Ukraine rejected on Monday the Russian ultimatum to hand over the besieged city of Mariupol, while a new bombing left eight dead in a shopping center in kyiv, the capital.
Nearly 350,000 people are trapped without water or electricity in the port city of Mariupol, which has been shelled by Russian troops for almost a month.
The military command of Kremlin He had warned the Mariupol authorities that they had until “5 in the morning (…) on March 21” to respond to eight pages of demands, which according to Ukrainian officials would amount to capitulation.
Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk rejected the Russian ultimatum, saying Moscow should instead allow trapped residents to leave.
The defenders of Mariupol have “played a huge role in destroying the enemy’s plans and improving our defense,” Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov explained.
“Today Mariupol is saving kyiv, Dnipro and Odessa. The whole world must understand it,” he said.
Mariupol is a key target in the Russian president’s war, Vladimir Putinin Ukraine because it forms a land bridge between Russian forces in Crimea to the southwest and Russian-controlled territory to the north and east.
Russian bombs hit several targets again on Monday, including a shopping mall in kyiv, killing at least eight people, according to the prosecutor general’s office.
AFP reporters saw six bodies covered by black sheets lying on the ground in the Retroville shopping center.
An Orthodox priest walking through the wreckage mumbled prayers as he cursed “Russian terrorists.”
Vladmir, 76, who lives nearby, explained that the explosion rocked the area around 10:45 p.m. “My apartment shook with the force of the explosion, I thought the building would collapse,” he said.
In the north, authorities urged residents of Novoselytsya to take shelter following an ammonia “leak” at a nearby chemical plant, amid heavy fighting in the area.
In Kherson, a southern city occupied by Russian forces, a demonstration was dispersed by the military with automatic weapons fire and tear gas, leaving at least one injured.
And to the victims of the war was also added Boris Romantschenko, 96, a man who had survived several Nazi camps and who died in the bombing of his building in Kharkov, the German Foundation for Buchenwald Monuments reported Monday and Mittelbau-Dora.
“Not one euro to the occupants”
Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelensky has urged Europe to significantly increase pressure on Moscow to stop the invasion and said the continent must cease any trade with Russia.
“Not one euro for the occupants, close all your doors, do not send your goods, reject energy resources. Press for Russia to leave Ukraine,” Zelensky asked in his last video speech.
In parallel, Ukraine called on China to “play an important role” in ending the conflict.
Away from the frontlines, the leaders of the United States, France, the United Kingdom, Germany and Italy returned to urgent talks about the war.
In a separate meeting, the foreign ministers of the European Union studied in Brussels new sanctions against Russia.
Some members of the bloc are pushing for an embargo on Russian oil and gas, but Germany rejects it, warning it could spark social instability.
Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov warned that such an “embargo would have a very serious influence on the world oil market, a negative influence on Europe’s energy market,” he said.
Oil prices, already soared by the conflict in Ukraine, rose again on Monday, even topping $110 a barrel.
This issue will be on the table at a European Union summit on Thursday in Brussels, also to be attended by President Joe Biden.
The US leader will also take part in a NATO summit and G7 talks, before traveling on Friday to Poland, which is home to more than two million Ukrainians who have fled the war.
Biden was severely criticized by Russia after the US president called Vladimir Putin a “war criminal.”
“These kinds of statements by the US president, which are not worthy of a high-ranking politician, have brought US-Russian relations to the brink of rupture,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
In Russia, a court on Monday banned Facebook and Instagram for “extremist” activities, a move that strengthens Moscow’s attempt to control information about the offensive in Ukraine.
Humanitarian conditions continue to deteriorate in the majority Russophone south and east of Ukraine, as well as in the north around kyiv.
In all, some 10 million Ukrainians have fled their homes, and about a third have gone abroad, according to the UN refugee agency.
The repercussions of the war extend beyond the region and famine is feared in some parts of the world, as both Russia and Ukraine are major exporters of agricultural products.