(Reuters) – Ukraine has defied Russia’s demand for soldiers to lay down arms in Mariupol, where civilians are besieged in a city being laid to waste by bombardment.
Russia’s almost month-old assault on Ukraine has stalled along most fronts, failing to seize any major city or topple the government. But shelling and missiles are causing devastation.
FIGHTING
* In the capital Kyiv, shells hit a shopping centre on Sunday evening, killing at least eight people.
* Russian artillery continues to pound the eastern cities of Kharkhiv, Sumy and Chernihiv.
* But the focal point is Mariupol, a strategically important southern port. There, horror and bewilderment stalk the devastated, Russian-besieged city, where some bury neighbours in roadside graves.
REFUGEES
* Nearly 6.5 million people have been uprooted from homes, the United Nations says. Just over 8,000 people were evacuated on Monday.
SANCTIONS
* The European Union cannot agree on whether or how to slap sanctions on Russia’s lucrative energy sector. Germany says the bloc is too dependent on Russian oil for that.
DIPLOMACY
* Peace talks resumed but there is no sign of significant progress.
* U.S.-Russia bilateral ties were on the brink of collapse, Russia’s foreign ministry said, summoning the U.S. ambassador after President Joe Biden called Russian President Vladimir Putin a “war criminal.”
COMING UP
* The U.N. General Assembly is expected to vote again this week on a motion criticising Russia for the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine.
QUOTES
* “It is a senseless massacre where every day slaughters and atrocities are being repeated,” Pope Francis said.
* “Everything is destroyed. Where can we go?” asked librarian Irina Chernenko in a dark cellar in Mariupol packed with families for 11 days.
(Compiled by Andrew Cawthorne and Rosalba O’Brien)
