Ukraine has rejected the Russian government’s ultimatum that it surrender Mariupol to Russian forces in order to stop the bombardment and attacks on the eastern port city and to allow civilians to leave through a corridor established by Russia.
On Sunday, “Mikhail Mizintsev, the head of the Defense Ministry’s National Defense Control Center, had said Kyiv must respond to Russia’s offer by 5 a.m. Moscow time on Monday, according to Interfax,” The Wall Street Journal reported.
Russian Colonel-General Mikhail Mizintsev stated, “All who lay down their arms are guaranteed safe passage out of Mariupol,” yet was unclear on what exactly would happen if they did not surrender.
On Monday morning, that offer was rebuffed.
“‘Ukraine rejects Russia’s demand to surrender Mariupol,’ the Ukrainian government said via Twitter early Monday. It cited the country’s Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk as saying that turning over the city wasn’t an option and her demanding that Russia give civilians safe passage to exit,” the Journal reported.
Vereshchuk also said, “There can be no talk of any surrender, laying down of arms. We have already informed the Russian side about this.”
“I wrote: ‘Instead of wasting time on eight pages of letters, just open the corridor,’” she added.
“What Russia is trying to get Ukraine to do is to get us to give up our right to freedom,” Ukrainian MP Lesia Vasylenko said on NPR on Monday morning in reaction to the news. “There’s nothing that Ukrainians value more than freedom. Life without freedom is no life for us.”
Last Thursday, The Daily Wire reported that Russian has bombed civilian targets such as a drama theater sheltering hundreds of thousands of innocent Ukrainians.
In response to the constant shelling, Ukrainian Catholic Major Archbishop Sviatoslav Shevchuk called for prayers and said “the conscience of every Christian demands that we raise our voices throughout the world and loudly say the word ‘No,’ to declare strong opposition to the mass murder of people in Ukraine.”
“Especially in these last moments, we see mass murder in the besieged city of Mariupol,” Shevchuk added. “This city, which was founded by the Greek community as the ‘City of Mary,’ has been transformed into a cemetery for tens of thousands of people.”
The news comes as the “Morning Wire” podcast reported on Monday that “Ukraine has shown remarkable resiliency against the Russian army, which has caused Russian President Vladimir Putin to implement more ‘desperate measures’ to try and break the Ukrainian people. These escalatory tactics have reportedly included forced deportations and increased targeting of civilians, including children. Neighboring Belarus is also reportedly joining Russia in the war.”
“The ongoing failure of the Russian military to capture Ukraine in a short time is leading to a notable escalation in the sort of violent tactics being used, including indiscriminate artillery strikes on civilian positions,” The Daily Wire’s Ian Haworth explained.
This is an excerpt from The Daily Wire.
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