Russian President Vladimir Putin meets with his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, March 11, 2022. (Photo: CFP)

Russia on Friday noted "positive shifts" in talks with Ukraine while Ukraine said it had reached a "strategic turning point," two weeks into the conflict between the two neighbors.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday there had been some progress in Moscow's talks with Ukraine, but provided no details.

"There are certain positive shifts, negotiators on our side tell me," Putin said in a meeting with his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko in Moscow, adding that talks continued "practically on a daily basis."

Putin did not elaborate, but said in the televised remarks that he would go into more detail with Lukashenko.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks in Kyiv, Ukraine, March 10, 2022 in this still image taken from video. (Photo: Reuters)

Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Friday that Ukraine had reached a strategic turning point in its conflict with Russia, but cautioned that it was not possible to say how long the fighting would continue.

"It is impossible to say how many days we still have to free Ukrainian land. But we can say we will do it. For we have already reached a strategic turning point," he said in a televised address, urging the international community to increase sanctions pressure on Russia.

Russian and Ukrainian negotiators have held three rounds of talks since Moscow started a military operation on February 24. A fourth round of negotiations will be held in Belarus "shortly," Russian delegation member Leonid Slutsky told reporters.

The talks have led to the opening of several humanitarian corridors to evacuate civilians from combat areas. Both sides have accused each other of blocking these efforts.

Ukraine sets up 12 humanitarian corridors in four regions

Ukraine established 12 humanitarian corridors in four regions on Friday to allow civilians to leave the conflict-torn areas, the Ukrainian government-run Ukrinform news agency reported, citing Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk.

The humanitarian corridors were set up to evacuate people from some cities and towns in eastern Donetsk and Kharkiv, southern Zaporizhzhya and north-central Kyiv, Vereshchuk said.

She added that the Ukrainian authorities also have organized supplies of food and water to civilians in several other regions across the country that were affected by the conflict with Russia.

Foreign volunteers to Donbas

Putin said Friday that he supported the idea of allowing volunteers from abroad to provide military assistance to Donbas.

Western countries and Ukraine do not hide that they are gathering mercenaries and sending them to Ukraine, Putin said at a meeting with permanent members of Russia's Security Council.

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu told Putin that he had received "a huge number of applications from various kinds of volunteers from different countries" who would like to come to Lugansk and Donetsk in order to "participate in what they consider a liberation movement."

"The largest number is from the Middle Eastern countries. There are already more than 16,000 applications," Shoigu reported.

"If you see that there are people who want on a voluntary basis, especially not for money, to come and help people living in Donbas, you need to meet them halfway and help them move to the war zone," Putin said after listening to his report.

Putin also backed Shoigu's initiative to transfer Western-made weapons captured by the Russian military in Ukraine to the forces of Donbas.

A Ukrainian serviceman stands by food supplies in Irpin, on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, March 9, 2022. (Photo: CFP)

Refugees at 2.5 million

More than 2.5 million people have fled Ukraine, UN agencies said on Friday, and a further two million have been driven from their homes within the country since February 24.

The United Nations has been planning its humanitarian needs on the assumption that some four million Ukrainian refugees would seek safety abroad.

However, with around 200,000 people having fled to neighboring countries over the past 24 hours, a UN refugee official said they may have to revise that figure higher.

"It is quite possible that planning figure of four million will be revised up. That wouldn't be a surprise," Matthew Saltmarsh, a spokesperson with the UN refugee agency near the border in Poland told Geneva journalists via videolink.

Humanitarian agencies are scrambling to provide heating facilities for thousands of refugees waiting in freezing temperatures at border crossings, he said.

Meanwhile, trucks are taking thousands of thermal blankets and mattresses in the other direction.

Hundreds of thousands of people are trapped under bombardment of cities and towns in Ukraine and are running out of supplies, with both sides blaming the other for failing to observe ceasefires.

A report from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said on Friday that psychological support services were being provided online from basements in Ukraine due to the security situation.