Russia-Ukraine updates: US sanctions Russian military shipbuilder, diamond miner

Ukraine's government announced for the first time in nearly three weeks that no humanitarian corridors for evacuating civilians will be open on Monday due to concerns about possible "provocations" from Russian forces.

"Our intelligence has informed us of possible provocations from the side of the occupiers on the routes of the humanitarian corridors," Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said in a statement on her official Telegram channel. "And so in interest of citizens’ safety today we are not opening humanitarian corridors."

The Ukrainian government has been evacuating hundreds of thousands of civilians from cities and towns in the north, east and south of the country through established corridors. Officials have previously accused Russian forces of shelling some of the evacuation routes, despite agreeing to cease-fires.

-ABC News' Patrick Reevell

In his first interview with Russian journalists since his country was invaded, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described some of Ukraine's positions for ending the war.

During an interview with popular Russian independent news sites TV Rain and Meduza, Zelenskyy said any peace deal is only possible if Russia withdraws its troops to the territory occupied before the start of the invasion, meaning Crimea and the separatist-held areas of the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine.

Zelenskyy said his main goals are "to maximally reduce the number of casualties (and) to shorten the length of this war."

"The withdrawal of Russia to compromise territories -- but that is everything (that) was before 24 February, before the assault. Let them return there," Zelenskyy said. "I understand that to force Russia to completely liberate territory is impossible. That will lead to a third world war. I totally understand all that. And I say it: compromise. Return to where all this started and there we will try to resolve the question of Donbas, the difficult question of Donbas."

Zelenskyy also said that Ukraine is ready to discuss taking a position of "neutrality" and "non-nuclear status" with Russia, but wants security guarantees for his country in return.

He again said he would put the issue to a referendum in Ukraine and that any treaty would need to be ratified by "guarantor countries" -- which other officials have suggested must include the United States.

Zelenskyy reiterated that no guarantor countries, such as the United Kingdom and Turkey, will sign any agreement while Russian troops remain on Ukrainian soil.

-ABC News' Patrick Reevell

French President Emmanuel Macron spoke cautiously about U.S. President Joe Biden using tough language to describe his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin.

In an appearance on the France 3 TV channel, Macron warned against escalating language a day after Biden while in Warsaw called Putin a "butcher" and added, “For God’s sake, this man cannot remain in power."

"I wouldn't use this type of wording because I continue to hold discussions with President Putin," Macron said.

White House officials quickly clarified Biden's off-the-cuff remarks, saying the president wasn’t calling for an immediate change in government in Moscow.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov denounced Biden, saying "it’s not up to the president of the U.S. and not up to the Americans to decide who will remain in power in Russia."

Macron said the ramped-up rhetoric is doing nothing to bring peace to Ukraine.

"We want to stop the war that Russia has launched in Ukraine without escalation -- that's the objective," Macron said. "If this is what we want to do, we should not escalate things -- neither with words nor actions."

Ukrainian forces appear to have had several successes Sunday, retaking several villages and towns in the northern and eastern parts of the country as they continue to wage fierce counterattacks against Russian troops, according to Ukrainian officials.

Ukrainian authorities claimed their troops have retaken control of some villages around Malaya Rogan near Kharkiv in the east, close to the Russian border.

Ukrainian forces also drove Russian troops from the town of Trostyanets in northern Ukraine between Kharkiv and the strategic city of Sumy, according to the mayor of Trostyanets. Video posted online appeared to show Ukrainian troops in Trostytanets.

There is also a report from Ukrainian officials that two villages were retaken near Mykolaiv in the south, where Ukrainian forces have launched a counterattack near the Russian-occupied city of Kherson.

-ABC News' Patrick Reevell