Zelensky rejects Russian ultimatums; strike on Kyiv mall kills 8

Russian forces continued to shell civilians and Ukrainian forces in Kharkiv and Kyiv on Monday. Shelling also targeted civilian infrastructure in Mariupol, in the south of Ukraine.

Russia conducted several unsuccessful assaults in separatist-controlled Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts but it did not make any major territorial advances.

Satellite images released Monday show a bird’s-eye view of the destruction in Mariupol, offering one of the few available up-to-date looks at the besieged city from which journalists fled days ago.

The photographs, captured by the American firm Maxar Technologies, show swaths of bombed-out neighborhoods, with gray and black smoke marking smoldering ruins. In one, taken Saturday, the camera zooms in on a cluster of high-rise apartment buildings, many of which appear to have been shelled. Smoke unfurls from several of their facades.

In an image from Monday, showing a wider angle, the city’s wrecked drama theater can be seen, a once-stately building reduced to rubble — like many of the surrounding structures. The fate of the blockaded city, which Russia is bent on seizing, is uncertain. Thousands of civilians have fled in recent days, but thousands more remain, and Ukraine has refused Moscow’s demands that Mariupol leaders surrender and flee.

Maxar, which has released a steady stream of satellite photos since the Russian invasion began, also published images of the Kyiv and Chernihiv regions, showing more damage. In Irpin, near the capital, dark smoke billows from buildings and Russian field artillery points at the city.

In Chernihiv, in the country’s north near its border with Belarus, oil storage tanks burn and larger craters dot residential neighborhoods, along with leveled homes.

MUKACHEVO, Ukraine — Russia’s assault on Ukraine grew more destructive Monday as civilians faced deadly obstacles in their attempts to flee the besieged city of Mariupol and a staggering flow of displaced Ukrainians strained neighboring countries.

Ukrainian and Russian forces battled in the streets of the strategic southern city as Moscow attempted on the 26th day of its offensive to lay claim to an area that would solidify its control of the Black Sea coast from the Russian-controlled Crimean Peninsula to the Russian border. The fate of Mariupol remained in doubt Monday as Ukrainians refused to give up in the face of withering Russian attacks.

What is happening in Mariupol, the Ukrainian city under Russian siege?

Human rights groups have documented what they say are brutal tactics by Russian forces in the city, depriving residents of water, food and medicine and forcing them to shelter in basements. Because cellphone communication has been cut off since early March, only incomplete reports of residents’ ordeal have filtered to the outside world. Two Associated Press journalists who had been in Mariupol detailed in a story Monday how they witnessed horrific scenes of children dying and homes and businesses being shelled; the journalists were rushed out after they said authorities told them the Russians were trying to hunt them down.

The European Union’s top foreign policy official called the Russian operation in Mariupol, which has included the bombing of medical facilities and sites marked as shelters for children, a “massive” war crime. “The city will be completely destroyed,” Josep Borrell told reporters in Brussels.

• Kyiv: At least eight people were killed after a strike on a major shopping mall in Kyiv, the latest in violent attacks on the capital that have left civilians worried they’ll face the same fate as Kharkiv and Mariupol — with troops bombarding civilian populations to compensate for slow progress on the battlefield. British defense officials have warned that the city remains Russia’s “primary military objective.”
• Mariupol: The fate of this strategic port city remains unclear after it dismissed Moscow’s ultimatum to surrender after weeks of Russian bombardments.
• Mykolaiv: A hotel was bombed by Russian forces in downtown on Monday, a rare strike on a city center. The port city near the Black Sea has been heavily targeted by Russian bombardment for more than a week, as Ukrainian forces hold the front line in the south against troops from Russian-occupied Kherson.
• Kherson: Videos verified by The Washington Post posted Monday show a chaotic scene as the sound of gunfire and explosions erupted during Ukrainian protests against the Russian occupation of this southern city.
• Odesa: Residential buildings were damaged by suspected Russian strikes in the southern part of this city, near the Black Sea coast. Odesa has so far avoided the worst of Russia’s onslaughts, and many residents have chosen to stay.

