Ukraine Refuses Russia’s Request to ‘Lay Down Arms’ and Surrender Mariupol by Monday Deadline

Ukrainian officials said that the country has rejected Russia’s demand to surrender the eastern port city of Mariupol by 5 a.m. Moscow time on March 21 in exchange for safe passage of residents out of the city.

“There can be no question of any surrender, laying down of arms,” the Ukrainska Pravda news portal cited Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk as saying. “We have already informed the Russian side about this.”

“I wrote: ‘Instead of wasting time on eight pages of letters, just open the corridor.'”

Earlier on Sunday, Pyotr Andryushenko, who is an adviser to the mayor of Mariupol, said that Russia’s promises regarding humanitarian corridors could not be trusted, and vowed that the city would continue to defend itself against the Moscow-led invasion.

“We will fight until the last of our soldiers,” he told the BBC’s Newshour.