Ukraine announced on Monday, March 21, that it has rejected an ultimatum from Russia to surrender the long-besieged city of Mariupol to Russian occupation forces. Amid overnight shelling and missile attacks, a large mall in Kyiv has been destroyed and a leak from an ammonia tank in Sumy has taken place, Ukrinform and BBC report.
The Russian Defence Ministry had given Ukraine time until 05:00 Moscow time on Monday to announce the city’s surrender, promising that in return it would allow two humanitarian corridors for civilians to leave Mariupol, where 300,000 people are believed to be encircled in ongoing fighting with dwindling supplies.
The Ukrainian government did not agree. «There can be no question of any surrender, laying down of arms,» Deputy Prime Minister, Minister for Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories Iryna Vereshchuk stated to Ukrainska Pravda and called for Moscow to allow humanitarian corridors from the city instead.
In the capital Kyiv, four people have been killed in a large fire in a shopping centre, which according to the Main Department of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine was caused by enemy shelling.
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It is reported that the fire was isolated on a total area of 1,500 square meters at 02:18. Explosions were heard late on the evening of March 20 in the Podilskyi district of Kyiv. It later became known that cars in the parking lot and 3rs and 4th floors of the mall had caught on fire as a result of enemy shelling, Ukrinform reports.
In the north-eastern city of Sumy, which has been on frontline since the beginning of Russia’s invasion in late February, a leak of ammonia has hit the chemical plant of Sumykhimprom due to shelling by the Russian troops.
Ukrainian rescue units have been working to reduce the spread of an ammonia cloud and the pollution has been contained, according to the State Emergency Service of Ukraine, Ukrinform reports.
Zelensky points to bombing of art school in Mariupol
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has released his latest address to Ukrainians and the international community in Ukrainian with English subtitles. He spoke about the inability of Russian occupation forces being unable to find the ‘Nazis’ the Kremlin has focused on in its pretext to invade Ukraine. Instead, atrocities continued to take place with the bombing of an art school in Mariupol becoming another example of targeting civilian population and infrastructure.