Russia Hands Down Ultimatum

Russia, continuing the illegal war with Ukraine, made it clear 05:00 would be the deadline (03:00 UTC) to surrender Mariupol. Moscow has offered safe passage to Ukrainian fighters. The fighters apparently only need to give in. That's not going to happen any time soon. It didn't take Ukrainian officials long to respond. Ukraine has no intention of surrendering control of Mariupol to Russia.

"There can be no talk of any surrenders, laying down of arms. We have already informed the Russian side about this," Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said. "Instead of wasting time on eight pages of letters, just open a [humanitarian] corridor."

Mariupol is considered a significant strategic city. The city, located to the south of Donetsk Oblast, has been besieged by Russian military forces for four weeks. Mariupol, the largest city in the Ukraine's portion of Donetsk Oblast, is situated on the Sea of Azov. Russian artillery bombardment of Mariupol began Tuesday, 24 February 2022. Around 26 people were injured in the initial attack. Russia’s invasion has cost thousands of Ukrainian lives.

The Red Cross, describing the war as "apocalyptic", has come to regard the situation a humanitarian crisis. The siege, by both Ukrainian and US officials, has been compared the Second World War's Siege of Leningrad.

"What the occupiers are doing today is familiar to the older generation, who saw the horrific events of World War II, when the Nazis forcibly captured people," Mariupol Mayor Vadym Boichenko said. "It is hard to imagine that in the 21st century people can be forcibly taken to another country."

Mariupol, home to approximately 431,859 residents, isn't on the table. It seems, according to city council officials, several thousand Mariupol residents have been “deported” to Russia during the past week. The residents, mostly women and children, taken from Mariupol to camps where Russian forces checked phones and identification documents.

"Over the past week, several thousand Mariupol residents have been taken to Russian territory," the city officials said in a released statement. "The occupiers illegally took people from the Livoberezhny district and from the shelter in the sports club building, where more than a thousand people were hiding from the constant bombing."

With “World War Three” being on the horizon, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy told CNN, he was hoping the Nato summit will provide him and his country with much needed support. The Nato summit, taking place in Brussels, will see G7 and European Union leaders discussing the ongoing crisis.

The coming Nato summit will likely address hoax calls made to UK ministers from Kremlin operatives. Defence Secretary Ben Wallace and Home Secretary Priti Patel recently revealed they have both been targeted by apparent imposters. The same imposters attempted unsuccessfully to contact Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries.

"The Russian state was responsible for the hoax telephone calls made to UK ministers last week. ... This is standard practice for Russian information operations and disinformation is a tactic straight from the Kremlin playbook to try to distract from their illegal activities in Ukraine and the human rights abuses being committed there," the British prime minister's official spokesman said. "We are seeing a string of distraction stories and outright lies from the Kremlin, reflecting Putin's desperation as he seeks to hide the scale of the conflict and Russia's failings on the battlefield."

US President Joe Biden, further to the Nato summit, will be visiting Poland. Poland, Ukraine’s western neighbour, could be at risk. There are other countries feeling a certain degree of nervousness. Ukraine also shares borders with Belarus to the North, Slovakia and Hungary to the West; and Romania and Moldova to the South-West. The anxiety felt in such countries is unquestionably justified. Crimea, to Ukraine's South, was annexed by Russia in 2014.

Volodymyr has accused Russia of war crimes. Mariupol, since bombardment started, has seen an estimated 90 percent of the city's buildings either damaged or destroyed. Approximately 300,000 Ukrainian civilians are thought trapped in the southern port city.

Russian forces, not limiting themselves to legitimate military targets, have been bombarding residential and shopping centres in and around Kyiv. Eight people are reported dead. Consequently, because of this, the Kyiv mayor has announced a citywide curfew. The curfew, between 20:00 Monday and 07:00 Wednesday, is justified.