Mariúpol rejects the surrender despite the “difficult situation”

The besieged Ukrainian city of Mariupol has rejected the proposal of surrender Raised by Russia after rating it “delirium”. “Despite the fact that the situation is difficult, we have rejected the proposal,” said Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk. Moscow offered to open humanitarian corridors in the battered city on Monday morning if citizens lay down their arms, a possibility they have rejected.

The ukrainian deputy prime minister has reported an agreement to open eight humanitarian corridors to evacuate civilians from besieged cities, but the city of Mariupol is not among them. Vereshchuck has reported that efforts to reach Mariupol with humanitarian supplies continue to fail and has demanded that Moscow open humanitarian corridorss to facilitate the exit of some 400,000 people trapped in the city, without water or electricity while fighting rages in the streets. Vereshchuk has assured that more than 7,000 people were evacuated from Ukrainian cities through humanitarian corridors on Sunday, more than half from Mariupol.

Mariupol, a strategic port in the southeast, is one of the main targets of Russian attacks. The city is considered a Connection between the Russian forces on the peninsula of crimea and the territories under Russian control in the north and east of Ukraine.

“Massive War Crime”

Mariupol has suffered heavy russian bombardment since the beginning of the invasion, on February 24. The head of diplomacy of the European Union (EU), Josep Borrellhas qualified this Monday as a “huge war crime” the Russian assault on the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol, under heavy bombardment. “What is happening in Mariupol is a huge war crime, [están] destroying everything, bombing and killing everyone,” said Borrell, upon arrival at a meeting of European foreign ministers in Brussels.

For its part, the German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, has pointed out that the offensive “is clearly and without a doubt about war crimes”. Several of the foreign ministers present in Brussels on Monday have mentioned that the magnitude of the destruction justified discussions on additional sanctions against Russia.

The UN rated the humanitarian situation of the city like “extremely terrible”, with “its inhabitants facing severe shortages of food, water, and medicine.” In a video message, the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russia of bombing a school in Mariupol where hundreds of people were sheltered. “The Russian forces have come to exterminate us, to kill us,” he said.

It was the last one potentially devastating attack about a shelter for civilians. Last week, a theater where, according to the authorities, there were a thousand people sheltered, was attacked and hundreds are still missing.

deportations

Mariúpol City Council has denounced on Telegram that thousands of residents had been “deported” to Russia During last week. Russian news agencies confirmed that buses had brought hundreds of refugees from Mariupol to Russia in recent days. In this sense, the Prosecutor General of UkraineIryna Venediktova, announced this Monday the opening of an investigation in relation to the forced transfer of residents of this city to Russian territory, who would have been stripped of their passports.

In this regard, the United States Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield, told CNN that reports of the deportations were “troubling” and “unconscionable” if true, but said Washington had not yet confirmed them. Reuters was unable to independently verify the claims. Russia denies targeting civilians.

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Russia has reported, in the twenty-sixth day of their offensive in Ukraine, that last night its air forces destroyed 44 Ukrainian military targets. “Overnight military and tactical-operational aviation destroyed 44 Ukrainian military installations,” Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said in a video posted on Telegram.

He specified that among the targets hit were four command posts, two missile launchers, six Buk anti-aircraft missile systems and other heavy weapons.