Mariupol

LVIV, Ukraine (AP) - Civilians making the dangerous escape from Ukraine's embattled southern port hub of Mariu...

Ukraine on early Monday rejected Russian calls to surrender the port city of Mariupol, where fierce fighting shows little sign of easing.

“The city is united… In the capital, Kyiv officials imposed a day-and-a-half curfew from Monday night. Both sides hinted last week at progress in talks on a formula which would include some kind of “neutrality” for Ukraine, though details were scarce. Thousands of Russian and Ukrainian troops have died, and Russia’s artillery-heavy army has suffered large losses in tanks and armor. “We have already informed the Russian side about this.” Nowhere has suffered worse than Mariupol, a port on the Sea of Azov, home to 400,000 people before the war.

Ukraine says 'there can be no question' of laying down arms after Russia offers safe passage in exchange for surrender.

“They are under the rubble, and we don’t know how many of them have survived,” he said. “We left [home] because shells hit the houses across the road. The apartment was below freezing.” “The block-by-block fighting in Mariupol itself is costing the Russian military time, initiative, and combat power,” the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War said in a briefing. It said each could carry up to 20 tanks or 40 armoured personnel carriers. The Russian Ministry of Defence, addressing Mariupol authorities on messaging app Telegram, said the officials “now have the right to make a historic choice” and warned they could face a military tribunal if they sided with what it described as “criminals”.

As Russia's leader, Vladimir Putin has led devastating sieges of Grozny, Aleppo and now Mariupol.

By the time Russian forces took the city in February 2000, the city was decimated. Putin was born in Leningrad after the siege in 1952, but lost an older brother, Viktor, who died as an infant during the blockade. Survivors of the Aleppo siege recall the trauma not only associated with the bombing and shelling, but also with the severe lack of food and other basic supplies. The United Nations later said Grozny was the most destroyed city on Earth, while estimates of the deaths ran well into the thousands. Chechnya had fought off a Russian invasion only five years before, but this time the breakaway republic was submitted to ferocious artillery attacks and airstrikes. In both cases, the result was the near-total destruction of historic centers.

A reporter describes life under siege in the Ukrainian city and why it was so important to break the silence.

We are still flooded by messages from people wanting to learn the fate of loved ones we photographed and filmed. As we pulled up to the 16th checkpoint, we heard voices. And the path to our van, with our food, water and equipment, was covered by a Russian sniper who had already struck a medic venturing outside. Our batteries were almost out of juice, and we had no connection to send the images. We found them at a hospital on the frontline, some with babies and others in labour. For several days, the only link we had to the outside world was through a satellite phone. Sometimes we would run out to film a burning house and then run back amid the explosions. On the way, we started worrying about spare tyres, and found online a man nearby willing to sell to us in the middle of the night. As a teenager growing up in Ukraine in the city of Kharkiv, just 20 miles from the Russian border, I learned how to handle a gun as part of the school curriculum. I have since covered wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh, trying to show the world the devastation first-hand. He nudged us toward the thousands of battered cars preparing to leave Mariupol. It was 15 March. We had no idea if we would make it out alive. We had been documenting the siege of Mariupol by Russian troops for more than two weeks and were the only international journalists left in the city.

Mariupol continues to be bombarded by Russian forces, who also reportedly attacked Odesa for the first time.

Three civilians were killed and five were injured as a result of Russian shelling on Sunday in the east of the country, said Pavel Kirilenko, head of the Donetsk regional military administration. He said at least one person was killed. Mariupol continues to be bombarded by Russian forces, who also reportedly attacked Odesa for the first time. Mariupol continues to be bombarded by Russian forces, who also reportedly attacked Odesa for the first time. Meanwhile, Odesa’s mayor has accused Russian forces of carrying out an attack on residential buildings on the outskirts of the Black Sea port city, marking the first such reported attack there. Ukraine has rejected Russian calls to surrender the port city of Mariupol, where residents are besieged with little food, water, and power, in a humanitarian crisis that is increasing pressure on European leaders to toughen sanctions on Moscow.