Russia's Lavrov says military situation to determine any agreement with Ukraine

Lavrov, during an interview with Russian State Television, also said that Kyiv was only imitating negotiations, according to a transcript published on the foreign ministry's website.

"As in any situation where armed forces are used, everything will end with a treaty. But its parameters will be determined by the stage of hostilities at which this treaty becomes a reality." Lavrov told Russia's state television.

Dmitry Polyanskiy, Russia's first deputy permanent representative to the United Nations said that there was no point in having a ceasefire in Ukraine at this stage because Kyiv was likely to use it as an opportunity to try to discredit Russia after Kyiv denied reaching an agreement with Moscow over a humanitarian corridor.

"Ukraine is compromising our efforts to open these corridors, so we don't think a ceasefire is a good option right now," He said. 

Ukraine earlier denied reaching a deal with Russia on evacuating civilians from a steel plant in the southern city of Mariupol and said the United Nations should be the "initiator and guarantor" of any such deal.

Polyanskiy said a ceasefire would only "be an opportunity for Ukrainian forces to regroup and stage more provocations."

He said Russia had not struck any residential areas in Ukraine's Black Sea port city of Odesa. Ukraine's southern air command on Saturday said that two missiles struck a military facility and two residential buildings in Odesa.

Russia had said earlier on Monday that it would open a humanitarian corridor for civilians to leave Mariupol's huge Azovstal steel plant, where they are holed up with Ukrainian fighters and are under Russian fire.