(The Hill) — Ukrainian officials on Monday rejected Russian demands of surrender in Mariupol as the city faces an onslaught of attacks.
The Russian military had issued an ultimatum, saying anyone who lays down their arms would be permitted to leave Mariupol through safety corridors.
Colonel-General Mikhail Mizintsev, director of the Russian National Center for Defense Management, called for Ukrainians to “lay down your arms,” claiming that a “terrible humanitarian catastrophe has developed.”
“All who lay down their arms are guaranteed safe passage out of Mariupol,” Mizintsev said.
However, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk rejected this offer outright, Reuters reported.
“There can be no question of any surrender, laying down of arms,” Vereshchuk said. “We have already informed the Russian side about this.”
According to The Associated Press, Mariupol Mayor Piotr Andryushchenko also rejected the demands, cursing the Russian forces in a Facebook post.
Mariupol has faced some of the worst of Russia’s attack on Ukraine in the past few weeks. On Sunday, it was reported that Russian forces had bombed an art school where hundreds of refugees were sheltering.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the siege on Mariupol was a “terror that will be remembered for centuries to come.”
As Reuters reported, Greece’s consul general in Mariupol, Manolis Androulakis, said after escaping the city, “What I saw, I hope no one will ever see.”
“Mariupol will become part of a list of cities that were completely destroyed by war; I don’t need to name them: they are Guernica, Coventry, Aleppo, Grozny, Leningrad,” Androulakis added.