To unlock Mariupol, Ukraine needs more weapons, and Ukraine is working with partners to get them, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba has said.

"Mariupol is in a desperate situation. It is extremely painful to receive news from there. We are doing everything possible to support the civilian population and the defenders of Mariupol. But in order to unlock Mariupol and save them, we need more weapons and we are working with partners to get it," Kuleba said at a briefing with Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney in Kyiv on Thursday.

He said "if Ukraine does not receive all the necessary weapons within days, not weeks, this will mean that more civilians will be killed, more atrocities will be committed and more Ukrainian villages and cities will be destroyed as a result of the Russian offensive."