The troops will train in long-distance movements of military units, among other tasks, the district command said.

Rafael Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said he had received reports that the soldiers were close to the Zaporizhzhia station in eastern Ukraine.

Ukraine has said its goal for the talks is an immediate ceasefire and the withdrawal of Russian forces from Ukraine. Russia has been cagier, with the Kremlin declining to comment on Moscow's aim in negotiations.

In October 1962, at the heart of the Cold War, a 13-day showdown between Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev and US president John F. Kennedy leads to fears of nuclear war.

The conflict has already killed dozens of civilians, forced hundreds of thousands to flee and turned Moscow into a global pariah.

"This is terror. They are going to bomb our Ukrainian cities even more, they are going to kill our children even more subtly. This is the evil that has come to our land and must be destroyed," Zelenskiy said on a short video message.

"We call on all relevant parties to exercise maximum restraint and make utmost efforts to pursue dialogues through all channels, including diplomatic means to contain the situation," the ministers said in a statement dated Saturday.

"Warsaw, Bratislava, Budapest, Istanbul, Baku. We proposed all of them," Zelensky said in an address posted online. 

"The Russian enemy's light vehicles have broken into Kharkiv, including the city centre," Sinegubov said. "Ukraine's armed forces are destroying the enemy. We ask civilians not to go out."

"Starlink service is now active in Ukraine," Musk tweeted, adding "more terminals en route."

The measures, which will include restrictions on the Russian central bank's international reserves, will be implemented in the coming days, the nations said in a joint statement that also vowed further action to come.

"I can tell you one thing this morning it is that this war will last," Macron's told France's annual agriculture fair. 

In a memorandum to Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Biden directed that $350 million allocated through the Foreign Assistance Act be designated for Ukraine's defense.

"We're all here. Our military is here. Citizens in society are here. We're all here defending our independence, our country, and it will stay this way," Zelensky said, standing outside the presidency building.

The cargo ship Namura Queen's registered owner is a company based in the western Japanese prefecture of Ehime, according to a website providing information on vessels. There is no information yet regarding casualties.

Russian leader Vladimir Putin unleashed a full-scale invasion on Thursday that has killed dozens of people, forced more than 50,000 to flee Ukraine in just 48 hours and sparked fears of a new Cold War in Europe.

European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said the sanctions "will have maximum impact on the Russian economy and the political elite".

Ukrainians picked up weapons when boxes of them were dumped from trucks and handed out to Ukraine's new volunteer defense units on day two of Russia's invasion.

Germany could send an infantry company with around 150 soldiers and more than a dozen Boxer wheeled armoured vehicles in a timely manner, according to a package that the military has put together for Defence Minister Christine Lambrecht, the media outlet said.

Macron said after a summit of EU leaders that "while condemning, while sanctioning" it remained useful "to leave this path open so that the day when the conditions can be fulfilled, we can obtain a cessation of hostilities".

Speaking to reporters, Morrison said Australia is working with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization to provide "nonlethal military equipment and medical supplies to support the people of Ukraine."

In a speech from the White House, Biden said four more banks -- including the two biggest, Sberbank & VTB -- would be hit with sanctions by Western sanctions. In addition, export controls slapped on sensitive components will "cut off more than half of Russia's high-tech imports."

In a day of intense fighting, Russian missiles and shelling rained down on Ukrainian cities, forcing civilians to seek shelter on metro systems, with others displaced by deadly airstrikes.

The soldiers, which would take part in NATO's operations in Estonia, would be deployed in the first half of March, the country's chief of defence told journalists at a press briefing.

Zelensky said Thursday Kyiv's forces were fighting invading Russian troops for control of the Chernobyl plant, the site of the world's worst nuclear disaster.

"I told him to leave," the man in his 30s sobbed, next to the twisted ruins of a car.

"As a result of strikes carried out by the Russian armed forces, 74 Ukrainian military ground facilities were destroyed," said Igor Konashenkov, a defence ministry spokesman.

“Stop the war. War brings misery to mankind and puts the world at risk,” President Jokowi tweeted on Thursday.

Putin announced the launch of a major military offensive and ground troops crossed into the country from several directions on Thursday, with explosions heard in Ukraine's capital, Kyiv.

Russian President Vladimir Putin authorised a military operation in eastern Ukraine in what appeared to be the start of war in Europe.