INTERNATIONAL: A humanitarian convoy is "stuck" outside Ukraine's Mariupol waiting for permission to enter the besieged city, the head of the International Red Cross (IFRC) HAS said on Monday ,March 21.

Hundreds of thousands of civilians have been trapped in the city which has been under bombardment since the early days of Russia's invasion in February.

IFRC President Francesco Rocca has said his organisation had "no access" to Mariupol and people in the city were without electricity, water and other means of support.

Russia has pounded residential areas of Ukrainian cities, causing massive destruction. Nowhere has suffered worse than Mariupol, a port on the Sea of Azov, home to 400,000 people before the war.

Speaking in Romania, Rocca has said the IFRC was also committed to supporting internally-displaced people in Ukraine who had sought refuge in other parts of the country.

He has said in the Chernivtsi region, close to Romania, there were 300,000 people who had fled to safety from the east and south, where the heaviest fighting has taken place.

Rocca has also said the IFRC wanted to see Russia and Ukraine find an agreement "to give the humanitarian access as the Geneva Convention should protect, but unfortunately it seems not to be happening".

^{PHOTO: PRESIDENT OF INTERNATIONAL FEDERATION OF RED CROSS AND RED CRESCENT SOCIETIES (IFRC) FRANCESCO ROCCA, GIVING NEWS CONFERENCE AFTER VISITING UKRAINE, ROCCA SAYING HUMANITARIAN CONVOY IS STUCK OUTSIDE MARIUPOL, ROCCA SAYING HUMANITARIAN AID WILL BE DELIVERED TO MARIUPOL AS SOON AS RUSSIA AND UKRAINE AGREE TO ALLOW IT, ROCCA SAYING IFRC IS FOCUSING ON INTERNALLY DISPLACED PEOPLE WITHIN UKRAINE}