Ukrainian protesters on Sunday (February 1) installed crosses with the names of people who were killed in the shelling of the government-held port of Mariupol, next to the Russian embassy building in Kiev.

The wooden crosses with black plaques on them were planted on the lawn in front of the building.

30 people were killed and more than 100 wounded in Mariupol on January 24 after shells from the rebel side hit residential areas.

People were seen bringing flowers to the crosses.

Meanwhile, dozens of Ukrainians gathered on Sunday in Kiev's main square to mount a general protest against their government.

The civilian and military death toll has mounted in the past two weeks after rebels launched a new offensive. Hopes of de-escalation evaporated on Saturday (January 31) with Ukraine's representative and separatist envoys accusing the other of sabotaging negotiations.

The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, which took part in the talks in Minsk, Belarus, along with envoys from Ukraine and Russia, said rebel delegates had not been ready to discuss key points of a peace plan, including enforcement of a ceasefire, and sought to redraw a blueprint agreed last September.

The terms of that 12-point protocol have been repeatedly violated, but Kiev and the international community see it as the only viable roadmap to end the nine-month-long conflict in which over 5,000 people have been killed.

Following the collapse of Saturday's talks, there was no word on when fresh negotiations might take place.

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Ukraine crisis