Ukraine refuses to surrender the besieged city of Mariupol as the Russian ultimatum passes

Europe, News March 22, 2022 , by IRIA No Comments

It is now already passed the deadline to surrender for the besieged city of Mariupol that was set by the Russian military. The city has been besieged for more than four weeks now, with Russian military forces standing at the gates. Moscow demanded Ukrainian military forces to surrender the city and ‘lay down the weapons’ by 5 a.m. on Monday, March 21.

In response to the Russian ultimatum, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said that any kind of surrender is totally out of question. She stated, “There can be no talk of any surrenders, laying down of arms. We have already informed the Russian side about this. Instead of wasting out time on long letters and ultimatums, Russia should open humanitarian passages for the besieged civilians.”

The Russian military announced an ultimatum through a press briefing on Sunday conducted by Col-Gen Mikhail Mizintsev, the director of the Russian national defense management center. He stated that “A terrible humanitarian catastrophe has developed. All who lay down their arms are guaranteed safe passage out of Mariupol.

Mizintsev added that the Russian military would open humanitarian corridors for a civilian in the eastward and westwards passages of the city on Monday, March 21, at 10 am Moscow time.

This is not the first time that the Russian military has announced to provide humanitarian corridors to the besieged citizens. Similar cease-fire agreements and humanitarian corridors have been decided between the two sides before trading the blame for violations.

With the deadline of surrender already passed on Monday, so far there has not been any further announcement or advancement made from the Russian side.

*^{Russian military equipment (Image Credit: Tass)}*

Mariupol is one of the first cities to be attacked during the Russian invasion of February 24, trapping some 400,000 residents in the middle of heavy shelling and bombardment with no electricity, food, and water.

With the NATO summit of Brussels just around the corner, it is highly unlikely that Russia would conduct an offensive military operation on Mariupol or any other major city. During an interview with an international news agency, the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated on Mach 20 that the NATO summit can be the turning point for this war that we have all been waiting for, a failure to end this war can lead to “World War Three”.

The U.S. President Joe Biden is set to fly towards Europe on March 26 to participate in high-level meetings and to attend the NATO summit. The U.S. President would visit Ukraine’s neighboring state of Poland to observe the ground situation and to discuss the ongoing situation of a Russian invasion as well as the situation of humanitarian and human rights crisis with the Polish President Andrzej Duda in Warsaw.