Ukraine Defies Russian Demand To Lay Down Arms In Mariupol

Moscow Had Given Predawn Deadline For Surrender Of City Where Thousands Are Trapped

Ukraine defied a Russian demand that its forces lay down arms before dawn on Monday in Mariupol, where hundreds of thousands of civilians have been trapped in a city under siege and already laid to waste by Russian bombardment. Russia’s military had ordered Ukrainians inside the city in the country’s southeast to surrender by 5 am, saying those who did so would be permitted to leave, while those who stayed would be turned over to tribunals run by Russian-backed separatists.

“There can be no question of any surrender, laying down of arms” in Mariupol, Ukrainian Deputy PM Iryna Vereshchuk responded. Russia’s assault on Ukraine, now in its fourth week, has stalled along most fronts. Moscow has failed to seize a single major Ukrainian city much less capture the capital Kyiv or swiftly topple the government of President Volodymyr Zelensky. But Russia has pounded residential areas, causing massive destruction. Nowhere has suffered worse than Mariupol, a port on Sea of Azov, home to 4,00,000 people before the war. It has been under siege and constant bombardment, with no food, medicine, power or water, since the invasion’s early days. Officials said at least 2,300 people have died in the siege, with some buried in mass graves.