LVIV, Ukraine — As the besieged city of Mariupol rejected a demand to surrender, Russian forces mounted attacks across Ukraine overnight and into Monday, including a missile strike that officials said hit a Kyiv shopping center and killed at least eight people.
With fears growing that Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine is turning into a bloody war of attrition, Mariupol leaders rebuffed the Russian proposal — which offered evacuation routes for Ukrainian troops if they left by Monday morning — even after the reported bombing of a local art school where officials said hundreds of people had taken shelter.
Mariupol’s mayor swiftly ruled out giving in to the enemy troops that have surrounded his city, which has become a symbol of Ukrainian suffering and destruction. Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk also dismissed the Russian demand.
“There can be no talk of any surrender, laying down of arms,” she told the Ukrainian Pravda news organization.
In an overnight address, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the bombing of the art school, where he said 400 people had taken refuge, was further proof against Russian claims that it’s not targeting civilians.
“There were no military positions,” Zelenskyy said. “They are under the debris. We do not know how many are alive at the moment.”
The bombing, in a war-torn city where few journalists are present and internet connections have become scant, could not be independently verified. Ukraine officials have also accused Russians of forcing thousands of Mariupol residents to be sent to Russia. The allegation has also not been independently confirmed.
Nearly a month after the Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine began, more than 3.3 million people — about 1 in 13 — have fled the nation, according to the United Nations. Millions more have been internally displaced, with many jamming trains and buses bound for western Ukraine, which has seen significantly fewer attacks than the east, where the war began.
The United Nations reported Monday that more than 900 civilians have died, though the actual number is likely much higher.
With the capital of Kyiv still under Ukrainian control, the Russian military has resorted over the last week to shelling residential areas outside the center of the city, with missiles regularly hitting high-rise apartments and commercial strips. Some are direct impacts from Russian launches. Damage to at least one high-rise building last week was the result of a Ukrainian attempt to intercept fire.
Late Sunday, the Ukrainian emergency service reported that missiles struck a shopping center in the Podilskyi district, northwest of the central Kyiv, partially destroying it. At least eight people were killed, according to the Ukrainian emergency service.
Mayor Vitali Klitschko said that houses were also hit.
“Several explosions in the Podilskyi district of the capital. In particular, according to information available at the moment, shells hit some houses and one of the shopping centers. Rescuers, medics and police are already there,” Klitschko said on his Telegram channel.
The shopping center, called Retroville, had fast-food restaurants — including a KFC and a McDonald’s — a movie theater and a gym, among other businesses. According to a Facebook post, it had shut down last month as the war began. It’s unclear if it was operating this week.
Amid the barrage of attacks, the city will undergo another 35-hour curfew, from 8 p.m. Monday until 7 a.m. Wednesday. Klitschko said that pharmacies, gas stations and stores would be closed all day Tuesday and that only emergency vehicles would be allowed in the streets during the curfew.
