LVIV, Ukraine, March 21 (Reuters) – Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said on Monday that Ukraine had “of course” rejected a Russian ultimatum for people in Mariupol to surrender and the situation in the besieged city ere was “very difficult”.
Russia offered to open humanitarian corridors from the city from 10 a.m. Moscow time (0700 GMT) if residents lay down arms.
“Of course we rejected these proposals,” Vereshchuk said. “The situation there is very difficult.”
Russian air forces hit a Ukrainian army military facility in Rivne Region with cruise missiles, Russia’s Defence Ministry said on Monday.
“High-precision air-launched cruise missiles have struck a training centre for foreign mercenaries and Ukrainian nationalist formations,” Defence Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said.
Russian forces advancing on Kyiv from the north-east have stalled and the bulk of its forces remain more than 25 kilometres from the centre of the city, British military intelligence said on Monday.
“Heavy fighting continues north of Kyiv,” the Ministry of Defence said. “Forces advancing from the direction of Hostomel to the north-west have been repulsed by fierce Ukrainian resistance.”
There is an ammonia leak at a chemicals plant in the northeastern Ukrainian city of Sumy besieged by Russian troops, Sumy regional governor Dmytro Zhyvytskyy said on Monday.
Zhyvytskyy did not say what had caused the leak reported at 04:30 local time (02:30 GMT) at the Sumykhimprom plant. He said the area within a five-kilometre radius around the plant was hazardous.
A person walks inside a destroyed building of the Kharkiv District Council in Kharkiv, Ukraine. EPA-EFE/Andrzej Lange
