Almost 4,000 people were evacuated from Ukrainian cities through humanitarian corridors on March 17, a senior official said, a far smaller number than on the previous day, as Russia's invasion of Ukraine entered its fourth week.
Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk told a briefing that, out of the total, some 2,000 people managed to leave the besieged city of Mariupol on March 17.
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President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said a total of more than 60,000 people had been evacuated on March 16 from a number of cities and towns.
Rescue teams were searching for possible survivors of what Ukraine said was a powerful air strike on a theater in Mariupol where hundreds of people had been sheltering.
Mariupol, a strategic Black Sea port city, has been encircled by Russian forces and subjected to fierce shelling that has entrapped hundreds of thousands of civilians.
A statement from the local council said that about 30,000 residents had managed to escape so far, but more than 350,000 remained stuck in the city without adequate food, water, or medical supplies
Russia's military denied bombing the theater or anyplace else in Mariupol.
The Pentagon said that Moscow's advance into Ukraine has essentially stalled as Russian forces, which appear to be bogged down in their ground advance on most urban centers, resorted to relentless air attacks on civilian sites in multiple cities over the past few days.
"They clearly were not prepared for them to be in the position they are three weeks in -- basically frozen around the country on multiple lines of axes, struggling to fuel themselves and to feed their troops and to supply them with arms and ammunition and meeting a very determined Ukrainian resistance," a senior Pentagon official told reporters on March 17.
In the northern city of Chernihiv, at least 53 people have been brought to morgues over the past 24 hours, killed during heavy Russian air attacks and ground fire, the local governor, Viacheslav Chaus, told Ukrainian TV on March 17.
Chaus said Chernihiv has experienced “colossal losses and destruction” from Russian artillery and air strikes.
On March 16, Russian forces killed 10 people who were waiting in line for bread in Chernihiv, local officials and the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine reported.
A Russian air strike just before dawn on March 17 killed 21 people and destroyed a school and community center in Merefa, near the northeast city of Kharkiv, officials said.
Historic Mariupol Theater, Sheltering Ukrainian Civilians, Hit By Air Strike
In Kyiv, at least one person was killed and three wounded after the remains of a downed missile hit a residential building, Ukraine's emergency services said on March 17.
Meanwhile, Zelenskiy pleaded with German lawmakers to "tear down" the wall Russia is building to divide Europe, while warning them that Germany's strong economic ties with Russia helps it fund the ongoing war.
"[I am addressing you] also after we saw how many ties your companies still continue to have with Russia -- the country that simply uses you and some other countries to finance the war," Zelenskiy told the Bundestag in a video address.
He said the wall he referred to was “not a Berlin Wall” but a “wall in Central Europe between freedom and bondage and this wall is growing bigger with every bomb."
SEE ALSO: U.S. President Joe Biden Calls Vladimir Putin 'A War Criminal'He implored German Chancellor Olaf Scholz to “tear down this wall,” evoking the iconic appeal by then-U.S. President Ronald Reagan during a June 1987 speech in front of the Brandenburg Gate, where he challenged his Soviet counterpart, Mikhail Gorbachev, to do the same.
Zelenskiy's address came after similar virtual speeches to lawmakers in Canada and the United States as he presses for more support to turn back Russian forces, who began their unprovoked attack on February 24.
WATCH: Ukrainian forces say they launched a successful counterattack against a Russian armored column in the Kyiv region. Ukrainian troops report that they liberated a village and destroyed several Russian armored vehicles. On March 15, RFE/RL correspondent Levko Stek surveyed the aftermath of the battle.
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Ukrainian Forces Destroy Russian Armored Column Іn Kyiv Region
The bombing of the theater prompted Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov to urge EU legislators to follow the U.S. lead and recognize Russian President Vladimir Putin as a war criminal. Reznikov made the appeal a day after U.S. President Joe Biden for the first time called Putin a war criminal.
"It's not simply a war. It's state terror. The regular army of the aggressor is conscientiously annihilating the civil population," Reznikov said.
SEE ALSO: In A Ukrainian Region Occupied By Russian Forces, People Are Disappearing. Locals Fear It's About To Get Worse.In Moscow, President Vladimir Putin issued a harsh warning to what he called "traitors" on March 17, saying the West would try to use them as a fifth column to destroy Russia, but that Russians would be quickly able to tell the "patriots from the scum."
Biden will speak by phone on March 18 with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, the White House announced, as Washington pressures Beijing not to provide support to Russia.
Biden and Xi also will discuss the economic competition between the two countries, White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said in announcing the call.
"President Biden will be speaking to President Xi tomorrow and will make clear that China will bear responsibility for any actions it takes to support Russia's aggression, and we will not hesitate to impose costs," U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told a news briefing on March 17.