On Monday, Ukraine rejected Russian demands that it hand over the port city of Mariupol. In Mariupol, residents are starving for food, water, and electricity in a humanitarian catastrophe. It is putting pressure on European leaders to tighten sanctions against Russia.
Russian demands that Ukrainian forces in Mariupol lay down their arms in exchange for safe passage out of the city and humanitarian corridors opening from 1000 Moscow time (0700 GMT) on Monday faced rejections from Ukraine’s authorities.
“There can be no question of any surrender, laying down of arms,” Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said, according to the Ukrainska Pravda news page.
“We have already informed the Russian side about this.”
Since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, Mariupol has received some of the most intense bombardments. As the battle rages on the streets around them, many of the city’s 400,000 citizens have nowhere to go.
On Sunday, approximately 7,000 individuals were evacuated from Ukrainian cities via humanitarian corridors, according to Vereshchuk. More than half of them came from Mariupol. (Valium) On Monday, she said, the administration planned to deploy roughly 50 buses to the area for additional evacuations.
Throughout the war, Russia and Ukraine have agreed to humanitarian corridors to evacuate civilians. But they have accused one other of repeatedly violating those accords.
Mariupol crisis
The crisis in Mariupol and other damaged Ukrainian cities is going to be a major topic of discussion among EU leaders. They are also weighing stronger measures against Russia, including an oil embargo.
Before US President Joe Biden travels in Brussels on Thursday for summits with NATO’s 30 allies, the EU, and the Group of Seven (G7) grouping, which includes Japan, EU states will resume discussions among foreign ministers on Monday.
Several thousand inhabitants have been “deported” to Russia in the last week, according to Mariupol’s council on Telegram. Hundreds of refugees have traveled by bus from Mariupol to Russia in recent days, according to Russian news media.
Mariupol’s capture would also aid Russian forces in securing a land passage to the Crimean peninsula. Moscow annexed it from Ukraine in 2014.