(Reuters) - Prime ministers of the Czech Republic, Poland and Slovenia boarded a train to Kyiv for the first visit of its kind since the Russian invasion, in a show of European support for Ukraine in its fight to fend off Moscow's assault.
The three government chiefs are expected to deliver pledges of assistance as Ukrainian and Russian negotiators resumed their peace talks.
DIPLOMACY
* President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Ukraine understands it does not have an open door to NATO membership and therefore was looking for security guarantees outside of the alliance.
* Kyiv and Moscow resumed talks via a video link, which Ukrainian negotiator said focused on ceasefires and troop withdrawals.
CIVILIAN TOLL
* The confirmed civilian toll in Ukraine is 691 people killed and 1,143 injured, The United Nations human rights office said while repeating the true figures were likely "considerably higher."
* Kyiv will impose a 35-hour curfew after intense shelling, which killed at least four people.
* The death toll from Monday's air strike on a TV tower in northern Ukraine reached at least 19, regional governor said.
FIGHTING
* Russia said its forces had taken full control of the southern region of Kherson. Reuters could not independently verify the report.
* Ukraine reported more air strikes on an airport in the west, heavy shelling on Chernihiv northeast of Kyiv and attacks on the southern town of Mykolayiv. Ukraine said its forces counter-attacked in Mykolayiv and the eastern Kharkiv region.
FLEEING THE CONFLICT
* Ukraine planned another attempt to deliver supplies to besieged port of Mariupol as the first group of civilians allowed out of the city reached safety.
* About 3 million people have fled Ukraine, nearly half of them children, according to the U.N. refugee agency. About 1.8 million are now in Poland and some 300,000 in Western Europe.
ECONOMY AND SANCTIONS* The European Union hit Moscow with more sanctions, banning Russian steel and iron imports, exports of luxury goods, investment in the Russian energy sector, and credit ratings of Russian issuers. * Britain will ban luxury goods exports to Russia and hit $1.2 billion worth of Russian imports with a 35% tariff, while blacklisting additional hundreds of individuals and entities for their links to Kremlin.
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QUOTES
"It is our duty to be where history is forged," Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said of the three leaders' trip to Kyiv.
(Compiled by Tomasz Janowski; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky)
