Mariupol couldn't surrender. The Ukrainians know what happened last time and what is already happening. People are being vetted if they want to leave, with those who are deemed unworthy disappearing. There are rumours of slave camps circulating.
Noga Tarnpolsky @ntarnpolsky
Zelensky quotes the Ukrainian-born Golda Meir: "We intend to remain alive. Our neighbors want to see us dead. This is not a question that leaves much room for compromise," saying it is well-known to Israelis, Ukrainians "and Russians, too."
This is a diary account from someone in Mariupol:
Hromadske Int. @hromadske
Mariupol today. We publish the full text by Nadia Sukhorukova.
Hromadske International @hromadske
I go outside in between the bombings. I need to walk the dog. She's whining, shivering, and hiding behind my legs. I want to sleep all the time. My yard, surrounded by high-rise buildings, is silent and dead. 1/13
I'm not afraid to look around anymore. In front of me, the entrance to building #105 is burning down. The flames already devoured five floors and are slowly chewing the sixth. The fire in the room burns as delicately as in a fireplace. 2/13
Black charred windows are windowless. Curtains torn by the fire fall out of them like tongues. Calm and doomed I look at it. I am sure I will die soon. It is a matter of a few days. In this city, everyone is constantly waiting for death. I just want it not to be too scary. 3/13
Three days ago, a friend of my older nephew came to us and told us that there was a direct hit in the fire department. Rescuers died. One woman got her arm, leg, and head torn off. I dream that my body parts will remain in place, even after the aerial bomb explosion. 4/13
I don't know why, but I think it's important.Although, they won't bury during hostilities. That's what the police told us when we asked what to do with our friend's dead grandmother. They advised to put her on the balcony. I wonder how many balconies have dead bodies on them?5/13
Our home on Mira Avenue is the only one without direct hits. It was hit twice by a shell, in some apartments windows were blown out, but it did not suffer much compared to other homes.
The whole yard is covered with layers of ash, glass, plastic, and metal fragments. 6/13
I try not to look at the iron thing that flew into the playground. I think it's a rocket, or maybe a land mine. I don't care, it's just unpleasant. I see someone's face in the third-floor window, and I shudder. It turns out that I am afraid of living people. 7/13
My dog starts howling, and I realize that they're going to shoot again. I am standing outside in the daytime and a cemetery silence all around me. There are no cars, no voices, no children, no grandmothers on the benches. Even the wind is dead. 8/13
A few people are here, though. They lie on the side of the house and in the parking lot, covered with their outer clothing. I don't want to look at them. I'm afraid I'll see someone I know. 9/13
All life in my town is smoldering in basements right now. It's like a candle in our shelter. Putting it out is so easy. Any vibration or breeze and the darkness will fall. I try to cry, but I can not. I feel sorry for myself, my family, my husband, my neighbors, my friends. 10/13
I go back to the basement and listen to the ugly scraping of iron. It's been two weeks, and I don't believe that there was ever another life. 11/13
There are still people in the basement in Mariupol. It's getting harder for them to survive by the day. No water, no food, no light, they can't go outside. The people of Mariupol must live. Help them. Spread the word. Let everyone know that civilians continue to be killed. 12/13
Original text on Facebook
t.co/lBfnvBB7CI
And this is what seems likely to now start happening :
Christopher Miller @christopherJM
A chilling new threat. Russia's Defense Ministry says Ukraine has until 5am on March 21 to surrender the besieged city of Mariupol, adding it'll let residents and troops who lay down arms leave. Anyone left behind "with the bandits" will "face a military tribunal." via RIA
I have done a ton of reporting on "military tribunals" conducted by Russia and its separatist proxies in eastern Ukraine since the war began in 2014. Here's a disturbing look at what they are:
www.rferl.org/a/the-executioners-of-slovyansk/30743132.html
The Executioners Of Slovyansk
A Death Squad Unmasked As Ukraine War Grinds On Six Years Later
After an RFE/RL investigation, names and faces can now be put to the Russia-backed militants — including one with ties to a longtime Putin aide in the Kremlin — who ordered the extrajudicial executions of Ukrainians by firing squad and set a dark tone for the war in the Donbas.
The 30-year-old Pichko, a civilian, was taken to a gloomy two-story building surrounded by armed guards and barricades. He was interrogated, forced to write a confession, and summarily shot to death by a firing squad of Russia-backed separatists who had seized control of the city. His executioners discarded his body on a battlefield of the war raging between them and Ukrainian forces, where it could be blown to bits by exploding artillery shells, according to family members and friends who sought out his whereabouts when he was taken and looked for his body after learning of his death.
He wasn’t the only person in Slovyansk to meet such a fate.
This is genocide. This is what it looks like.
Wake up.