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Retreating militants from Ukrainian far-right nationalist battalions staged a provocation at the Avdiivka Coke and Chemical Plant on Sunday, causing a fire and toxic smoke that is spreading to civilian areas, a source in the Russian Defense Ministry told Sputnik.

"On March 13, the retreating militants of the nationalist battalions carried out sabotage at the Avdiivka coke plant in the Donetsk region," the source said.

This provocation resulted in a fire at the chemical facility and toxic smoke is now spreading to adjacent settlements, the source added.

"Due to the ongoing hostilities, it is impossible to extinguish the fire," the source told Sputnik.

French President Emmanuel Macron has held separate phone talks with US President Joe Biden and Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky, with Biden and Macron agreeing to strengthen anti-Russia sanctions, the Elysee Palace informs.

The talks were held on Sunday evening, "with a view to reaching a ceasefire and the opening of negotiations to end the war in Ukraine," the Elysee Palace said in a Sunday statement.

Macron expressed his condolences to Biden over the death of US journalist Brent Renaud while he was covering the conflict in Ukraine.

According to the Elysee Palace, Macron and Biden "agreed to strengthen the sanctions already taken against Russia, to support Ukraine and to jointly take all useful initiatives to stop the fighting."

The two leaders agreed to maintain close contact on these issues. Macron also agreed, during separate phone talks with Zelenskyy, to continue coordinating with Kiev.

"He expressed his full support and detailed the additional aid that the European Union decided to provide him at the Versailles Summit. The two heads of state discussed the continuation of negotiations between Russia and Ukraine. They will continue to coordinate in the coming days," the Elysee Palace said.

Volodymyr Zelensky says that the aim of the Ukrainian delegation at talks with Russia is to get certain guarantees that would work, and to try to arrange a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"Our goal is that in this struggle, in this complex negotiation work, Ukraine gets the needed result, which is necessary for us. For peace, for security. So that we have guarantees, normal and effective. Not like in Budapest, not like in our skies. And such that the Ukrainians could say - this works, these are guarantees indeed," Zelensky said in a video address.

He added that talks with Russia are necessary and have already contributed to the creation of multiple humanitarian corridors in Ukraine.

"Representatives of our delegations, the delegations of our countries, talk in video format every day. Our delegation has a clear task - to do everything so that a meeting of the presidents takes place, a meeting that, I am sure, people are waiting for," Zelensky said.

Talks between Ukraine and Russia will begin at 10:30 am on Monday, in virtual format, a member of the Ukrainian delegation at the talks, Davyd Arakhamia, said.

"Tomorrow, March 14, we will have the talks via video link," Arakhamia told the Strana Ukrainian news outlet.

Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said on Sunday that more than 5,550 civilians had fled conflict in her country via 14 humanitarian corridors throughout the day.

"We successfully evacuated more than 5,550 people today from areas under constant fire," she said in a video shared on Telegram.

Ukrainian media cited her as saying that a total of 140,000 civilians had been evacuated since the fighting broke out more than two weeks ago.

A humanitarian convoy with aid for Mariupol will try to reach the southeastern port city on Monday, Vereshchuk also said. She added that the convoy, which will attempt to evacuate people by buses, left western Ukraine on Saturday.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's top aide Mykhailo Podolyak has confirmed that peace talks between Ukraine and Russia would resume on Monday.

"A large number of issues require constant attention. On Monday, March 14, a negotiating session will be held to sum up the preliminary results," he tweeted.

He said that negotiations had been continuing non-stop in the video conference format and that working groups were "constantly functioning."

Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Sputnik earlier on Sunday that Russian and Ukrainian negotiators were set to resume talks on Monday. He denied reports that there were negotiations over the weekend.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday urged big US tech companies Microsoft and Oracle and German software maker SAP to halt support of their products in Russia.

"Now can be no 'half' decisions or 'halftones'! There is only black and white, good or evil! You are either for peace or support the bloody Russian aggressor to kill Ukrainian children and women. Microsoft, Oracle, SAP, stop supporting your products in Russia, stop the war," he tweeted.

The three tech giants have paused their operations in Russia and all sales of services and products to the country after Russia launched a military operation in Ukraine on February 24 to "demilitarize" the neighbor.

It estimated that 1,077 residential buildings and some 300 assets of civilian infrastructure had been damaged. The Joint Center for Control and Coordination recorded 1,053 attacks.

Russian and Ukrainian negotiations have held three rounds of in-person meetings in Belarus and have been talking by video around the clock, Volodymyr Zelenskyy's top aide Mykhailo Podolyak said on Saturday.

COREPER is the Council's main preparatory body composed of each country's deputy permanent representatives.

The power supply line was repaired by Ukrenergo specialists, Energoatom said in Telegram.

In the meantime, intense fighting has erupted in the area, he added.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) – The International Monetary Fund (IMF) believes that the Ukrainian crisis and sanctions against Russia will not lead to a worldwide crisis, IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said on Sunday.

Russia, however, is expected to experience deep recession due to sanction pressure, she also said in an interview with CBS. The IMF does not consider a default in Russia as an impossible scenario, given its funds to pay the state debt are frozen, Georgieva added.

Earlier in the day, Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said that Moscow remained committed to its obligations on the state debt and will continue to pay it in rubles until the West unfreezes its gold and foreign currency reserves.

NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg alleged this weekend that Russia could be planning a chemical operation after it exposed a US-linked secret biological lab in Ukraine to the world.

Sullivan is also set to discuss with Luigi Mattiolo, Diplomatic Advisor to Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi the response to what Washington described as “[Russian] President Putin’s war of choice,” it read.

The US Department of Defense said on Sunday that it did not see any signs of an inevitable chemical or biological attack by Russia in Ukraine.

He also noted that there are efforts by other channels, which Turkey supports.