Russia says it is using hypersonic missiles against Ukraine — an assertion President Biden confirmed Monday at the Business Roundtable’s CEO Quarterly Meeting. Such missiles travel faster than five times the speed of sound and have not been used before in combat.

A spokesman for the Russian Defense Ministry said Saturday that Russia had used a Kinzhal, or “dagger,” hypersonic missile late last week to destroy an ammunition depot in western Ukraine.

On Sunday, the Kremlin said its forces had launched hypersonic missiles a second time, this time from the airspace over Crimea, destroying a fuel storage facility in Ukraine’s Mykolaiv region, according to a statement from the Russian Defense Ministry.

Arms specialists and the U.S. and U.K. governments have downplayed Russia’s hypersonic abilities — and the degree to which their use on the battlefield matters.

What are these missiles? And what would it mean if Russia was using them? Here’s what to know.

LONDON — Max Fox arrived in the Polish border town of Przemysl with suitcases full of gifts for refugees and their pets — Cadbury Dairy Milk chocolate bars, toy London buses, dog chews — and high hopes of finding a Ukrainian who would like to come back to Britain to live with him.

Fox, a 32-year-old British singer who belted out Disney songs as he handed out chocolate bars, putting smiles on faces, is among the more than 100,000 Britons who have signed up as potential hosts through a Homes for Ukraine program.

But Britain’s largely do-it-yourself asylum plan requires hosts to name a Ukrainian when submitting paperwork. And because many Brits don’t know a Ukrainian personally, they are scouring social media, contacting charities, churches, community groups, friends of friends. Or in cases like Fox’s, they are getting on planes.

“I’ve been a bit spontaneous, but I can’t sit down anymore and watch this war unfold and do nothing,” said Fox, who has a two-bedroom apartment in Poulton-le-Fylde, a market town in northern England. He flew to Poland on Thursday to identify a refugee he could sponsor. He wanted to make sure they were comfortable with the fact that he is gay and married, with a pet cockapoo dog named Canela.

Speaking to a group of U.S. business executives Monday evening, President Biden confirmed for the first time Russia’s use of a hypersonic missile in its invasion of Ukraine. On Saturday and Sunday, Russian military officials claimed they had deployed hypersonic missiles in Ukraine, but the Pentagon had declined to confirm their use through Monday afternoon.

“As you noticed, they just launched a hypersonic missile because it’s the only thing they can get through with absolute certainty. As you all know, it’s a consequential weapon,” Biden said Monday at the quarterly meeting of Business Roundtable, a group of CEOs from some of the largest U.S. companies. “But with the same warhead on it as any other launched missile. It doesn’t make that much difference except it’s almost impossible to stop it. There’s a reason they’re using it.”

Biden said NATO and Pacific allies had been united in dealing with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s aggression with sanctions and other punishments, and he thanked business leaders for making decisions — such as pulling their business out of Russia — that also helped impose real costs on the Russian economy. But Biden also warned that the effectiveness of their alliance would drive Putin to pursue more severe war tactics.

“Now Putin’s back is against the wall. He wasn’t anticipating the extent of our strength, of our unity,” Biden said. “And the more his back is against the wall, the greater severity the tactics he may employ. We’ve seen it before.”

Biden said U.S. intelligence warned that Russia could be planning a cyberattack against the United States and urged the CEOs “as a patriotic obligation” to invest as much as they can to bolster technological capacity to deal with such attacks.

Moscow issued an ultimatum Sunday: Ukrainian forces had to leave the besieged city of Mariupol or face further assaults and a “military tribunal.”

Ukraine rejected the order to surrender the city, which has been battered by a Russian blockade and bombardments for nearly three weeks.

Here’s what to know about Mariupol and the humanitarian catastrophe happening there.