows a view of a school destroyed as a result of fight not far from the center of Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, located some 50 km from Ukrainian-Russian border on Monday (AFP)

2. Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has officially applied for the membership of European Union, hours after he had made an appeal to the European power bloc to be included. However, a senior EU official said that there were disagreements among the 27 member states on expanding the union.

3. Russian and Ukrainian delegation held talks in the border town of Gomel amid uninterrupted fighting between the two countries. According to news agency AFP, both the countries are planning second round of negotiations.

4. United Nations secretary general António Guterres called for immediate ceasefire by all the parties involved in the conflict. “Escalating violence is resulting in civilians' death. Enough is enough. Soldiers need to move back to barracks. Civilians must be protected,” Guterres said.

5. The West continues its crackdown on Putin's Russia over his invasion on Ukraine. On Monday, the Biden administration barred the Americans from conducting any transaction involving the Central Bank of the Russian Federation, National Wealth Fund of the Russian Federation or the Finance Ministry of Russian Federation

6. Russian president Vladimir Putin continues to flex his muscles despite sanctions imposed by several countries. Russia put its nuclear deterrent force on high combat duty, while reiterating that it had no intentions of occupying Ukraine.

7. Kremlin has banned aircraft from 36 countries from its airspace, which include all the 27 European Union member states. This move is a retaliation from Putin against the West.

8. The International Olympic Committe has called for sports organisations across the world to exclude Russian and Belarusian athletes and officials from all international sporting events. In a statement, the top body accused Kremlin of breaking the olympic truce by invading Ukraine and Belarus for backing Russia.

9. India continues to lead evacuation mission to bring back its citizens from the war-hit country. The government is sending four union ministers to expedite the evacuation mission titled Operation Ganga.

10. India will be despatching the first batch of humanitarian aid and medicines to war-hit Ukraine tomorrow. The decision was taken after a series of high-level meetings chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi with external affairs minister S Jaishankar and top officials.