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Summary
Russia’s war on its neighbour is well into its fourth week. Casualties are in the thousands and millions have fled the country seeking refuge abroad.
Here is where the crisis currently stands:
- Russia’s ministry of defence set a 5am deadline for the embattled city of Mariupol to surrender. “Lay down your arms,” Colonel-General Mikhail Mizintsev, director of the Russian national defence management centre, said on Sunday. Mizintsev added that all those who lay down their arms would be “guaranteed safe passage out of Mariupol” with humanitarian corridors opened from 10am Moscow time on Monday.
- Ukraine quickly rejected the proposal with deputy prime minister Iryna Vereshchuk saying that there can be “no question” of surrender. “Instead of wasting time on 8 pages of letters, just open a [humanitarian] corridor,” she told the Ukrainska Pravda newspaper.
- A shopping centre in Kyiv was shelled late last night with rescuers still battling to control the blaze in the Podilskyi district of Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv. Ukraine’s state emergency services said it received a call at 10.48pm that a fire had broken out at several homes and floors of a shopping mall in an update on its official Telegram account. Mayor Vitali Klitschko said the attack claimed one victim but information is still being clarified.
- An ammonia leak at a chemical plant in the northeastern Ukrainian city of Sumy is affecting an area within a 2.5km radius of the spill, the city’s mayor said early this morning. Dmytro Zhyvytskyiy said the leak was reported at 4.30am local time at the Sumykhimprom plant in an update posted to his official Telegram.
- US President Joe Biden will travel to Poland on Friday to discuss international efforts to support Ukraine and “impose severe and unprecedented costs on Russia” for its invasion, the White House said. The discussions will follow Biden’s meetings in Brussels, Belgium with Nato allies, G7 leaders, and European Union leaders.
- The Chinese ambassador to the United States has denied China had sent weapons and ammunition to support Russia’s war in Ukraine and that Beijing would “do everything to de-escalate the crisis” in an interview with CBS. Qin Gang said reports Beijing may provide military assistance to Russia was “disinformation” and China was sending humanitarian aid to help those affected by the conflict.
- The UK’s ministry of defence believes Russian forces are advancing from Crimea and are still attempting to circumvent Mykolaiv as they look to drive west towards Odesa. “These forces have made little progress over the past week,” the report adds.
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he believes a failure to negotiate the end of Russia’s invasion will mean “a third world war”. In an interview with CNN on Sunday, Zelenskiy said that he’s “ready for negotiations” with Russian President Vladimir Putin but warned that if they fail “that would mean that this is a third World War.”
- Zelenskiy drew links between Putin’s “final solution” for Ukraine and the Nazi extermination of the Jews as he challenged Israel over its failure to impose sanctions on Russia in an address to the Knesset.
- Mariupol’s city council said Russia bombed an art school where 400 civilians including children were sheltering.
- Slovenia will send its diplomats back to Kyiv soon, according to prime minister Janez Janša.
