DEFIANCE AMID THE MARIUPOL HORROR

UKRAINIANS WON’T BOW TO RUSSIAN DEMANDS. UK ‘WOULD CONSIDER PUTIN WAR CRIMES TRIAL’

- Nicholas Cecil Political Editor and Will Stewart in Moscow

MILITARY chiefs in Mariupol, which is being bombed to destruction by Russian forces, refused to surrender today as Vladimir Putin was branded a “war criminal” for atrocities being inflicted on the city.

Ukraine defied a Kremlin demand that its troops in the city lay down arms before dawn, where tens of thousands of civilians have been besieged — cut off from food, water and electricity supplies.

As more details of the horror being strewn by Russian forces in Mariupol were emerging, Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky condemned the “mass murderer” pilots bombing the city.

In London, Cabinet minister Sajid Javid backed considering a Nuremberg-style trial to try Russian president Mr Putin in his absence for war crimes in Ukraine.

“I’m appalled by the atrocities that are unfolding in Ukraine and the despicable attacks that we are seeing on civilians,” he told LBC Radio. “As far as I’m concerned, these are the acts of a war criminal.”

Russian military commanders gave people inside Mariupol until 5am (3am UK time) this morning to surrender and be allowed out of the city in the country’s south through safe corridors. But Ukraine’s deputy prime minister Iryna Vereshchuk said: “Of course we rejected these proposals,” as there was little trust that the Russians would stick to their word, having previously attacked evacuation convoys.