Firmly rejects demands to lay down arms and surrender Mariupol, Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine: We have informed Russia

Hedung Drama Theater in Mariupol, Ukraine hancur. (Wikimedia Commons / Donetsk Regional Military Administration)

JAKARTA - Ukraine said there was no question of surrendering the city of Mariupol, after Russia asked Ukrainian troops on Sunday to lay down arms in the besieged port city.

"There is no question of surrender, laying of arms," news portal Ukrainska Pravda quoted Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk as saying, as reported by Reuters, March 21.

"We have informed the Russian side about this," said Vereschuk.

He further said that more than 7.000 people were evacuated from Ukrainian cities through humanitarian corridors on Sunday. More than half from Mariupol. He said the government planned to send nearly 50 buses there on Monday for further evacuations.

Furthermore, Vereshchuk said Russia's actions were 'deliberate manipulation'. "Instead of spending time on eight pages for a letter, just open the corridor," he said.

Russia and Ukraine have blamed each other for failing to open such a corridor in recent weeks.

Bombing in Mariupol City, Ukraine. (Wikimedia Commons/mvs.gov.ua/Міністерство ав аїни)

As previously reported, the Russian military gave an ultimatum to the Ukrainian troops in Mariupol to lay down their arms, as the fighting in the city escalated, at the same time one of its top military officers was killed in the city.

Russia on Sunday asked Ukrainian troops to lay down their weapons in the eastern port city of Mariupol, where Moscow says a 'terrible humanitarian catastrophe' is unfolding.

"Put down your weapons," Colonel-General Mikhail Mizintsev, director of Russia's Center for National Defense Management, said in a briefing distributed by the defense ministry.

"A terrible humanitarian catastrophe has developed. Everyone who lays down their weapons is guaranteed a safe exit from Mariupol," Mizintsev said.

Mariupol has endured some of the heaviest bombings since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24. Many of its 400.000 residents remain trapped in the city with little food, water, and electricity.

Mizintsev said the humanitarian corridor for civilians would open east and west from Mariupol at 10 a.m. Moscow time on Monday. Ukraine has until 5 a.m. Moscow time to respond to the humanitarian corridor offer and lay down arms, he said.

Separately, Ukraine claims its forces have shot dead the deputy commander of Russia's Black Sea Fleet, in another significant blow to Vladimir Putin's forces.

First-ranked captain Andrey Paliy, 51, is a senior naval officer presumed dead in the war in Ukraine, with Kyiv claiming to have killed five army generals.

Paliy's death was apparently confirmed by a Russian friend, Konstantin Tsarenko, secretary of the general board of the Sevastopol Nakhimov Naval School, although it has not been officially acknowledged by Moscow, cited from Dailymail.

One account said that he had been involved with Russian marine attacks near Mariupol. However, the exact circumstances of his reported death are unknown.