Russian forces attempted to raid a steel mill in the southern Ukrainian city of Mariupol, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated that he would meet with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin in his country's capital.

Zelenskyy revealed few details about the practicalities of his forthcoming encounter with Blinken and Austin during a news conference on Sunday (local time) but stated that he expected results – "not just presents or some kind of cake, we are expecting specific things and specific weapons."

It would be the first visit by a senior US official to Kyiv since the conflict erupted on February 24.

Blinken briefly entered Ukrainian territory in March while in Poland to meet with the country's foreign minister.

Zelenskyy last met a US leader face to face on February 19, in Munich, with Vice President Kamala Harris.

Russia's assault on Mariupol is intended to eradicate the city's last pockets of resistance, a location with significant symbolic and strategic significance for Moscow.

Capturing Moscow would be Russia's greatest triumph, following a nearly two-month siege that turned much of the city to a burning ruin.

The Russian military also pounded cities and towns in southern and eastern Ukraine on the eve of Orthodox Easter.

According to officials, a three-month-old newborn girl was among the eight individuals killed when Russia fired cruise missiles toward the Black Sea port city of Odesa.

According to Zelenskyy, an additional 18 people were wounded. According to UNIAN, the baby's mother, Valeria Glodan, and grandmother were also murdered, citing social media posts by the baby's father and others.

"The battle began when this infant was just one month old. "Can you fathom what is occurring?" According to Zelenskyy. "They are merely buffoons. I'm at a loss for words; all I have is bastards."

On Saturday, the Ukrainian military announced the destruction of a Russian command center in Kherson, a southern city captured by Russian forces early in the battle.

According to a statement from Ukraine's military intelligence service, the command post was struck on Friday, killing two generals and badly injuring another.

The Russian military made no reaction to the unconfirmed claim.

The fate of the Ukrainians trapped in the massive and besieged beachfront steel plant in Mariupol, where Russia claims its forces have gained control of the rest of the city, was unclear immediately.

A Ukrainian military unit published a video allegedly taken two days earlier on Saturday. Women and children who had been shut up underground for as long as two months expressed their desire to see the sun.

"We want to see clear skies and breathe clean air," one woman says in the video. "You simply have no concept how much it means to us to eat and sip some sweetened tea. For us, it is already a state of bliss."

Russia claimed control of numerous settlements in eastern Donbas and destroyed 11 Ukrainian military objectives overnight, including three artillery stores. Russian airstrikes also targeted densely inhabited areas.

Journalists with The Associated Press witnessed bombardment in residential parts of Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city; regional Governor Oleh Sinehubov confirmed three deaths. Governor Serhiy Haidai of the Luhansk region in the Donbas reported six people were killed when a village, Gorskoi, was shelled.

The AP spotted two soldiers arriving at a hospital in Sloviansk, a town in northern Donbas. One of the men was mortally wounded.

"I want peace," Anna Direnskaya, 70, said as she sat in a wheelchair outside her destroyed Sloviansk residence.

Direnskaya, one of many native Russian speakers in eastern Ukraine, expressed her want for Russians to learn that Ukrainians are not evil people and that there should be no animosity between them.

"How did this happen?" she inquired. "I'm not sure."

Although British officials stated that Russian forces had not gained any additional land, Ukrainian authorities announced a nationwide curfew ahead of Easter Sunday, signifying the war's disruption and threat to the entire country.

Mariupol has been a critical Russian objective and has grown significantly during the war.

It would deprive Ukraine of a critical port, free Russian soldiers to fight elsewhere, and create a land corridor to the Crimean Peninsula, which Moscow annexed in 2014.

Separatists backed by Russia control portions of the Donbas.

According to Oleksiy Arestovych, an adviser to Ukraine's presidential office, Russian soldiers resumed airstrikes on the Azovstal plant and reportedly attempted to storm it, an apparent shift of tactics.

Two days before, Russian President Vladimir Putin had directed that no troops be sent in but that the plant be blocked.

Ukrainian officials estimate that approximately 2000 of their troops and civilians have sought safety in the tunnels.

The Azov Regiment of Ukraine's National Guard posted a video of over two dozen women and children holed up at the facility.

Its contents cannot be independently verified, but if true, it would be the first video evidence of life for civilians imprisoned beneath.

Soldiers hand out candy to children, who reply with fist bumps. According to a tiny child, she and her relatives have seen "neither sky nor sun" since they left home on February 27.

The video was filmed Thursday, according to the regiment's deputy commander, Sviatoslav Palamar.

The Azov Regiment evolved from the Azov Battalion, founded in 2014 at the commencement of the separatist conflict in eastern Ukraine, and has come under fire for some of its methods.

Over 100,000 people – down from a prewar population of approximately 430,000 – are expected to remain in Mariupol, where scarce food, water, and heat. According to Ukrainian authorities, around 20,000 civilians have been killed in the city.

Saturday's attempt to evacuate women, children, and senior citizens from Mariupol failed.

According to Petro Andryushchenko, an adviser to Mariupol's mayor, Russian forces prevented locals from traveling to Zaporizhzhia, a city 227 kilometers to the northwest.

"At 11 a.m., at least 200 residents of Mariupol gathered near the Port City shopping center to await evacuation," Andryushchenko wrote on the Telegram messaging app.

"The Russian military drove up to the residents of Mariupol and ordered them to disperse, as shelling will now occur."

Simultaneously, he stated, Russian buses gathered approximately 200 meters distant. Residents who boarded boats were informed that they would be transported to separatist-occupied territory and would not be permitted to exit, Andryushchenko added. His account could not be verified independently.

According to Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to Ukraine's interior minister, Russian troops fired at least six missiles during the strike on Odesa.

"City residents reported hearing explosions in various locations," Gerashchenko stated through Telegram. "Residential structures were struck. One victim is already known. He set fire to his car in one of the buildings' courtyard."

Zelenskyy held his news conference in a Kyiv subway station, where he paused briefly when a train passed by noisily.

The underground system, which features the world's deepest station, garnered international notice early in the war as crowds of people sought refuge there.

Regarding the US officials' scheduled arrival on Sunday, Zelenskyy stated: "I believe that we will be able to obtain agreements from the US or at least a portion of the package on arming Ukraine that we agreed on previously." Additionally, we have strategic concerns about security assurances that it is time to examine in-depth, as the United States will be one of our state's leaders in terms of security."