NEW YORK (1010 WINS/AP) -- The battle for Ukraine's strategic port of Mariupol raged on Monday, as Ukraine rejected a Russian offer to evacuate its troops from the besieged city and Russian bombardment continued. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said about 400 civilians were taking shelter at an art school in the Azov Sea port city when it was struck by a Russian bomb. Russia's war in Ukraine, now in its 26th day, shows no signs of abating. The invasion has wreaked devastation and destruction, exacting a heavy toll on civilians. The U.N. says more than 3.38 million people have fled Ukraine. There have been about 6.5 million internally displaced Ukrainians estimated by the United Nations refugee agency.
Monday, March 21, 2022
11:15 a.m. - Russia warns relations between U.S. are at 'verge of rupture'
The Russian Foreign Ministry said it summoned U.S. Ambassador John Sullivan on Monday in condemnation of the "unacceptable statements" by President Joe Biden over labeling Putin last week as a "war criminal."
The foreign ministry added that relations between the U.S. and Russia are "on the verge of rupture."
Biden told reporters last Wednesday that Putin is a "war criminal" for his attacks on Ukraine.
It was the first time Biden labeled Putin with that term.
9:45 a.m. - Ukraine rejects Russia's demand for Mariupol surrender
Ukrainian officials defiantly rejected a Russian demand that their forces in Mariupol lay down their arms and raise white flags Monday in exchange for safe passage out of the besieged port city.
As Russia intensified its effort to pound Mariupol into submission, its ground offensive in other parts of Ukraine has become bogged down. Western officials and analysts say the conflict is turning into a grinding war of attrition, with Russia bombarding cities.
A serviceman patrols one of the streets in Mariupol on Sunday, March 20.Mikhail Tereshchenko/TASS/Sipa USA
In the capital, Kyiv, a shopping center in the densely populated Podil district near the city center was a smoking ruin after being hit late Sunday by shelling that killed eight people, according to emergency officials. The attack shattered every window in a neighboring high-rise.
Ukrainian authorities also said Russia shelled a chemical plant in northeastern Ukraine, sending toxic ammonia leaking into the air, and hit a military training base in the west with cruise missiles.
9 a.m. - Biden to visit Poland during Europe trip this week
President Joe Biden has added a stop in Poland to his trip this week to Europe for urgent talks with NATO and European allies, as Russian forces concentrate their fire upon cities and trapped civilians in a nearly month-old invasion of Ukraine.
Biden will first travel to Brussels and then to Poland to meet with leaders there, press secretary Jen Psaki said in a statement Sunday night.
Poland is a crucial ally in the Ukraine crisis. It is hosting thousands of American troops and is taking in more people fleeing the war in Ukraine — more than 2 million — than any other nation in the midst of the largest European refugee crisis in decades.
Biden will head to Warsaw for a bilateral meeting with President Andrzej Duda scheduled for Saturday. Biden will discuss how the U.S., along with its allies and partners, is responding to “the humanitarian and human rights crisis that Russia’s unjustified and unprovoked war on Ukraine has created,” Psaki said.
8:30 a.m. - Russian bond trading reopens for 1st time since Ukraine war
Russia’s central bank has cautiously reopened bond trading on the Moscow exchange for the first time since the country invaded Ukraine.
The price of Russia’s ruble-denominated government debt fell Monday, sending borrowing costs higher. Stock trading has remained closed, with no word on when it might reopen.
A woman at the Moscow Exchange office in Bolshoy Kislovsky Pereulok Street. The Bank of Russia has decided to resume federal loan bonds trading on the Moscow Exchange.Artyom Geodakyan/TASS/Sipa USA
The central bank bought bonds to support prices. It has imposed wide-ranging restrictions on financial transactions to try to stabilize markets and combat the severe fallout from Western sanctions that have sent the ruble sharply lower against the U.S. dollar and the euro.
Ratings agencies have downgraded Russia’s bonds to “junk” status. Russia’s finance ministry last week flirted with default by threatening to pay foreign holders of dollar bonds in massively devalued rubles before sending the money in dollars.
Stocks last traded on Feb. 25, the day after the invasion started and sent the main stock index sharply lower.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
