LEOPOLIS, Ukraine (AP) Ukrainian authorities on Monday rejected a Russian demand that its forces in Mariupol lay down their arms and hoist white flags in exchange for safe passage from the besieged strategic port.
Russia has launched a hard attack on the southern city on the Azov Sea. On Sunday, it hit an art school where about 400 people were taking shelter, just hours before it offered to open two corridors to leave the city in exchange for the surrender of its defenders, Ukrainian authorities said.
The battle for Mariupol raged on while the Russian offensive stalled elsewhere, to the point where Western analysts and governments said the conflict had turned into a war of attrition.
Ukrainian authorities rejected Russia’s offer of safe passage to leave Mariupol before the 5 a.m. deadline set by Moscow.
“There is no question of surrender and laying down of arms,” Deputy Prime Minister Irina Vereshchuk told Ukraine’s Pravda news agency. “We’ve already reported that to the Russians.”
Mariupol Mayor Piotr Andryushchenko also rejected the offer soon after it was made, saying in a Facebook post that he didn’t have to wait until morning to respond and curse the Russians, according to Interfax Ukraine news agency.
Russian ColonelGeneral Mikhail Mizintsev had offered two corridors, one east to Russia and the other west to other parts of Ukraine. He did not say what Russia plans to do if the offer is rejected.
According to staterun RIA Novosti news agency, the Russian Defense Ministry said authorities in Mariupol could face a military court if they side with what they describe as “bandits”.
Previous attempts to evacuate civilians from Mariupol and other Ukrainian cities have failed or only partially succeeded, thwarted by continued shelling as civilians attempted to flee.
Affected evacuees from the devastated Mariupol have described “fighting on all streets”.
Hours before their bid on Sunday, Ukrainian authorities said Russian forces had bombed an art school in Mariupol where about 400 civilians were taking shelter. The death toll is unclear, said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in a video message early Monday.
“They lie under the rubble and we don’t know how many of them survived,” he said.
The fall of Mariupol would allow Russian troops in the south to join those in eastern Ukraine. But Western military analysts say that even if the city were taken, the troops advancing there block by block could be too exhausted to secure Russian advances on other fronts.
The Ukrainians “didn’t greet the Russian soldiers with bouquets of flowers,” Zelenskyi told CNN, but with “guns in hand.”
US President Joe Biden was later on Monday to discuss the war with leaders from France, Germany, Italy and Britain before traveling to Brussels this week and then to Poland for facetoface meetings.
Zelenskyy has requested more aircraft and advanced antiaircraft systems from the United States, and NATO members on the alliance’s eastern flank have requested antimissile systems from Britain and the United States.
After three weeks of invasion, both sides appeared to be trying to wear each other down, experts say. Stranded Russian troops launched longrange attacks on cities and military bases, while Ukrainian forces launched swift strikes and attempted to cut off Russian supply routes.
“The blockbyblock fighting in Mariupol is costing the Russian military time, initiative and fighting power,” said the Washingtonbased Institute for the Study of War.
US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin told CBS the Ukrainian resistance meant that (Putin’s) “forces on the ground have essentially come to a standstill.”
The attack on the art school was the second attack on a public building used as a shelter in Mariupol reported by authorities in less than a week. A bomb hit a theater on Wednesday where more than 1,000 people had taken shelter.
There were no immediate casualty figures in the school attack that The Associated Press could not independently verify. Ukrainian authorities have not reported a search of the theater since Friday, when they said at least 130 people were rescued and another 1,300 were trapped by rubble.
Local authorities and aid groups say food, water and electricity are in short supply in Mariupol and fighting is keeping humanitarian caravans away. Communication has failed.
Hundreds of men, women and children have been killed in Russian attacks on major Ukrainian cities.
According to authorities, eight people were killed by grenades in the populous Podil district near the city center in Kyiv on Sunday.
A shopping center was left in smoldering ruins between multistory towers on Monday morning. The force of the explosion blew out all the windows in the neighboring block, twisting their metal frames.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said Russian shells also hit several houses in Podil.
Russian troops began their fourth week of assaults on Kyiv, attempting to encircle the capital, which had a population of nearly 3 million before the war.
Ukrainian resistance has halted most advances on the city and most of the Russian forces were more than 25 kilometers (15 miles) from the city centre, Britain’s Defense Ministry said on Monday. “However, Kyiv remains the top Russian military target,” the ministry added.
The United Nations has confirmed 902 civilian deaths in the war but concedes the true number is likely much higher. Almost 3.4 million people have fled Ukraine. Russian death estimates vary, but even conservative numbers are in the low thousands.
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Associated Press reporter Yuras Karmanau in Lviv, Ukraine, and other AP journalists around the world contributed to this report.