Ukraine Says No to Russia Demands of Laying Down Arms in Mariupol

INA-  sources

Ukraine said there is no question of surrendering the city of Mariupol after Russia called on Ukrainian forces on Sunday to lay down arms in the besieged port city.

"There can be no question of any surrender, laying down of arms," the Ukrainska Pravda news portal cited Ukraine's Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk as saying. "We have already informed the Russian side about this."

Russia said a "terrible humanitarian catastrophe" was unfolding in Mariupol.

"Lay down your arms," Colonel-General Mikhail Mizintsev, the director of the Russian National Center for Defense Management, said in a briefing distributed by the defence ministry.