Ukrainian officials defiantly rejected a Russian demand that their forces in the besieged strategic port city of Mariupol lay down arms Monday and raise white flags in exchange for safe passage out.
Russia has been barraging the encircled southern city on the Sea of Azov, hitting an art school sheltering some 400 people only hours before offering to open two corridors out of the city in return for the capitulation of its defenders, according to Ukrainian officials.
