Russian President Vladimir Putin made a record number of international telephone calls over the past month, according to the Kremlin.

The most calls -- eight -- were placed to French President Emmanuel Macron. Others on the list include leaders of Germany, Israel, India, Turkey, Luxembourg, Uzbekistan, Armenia and the European Council. There were also negotiations with the leaders of Azerbaijan, Finland, Bahrain, Senegal, Abu Dhabi, South Africa, Egypt, Belarus, Saudi Arabia, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Venezuela, Syria, Iran and China, according to the Kremlin.

Russia said Thursday that peace talks with Ukraine are continuing and are being held via video conference.

"Negotiations by the Russian and Ukrainian delegations on a draft treaty on the settlement of the situation in Ukraine, its neutrality and guarantees of its security are currently ongoing via video-conferencing. Military, political, and humanitarian aspects are being discussed," Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Maria Zakharova said during a press briefing.

"We hope that Kyiv will still come to realize the inevitability of a peaceful solution to the problem of demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine, its transformation into a neutral state," she added. "The sooner representatives of the Kyiv regime understand this, the sooner the special military operation will be completed."

Ukraine claimed Thursday that residents of Mariupol who have survived Russian bombardment are now being forcibly deported to Russia.

"The Russian Federation has launched a new phase of terror against the city of Mariupol," the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. "According to available information, the Russian army has forcibly deported about 6,000 Mariupol residents to Russian filtration camps in order to use them as hostages for political pressure on Ukraine."

"At the same time, the Russian armed forces are firing on evacuation columns trying to leave Mariupol for the unoccupied territory of Ukraine," the ministry added. "Russian troops continue to hold a humanitarian convoy of buses that arrived a few days ago from Mariupol from Zaporizhia."

According to the ministry, some 15,000 residents of the besieged port city in southeastern Ukraine are in danger of being forcibly deported to Russia, with Russian troops confiscating peoples' passports and other identification documents.

"Such actions by Russia are a gross violation of the laws or customs of war, the rules of international humanitarian law," the ministry said.

The ministry called on world leaders to "take urgent action to save the lives of residents of Mariupol and other Ukrainian cities who have been in an inhumane siege by the Russian army."

"The international community must impose new tough sanctions on Russia to stop its deadly military machine, as well as cut off all business ties with Russian companies to stop funding Russia's war against Ukraine," the ministry said.

-ABC News Julia Drozd

U.S. President Joe Biden on Thursday will announce a range of new sanctions against Russia targeting the majority of the Duma and Russian elites, according to senior administration officials.

The new sanctions will also impact "over 40 Russian defense companies," the officials said.

Biden will also announce that the U.S. will welcome up to 100,000 refugees from Ukraine and provide $1 billion in new humanitarian aid.

"To meet this commitment we are considering the full range of legal pathways to the United States and that includes U.S. refugee admissions program, parole and immigrant and non-immigrant visas," an official told reporters.

The humanitarian aid money will go toward providing food, shelter, clean water, medical supplies and other forms of assistance, according to the official.

Biden will also announce that the U.S. will provide $11 billion over the next five years to address food security threats and malnutrition across the world. This will be done through the Feed the Future initiative.

New sanctions from the G7 and EU will also prohibit the Central Bank of Russia from making any transactions involving gold, officials said.

-ABC News' Justin Gomez

All Russian troops have left the Ukrainian cities of Kyiv and Chernihiv, withdrawing north toward the borders of Belarus and Russia to consolidate before likely redeploying to the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine, a senior U.S. defense official told reporters Wednesday.

But even with the Russians gone, the territory remains treacherous.

"There are some indications that they left behind mines and things like that, so the Ukrainians are being somewhat careful in some areas north of Kyiv as they begin to clear the ground and clear the territory and re-occupy it," the official said.

While the U.S. hasn't yet seen these troops redeploy elsewhere in Ukraine, it'll likely happen soon, according to the official. Ukrainian forces are preparing for a major fight in Donbas, the official said.

The official also said the Pentagon is "monitoring" an apparent nitric acid explosion in Ukraine's Luhansk region, which Russia blamed on Ukraine.

"We've seen the Russians claim that this was a Ukrainian attack on this. We do not believe that is true," the official said. "We do believe that the Russians are responsible, but exactly what they used when they did it, why they did it, what the damage is, we just don't have that level of detail," the official said.

The official also noted that a small number of Ukrainians currently in the U.S. for "professional military education" were pulled aside for a couple days of training on Switchblade drones, which the U.S. is sending overseas as part of its military aid, according to the official.

"Although it's not a very difficult system to operate, we took advantage of having them in the country to give them some rudimentary training on that," the official said.

-ABC News' Matt Seyler