Ukraine rejected Russian calls to surrender the port city of Mariupol on Monday. The residents in Mariupol are trapped with very little food and water in an ever increasing humanitarian crisis that is pressurizing the European leaders to impose even tougher sanctions on Moscow.
The Ukrainian government rejected the Russian calls for Ukrainian forces in Mariupol to lay down their arms in exchange for safe passage out of the city, where humanitarian corridors could be opened from 12:30 pm Indian time on Monday.
Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said that there isn’t any option of surrender or laying down the arms. The Russian side has already been informed on this, the Ukrainska Pravda news portal cited.
Mariupol has endured some of the heaviest Russian bombardments since the invasion began. Many of its 400,000 residents are still caught up in the city as heavy fighting ensues on the streets all around them.
Vereshchuk informed that over 7,000 people were evacuated from various Ukrainian cities through the Sunday humanitarian corridors, of which, more than half of the citizens were from Mariupol. She further added that the government was planning to send around 50 more buses to Mariupol on Monday to aid further evacuations.
The crisis in the Ukrainian cities is likely to be the predominant topic for discussions between the European Union leaders this week, and it is likely that they will consider imposing tougher sanctions on Russia which may include oil embargo.
On Sunday, the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy addressed the Israeli parliament, through a video link and questioned Israel’s unwillingness to sell the ‘Iron Dome’ missile defence system to Ukraine.
Zelenskiy went on to thank the negotiation efforts by Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, who has undertaken multiple calls with Zelenskiy and Vladimir Putin, in a bid to help putting an end to the invasion and the crisis it has brought.
Mariupol’s council said on Telegram that several thousand residents had been “deported” to Russia over the past week. Russian news agencies said buses had carried hundreds of refugees from Mariupol to Russia in recent days.
The Ukrainian and Russian authorities, last week reported that some positive progress was achieved towards a political solution that would guarantee Ukraine’s security, all the while keeping it outside of NATO membership, which happens to be the key Russian demand.
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