Stand-offs on the battlefield and at the negotiating table hardened on Monday as Ukraine rejected a Russian ultimatum to surrender the port city of Mariupol and Russia said peace talks had yet to reach any tangible conclusions, news agency MIA informs.
As Russia’s invasion of its western neighbour nears its one-month mark — an operation launched by Russia to stop what it claimed was genocide against ethnic Russians in eastern Ukraine — charges of human rights violations — which it denies — are piling up against Moscow. However, it remains unclear if the savagery on the battlefield is yielding any results. Russia claims advances, but Ukraine says the sides are in a stand-off.
Most information out of the country is impossible to verify, an effort made even harder by Russia’s clampdown on information about the invasion. That clampdown got even tighter on Monday as a Russian court labelled the already-banned social media platforms Facebook and Instagram as “extremist.”
However, the court allowed WhatsApp, another service run by the same parent company, Meta, to continue operations.
Twitter has already been shut down in the country, as have many independent media operations. Moscow officially calls the invasion a “special operation,” and referring to is as a “war” can result in punishment in Russia. Russia had called for Ukrainian troops in Mariupol to lay down arms and leave on Monday morning, and set a 5 am deadline (0200 GMT) for Ukraine to respond. Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk told Ukrayinska Pravda the response that there would be “no surrender” had been communicated to Moscow.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said any ultimatums from Moscow would be rejected, and said he plans to put all agreements reached with Russia through peace talks to a nationwide referendum for public approval. It was unclear what the sides were talking about as they gathered for another hour and a half of talks on Monday, before breaking into working groups.
Earlier in the day, Ukrainian presidential advisor Mykhailo Podolyak said he believes talks with Moscow to end the war will last several weeks longer, and said there were signs that Moscow’s position was becoming “more reasonable” and more realistic. He did not give further details. Moscow’s demands include for Ukraine to be neutral and demilitarize, as well as to recognize the separatist areas in eastern Ukraine as independent states. Ukraine has so far showed a willingness to compromise over Moscow’s demand to stay neutral, but wants stronger security guarantees from the west.
Kiev has not budged on its territorial integrity. Zelensky is insisting on eventually meeting with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, something that the Kremlin has so far refused to consider. The Kremlin said on Monday that those talks are not on the cards until the negotiators present a detailed plan. It demanded more “dynamism” from the Ukrainians.
On the battlefield, Russia claimed it had killed 80 people in an attack on a training facility in north-western Ukraine and the capture of 60 troops outside Kiev. Ukraine reported eight dead after a Russian attack on a Kiev shopping centre.
Moscow claims it has captured more than 500 Ukrainian soldiers as prisoners of war, while Ukraine last spoke of more than 560 Russian prisoners of war.
Russia’s invasion has prompted a refugee crisis. Western countries have responded with massive sanctions, but those have the potential to disrupt the global economy.
There are also worries that the war could disrupt the wheat harvest: Both countries are major exporters. The attackers have at times seemed to endanger the functioning of nuclear facilities in Ukraine.
On Monday, there were reports of a “minor” ammonia gas leak after damage to a factory in Sumy.
