Ukraine's Ministry of Defense reported that Russian forces have strategically relocated to various reserves along Ukraine's borders.

Russia had regrouped in seven directions, according to the ministry's Facebook post, but the invaders have not been successful in its attempts to infiltrate Mariupol.

"Despite the rules of International Humanitarian Law, Russian occupiers continue to destroy stationary objects of military and civilian infrastructure in Ukraine," the Ministry of Defense said. "Yes, on March 13 there were missile strikes on objects in the settlements of Uman, Ivano-Frankivsk, Starychi using strategic aviation planes. In addition, the launches of the Iskander OTC from the territory of Belarus continue."

Several loud explosions were heard in central Kyiv, according to the Kyiv Independent.

The outlet believes the explosions were caused by the city's air defense systems as they shot down missiles targeting Kyiv.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine reported that Russian occupants shelled the Antonov aviation factory in Kyiv.

Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak says the latest round of talks with Russia is due to start imminently.

Podolyak said in a video message from Kyiv posted on Twitter that talks would begin within minutes.

Unlike earlier negotiations held on the Belarus border, Monday’s talks will be via video link.

It will be a “hard discussion,” Podolyak wrote on Twitter. “Although Russia realizes the nonsense of its aggressive actions, it still has a delusion that 19 days of violence against (Ukrainian) peaceful cities is the right strategy.”

The Ukrainian National University Chernihiv Politehnica was destroyed by Russian airstrikes during the night of March 12, according to the Kyiv Post.

The university's Chairman of the Chernihiv Regional State Administration Vyacheslav Chaus took a video the morning after the attack.

“I’m recording a video near the Chernihiv Polytechnic – another 'military' object, destroyed today, destroyed at night by the enemy," Chaus said, as translated by Mail BD. "It’s hard for me to look at it. Because, firstly, I graduated from this university in 1999. Secondly, I am the chairman of the supervisory board this institution. But they will be held accountable for this crime, 100%."

Chernihiv has been the sight of several Russian attacks.

Mila Kunis opened up about how she feels about the ongoing war between her home country of Ukraine and Russia in an interview with Maria Shriver for her digital series, #ConversationsAboveTheNoise.

“It’s been irrelevant to me that I come from Ukraine. It never mattered,” she said. 

“So much so that I’ve always said I’m Russian. I’ve always been, ‘I’m from Russia’ for a multitude of reasons. One of them being, when I came to the States, and I would tell people I’m from Ukraine, the first question I’d get was ‘Where is Ukraine?’ And then I’d have to explain Ukraine and where it is on the map.”

Kunis added that “everything changed” when Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24. 

With Post wires

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Russia forces targeted suburbs northwest of Kyiv and points east of the capital, regional administration chief Oleksiy Kuleba said on Ukrainian television.

Kuleba said a town councilor for Brovary east of Kyiv was killed in fighting there. He also reported strikes overnight on the northwest towns of Irpin, Bucha and Hostomel.

The Kyiv Independent reported that Russia launched an airstrike on the city of Snihurivka in Mykolaiv Oblast, killing at least one person. The outlet also reported shelling attacks in Zhytomyr Oblast, leaving four injured, and on a TV tower in Rivne, stopping the TV signal.

The general staff of Ukraine’s armed forces said Monday morning that Russian troops have not made major advances over the past 24 hours despite expanding strikes to the west.

Ukrainian forces are targeting Russian bases, targeting their logistical abilities, the general staff said in a statement on Facebook marking the 19th day of the war.

With Post wires

A pregnant woman and her baby have died after Russia bombed the maternity hospital where she was meant to give birth.

In video and photos shot Wednesday by AP journalists after the attack on the hospital, the woman was seen stroking her bloodied lower abdomen as rescuers rushed her through the rubble in the besieged city of Mariupol, her blanched face mirroring her shock at what had just happened.

The woman was rushed to another hospital, yet closer to the frontline, where doctors labored to keep her alive. Realizing she was losing her baby, medics said, she cried out to them, “Kill me now!”

Surgeon Timur Marin found the woman’s pelvis crushed and hip detached. Medics delivered the baby via cesarean section, but it showed “no signs of life,” the surgeon said.

Then, they focused on the mother.

“More than 30 minutes of resuscitation of the mother didn’t produce results,” Marin said Saturday.

“Both died.”

In the chaos after Wednesday’s airstrike, medics didn’t have time to get the woman’s name before her husband and father came to take away her body. At least someone came to retrieve her, they said — so she didn’t end up in the mass graves being dug for many of Mariupol’s growing number of dead.

Accused of war crimes, Russian officials claimed the maternity hospital had been taken over by Ukrainian extremists to use as a base, and that no patients or medics were left inside. Russia’s ambassador to the U.N. and the Russian Embassy in London called the images “fake news.”

With Post wires

Russian and Ukrainian diplomats were set to resume talks Monday – a day after Moscow focused its attack on a key military base near the Polish border.

The expected talks between the two countries, reported by Russian state news agency Tass, come as the invasion in Ukraine entered its 18th day.

Ukraine hopes the planned negotiations will pave the way for more civilians to evacuate the war-torn country.

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A residential apartment block in Kyiv was on fire after an apparent shelling by Russian forces early Monday, Ukraine officials and media said.

A nine-story building in the Obolon neighborhood is seen on fire in images from Ukraine’s State Emergency Service and posted by The Kyiv Independent.

Images posted by the service show smoke and flames pouring out from windows as firefighters and emergency workers try to extinguish the flames and rescue residents.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said he will continue negotiating with Russia and is waiting for a meeting with Vladimir Putin.

Zelensky has repeatedly called for a meeting with Putin. But so far, his requests have gone unanswered by the Kremlin. Zelensky said Sunday during his nightly address to the nation that his delegation has a “clear task” to do everything to ensure a meeting between the two presidents.

Zelensky said talks are held daily between the two countries via video conference. He said the talks are necessary to establish a cease-fire and more humanitarian corridors. He said those corridors have saved more than 130,000 people in six days.

The humanitarian convoy to the besieged city of Mariupol was blocked Sunday by Russian forces. Zelensky said they would try again Monday.

With Post wires

The Air Force Command of the Ukrainian Armed Forces announced that it had downed four Russian airplanes, three helicopters and an unmanned aircraft during the day on Sunday using anti-aircraft missiles.

The announcement comes as Russia pounded a military base in Western Ukraine just across the Polish border, killing 35 people.

Russia has asked China for military equipment since its Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine, the Financial Times and Washington Post reported on Sunday, citing U.S. officials.

U.S. National Security advisor Jake Sullivan will be in Rome on Monday to meet with China's top diplomat Yang Jiechi, the White House said earlier.

Russia, which calls its action in Ukraine a "special operation," and China have tightened cooperation as they have come under strong Western pressure over human rights and a raft of other issues.

Beijing has not condemned Russia's attack and does not call it an invasion, but has urged a negotiated solution.

The White House's National Security Council declined to comment.

The Washington Post said the unidentified U.S. officials did not state the kind of weaponry that had been requested or how China had responded.

With Post wires