Ukrainian officials rebuffed a Russian ultimatum that their men in Mariupol lay down their arms and hoist white flags in exchange for safe passage out of the beleaguered port city on Monday.
Russia’s ground onslaught in other parts of Ukraine has stalled as it intensifies its efforts to pound Mariupol into surrender. According to Western officials and observers, the fight is devolving into a stalemate, with Russia bombarding cities.
According to emergency personnel, a shopping complex in Kyiv’s highly populated Podil area near the city centre was a smoking ruin after being hit late on Sunday by shelling that killed eight people. Every window in a nearby high-rise was shattered by the attack.
According to Ukrainian authorities, Russia also shelled a chemical facility in northeastern Ukraine, causing hazardous ammonia to flow into the air, and used cruise missiles to attack a military training base in the west.
Under Russian pounding for more than three weeks, the surrounded southern city of Mariupol on the Sea of Azov has seen some of the greatest horrors of the war, in what Ukrainian and Western officials have termed a war crime.
‘They are under the rubble, and we have no idea how many of them survived,’ Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated. He threatened in a video address that Ukraine will ‘shoot down the pilot who dropped the bomb.’
In exchange for Mariupol’s surrender, Russian Col. Gen. Mikhail Mizintsev promised two corridors, one running east toward Russia and the other west to other parts of Ukraine. He did not specify what Russia would do if the offer was turned down.
According to the Russian state news agency RIA Novosti, the Russian Ministry of Defense threatened authorities in Mariupol may face a military tribunal if they sided with ‘bandits.’
Even before Russia’s deadline of 5 a.m., Ukrainian officials rejected the proposal.
‘There can be no talk of surrender or laying down of arms,’ Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Irina Vereshchuk told the Ukrainian Pravda news source.
Post Your Comments