Mariupol Refuses to Surrender as Putin Deliberately Targets Civilians; One Quarter of Ukrainians Now Refugees

As the Russian invasion stretches into day 26 and may have stalled, Russia has upped its attacks against non-military targets. 

In the southern port city of Mariupol, leaders rejected a Russian ultimatum to surrender today. “There can be no talk of any surrender, laying down of arms,” Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Irina Vereshchuk told the news outlet Ukrainian Pravda. “We have already informed the Russian side about this.”

Local officials say an airstrike destroyed a school in Mariupol where hundreds of people were seeking shelter. 

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Monday no one knows how many civilians were killed in that strike. “They are under the rubble, and we don’t know how many of them have survived,” he said. Last week, an airstrike also hit a theater there as more than 1,000 people were believed to be sheltering.
 
In the capital of Kyiv, Ukrainian officials say a Russian missile struck a shopping mall, killing at least one person.  

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told CBS, “We’ve seen deliberate targeting of cities and towns and civilians throughout in the last several weeks. I believe that he’s taking these kinds of steps because his campaign has stalled.”

CBN’s George Thomas in Kyiv says the fear is that Russian forces intend to pound Ukrainian cities into submission.

There are also unconfirmed reports that the Russian army is forcibly deporting Ukrainians to Russian territory.

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UN Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield told CNN, “It is unconscionable for Russia to force Ukrainian citizens into Russia and put them in what will basically be concentration and prisoner camps.”

In her first American interview, Marina Ovsyannikova, the Russian journalist who risked jail by speaking out against the war says the Russian people oppose it. 

“The Russian people are really against the war. It’s Putin’s war and not the Russian people’s war,” she told ABC.

Meanwhile, at least 10 million Ukrainians have been forced out of their homes. 

One-quarter of the population are now refugees. 

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