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Ukraine refused Russian demands to surrender Mariupol on Monday, with the besieged port city the focal point of a war that has reached a brutal stalemate but is fueling a devastating humanitarian crisis.
Kyiv rejected the demand to give up the city after Moscow promised to allow civilians trapped amid the bombardment without water, heat or medicine to escape if its defenders laid down their arms.
Seizing control of the strategic city would represent a significant victory for Russian forces, with their advance seemingly ground to a halt elsewhere and their campaign shifting to intensifying aerial bombardment of Ukrainian cities.
A fresh attack on Kyiv on Sunday night left at least eight people dead and a shopping center destroyed, Ukrainian officials said. An official death toll was still being determined.
President Joe Biden will head to Europe this week as the United States and its allies seek to bolster Ukraine and punish the Kremlin for its invasion. The trip will include a visit to Poland, a NATO ally neighboring Ukraine, the White House announced late Sunday.
Oil slips below $114 as E.U. split on Russian ban
Oil slipped below $114 a barrel Tuesday as European Union members disagreed on the possibility of an oil embargo on Russia.
European Union foreign ministers have been divided on whether to join the United States in the ban, with some countries saying the bloc is too reliant on Russia's fossil fuels to go through with the embargo.
Brent crude fell $1.92, or 1.7 percent, to $113.70 a barrel at 9:20 a.m. GMT (5:20 a.m. ET). U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude slipped $2.82, or 2.5 percent, to $109.30. Both contracts had settled up more than 7 percent on Monday.
Oil slipped as the dollar strengthened after U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell on Monday suggested there would be a more aggressive tightening of monetary policy than previously expected.
Powell said the U.S. central bank is prepared to raise interest rates as needed to contain "much too high" inflation.
Russia ends WWII peace talks with Japan over Ukraine sanctions
Russia has responded to Japanese sanctions by terminating World War II peace treaty talks with the country, which responded angrily Tuesday.
The two countries never formally ended hostilities because of a territorial dispute over an island chain that lies between them. The islands, which Russia calls the Kurils and Japan calls the Northern Territories, were occupied by the Soviet Union in 1945.
Moscow is halting the talks with Tokyo as well as efforts toward joint economic activity on the islands, Russia's Tass news agency reported Monday, citing the Russian Foreign Ministry.
“It is impossible to discuss the signing of a fundamental treaty in bilateral relations with a country that takes an outspokenly unfriendly stance and tries to cause harm to the interests of our country,” the Foreign Ministry said.
Since Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Japan has banned strategic exports, frozen bank assets and imposed sanctions on individuals and companies. Last week, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said Japan would revoke Russia's most-favored-nation trade status. On Tuesday, he criticized Russia's decision to end the talks, which have made little progress in seven decades despite more than 20 meetings between Russian President Vladimir Putin and former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
“The current situation is entirely the result of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and for them to shift this onto Japan-Russia relations is extremely unjust and absolutely unacceptable,” Kishida said.
Zelenskyy says Russia shelled humanitarian corridor
LVIV, Ukraine — Russian forces shelled along a humanitarian corridor Monday, wounding four children who were among the civilians being evacuated, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his nighttime video address to the nation. He said the shelling took place in the Zaporizhzhia region, the initial destination of those fleeing Mariupol.
The Ukrainian government said that about 3,000 people from Mariupol were evacuated on Monday.
Zelenskyy said he spoke with Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte and French President Emmanual Macron to coordinate their positions before Western leaders meet on Thursday.
“Our position will be expressed and will be expressed strongly, believe me,” Zelenskyy said.
Russian troops flummoxed, frustrated, Pentagon says
Russian forces in Ukraine, increasingly frustrated by their lack of progress, are increasing their attacks on civilians, Defense Department press secretary John Kirby said Monday.
"The Russians have been flummoxed. They've been frustrated. They have failed to achieve a lot of their objectives on the ground," he said, adding that "they are essentially still stalled outside Kharkiv, outside Chernihiv and so many other places."
As a result, Kirby said, Russian forces are "lobbing an awful lot of hardware into the cities to try to force their surrender. And it's increased over the last few days."
President Joe Biden last week called Russian President Vladimir Putin a "murderous dictator," and Secretary of State Antony Blinken followed up by saying, "Intentionally targeting civilians is a war crime."
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said a legal process was underway to determine whether Russia and its leadership could be held accountable, ostensibly by the International Criminal Court in the Hague.
Iowa senator says Ukrainians want more lethal aid after congressional trip to Poland, Germany
Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, who led a bipartisan congressional delegation to Poland and Germany over the weekend, said lawmakers spoke with Ukrainian civil society leaders who "delivered a clear message to the United States, and that message was: We need more lethal aid, and we need it as soon as possible."
Ernst said at a news conference at the Capitol that the delegation met with Ukrainians who conveyed a willingness to "fight to the very last man" and that "they will win this war."
Asked about potential concerns that military aid could fall into the wrong hands, Ernst replied: "I have full faith and confidence in the Ukrainian military as long as they have the means to defend themselves and push Russia out.
"So am I worried about that? It might be in the back of my mind, but I know that if we're enabling the Ukrainians, they will put up the best fight ever and they can push on the victory," she added. "We know that this is very different than Afghanistan.”
Holocaust survivor, 96, killed in Kharkiv after Russian forces shell apartment
A Holocaust survivor was killed in Ukraine when Russian forces shelled his apartment building in the eastern city of Kharkiv, a memorial foundation said Monday.
Boris Romanchenko, 96, survived several Nazi concentration camps but died Friday after the attack burned his building, the Buchenwald and Mittelbau-Dora Memorials Foundation said.
Romanchenko, who was born in northeastern Ukraine, was deported to Dortmund, Germany, in 1942, the organization said. After a failed escape, he was sent to four camps — Buchenwald, Peenemünde, Mittelbau and Bergen-Belsen.
Russia's claims about missiles could be hypersonic hype, officials say
Russia claims it destroyed a Ukrainian ammunitions depot with hypersonic missiles capable of flying five to 25 times the speed of sound.
If confirmed, it would mark a dramatic escalation of Russia's brutal campaign to crush the pro-Western government in Kyiv and drag the country back into Moscow’s orbit.
But so far, Pentagon officials and military experts say, what Russia has unleashed appears to be hypersonic hype about a potentially devastating weapon.
