The War Room: Ukraine authorities overnight defied a Russian demand for surrender of the southern port city of Mariupol. Russian Colonel-General Mikhail Mizintsev had promised that “All who lay down their arms are guaranteed safe passage out of Mariupol.” The Ukrainians ignored him and today street fighting is reported all over the city.

  Russians forces over the weekend bombed an art school in Mariupol that had been a shelter for as many as 400 people. There’s no word yet on casualties. This happened even as rescuers have been unable to reach 1,000 or more people in the rubble of a theater also used as a shelter.

  Today, a  Russian missile strike levelled a shopping mall in the capital city, Kyiv. At least eight people were killed.

  Stymied from making strategic advances on the ground, the Russians are pressing their assault on the port city of Mariupol making it a war against civilians in an effort to dispirit the Ukrainians. 

  The attackers are using ordinance launched from land, sea, and air as they reduce the city to ruins.

  The Russians have also been invading and taking over private homes. The NY Times documented with security video how Russian soldiers broke into an apartment building then took over the homes of residents. 

  There are also accounts that the Russians have been rounding up Ukrainians and deporting them into Russia. Russian forces have taken “between 4,000 and 4,500 Mariupol residents forcibly across the border to Taganrog,” according to Pyotr Andryuschenko, an assistant to the city’s mayor. 

  A report emerged just yesterday that 10 days ago Russian shelling of a nursing home in the town of  Kreminna killed 56 people.

  More than a fifth of Ukraine’s population of 44 million people have fled the country or been displaced within the borders, according to United Nations estimates. In the fighting areas, those who remain are having trouble getting food, clean water, and medical care.

  The Russians are paying for what they get.  A fifth Russian general has been reported killed in action. Lieutenant-General Andrey Mordvichev, commander of the 8th army of the southern military district, was killed when Ukrainians destroyed a command post at an airfield in the port city of Kherson. The Russians also confirm that the 51-year-old deputy commander of their Black Sea Fleet has also been killed.

  Having difficulty advancing on the ground, the Russians appear to be digging in politically. An analysis issued by the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington think tank, says, “Russian forces are digging in around the periphery of Kyiv and elsewhere, attempting to consolidate political control over areas they currently occupy, resupplying and attempting to reinforce units in static positions, and generally beginning to set conditions to hold in approximately their current forward positions for an indefinite time.” 

The Modern Crossbow: The days of mounted knights in heavy armor were brought to an abrupt end by the crossbow, which allowed a foot soldier to fire a metal-piercing arrow.

  Something like that is happening in Ukraine as foreign governments ship to the Ukraine military thousands of light, shoulder-fired weapons capable of taking out tanks, armored vehicles, and aircraft. What it means is that the Ukrainians don’t need tanks, helicopters, and fighter jets to knock down tanks, helicopters, and fighter jets. 

 One of the most advanced of these weapons is the US made Switchblade drone, which comes in two versions. One is only 5.5 pounds and can fly up to 15 minutes. The larger version is  50 pounds and can fly for 40 minutes with a range of 25 miles. 

  Very successful so far have been the US Javelin anti-tank weapon, and the Stinger anti-aircraft missile. German and Polish versions of similar weapons also have been sent into the fight. Emerging as very useful is the British/Swedish NLAW, which is lighter and easier to operate than the Javelin. 

The Diplomatic Front: The BBC reports that Russian President Vladimir Putin described his terms for ending the war in Ukraine with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. They include:

• Assurance by Ukraine that it will remain neutral and not seek to join NATO. 
• Complete disarmament by Ukraine.
• Protection for Russian speakers in Ukraine and “de-Nazification,” which is a mystery because Ukraine is not run by Nazis or anything close to it.
• Officially cede to Russia the territories it has previously seized, including Crimea and the eastern Donbas and Luhansk regions. 

  Ukraine President Volodomyr Zelensky told CNN’s Fareed Zakaria yesterday that he’s not willing to negotiate away or cede any territory. “Any compromises related to our territorial integrity and our sovereignty …. [the] Ukrainian people have spoken about it,” he said. “They have not greeted Russian soldiers with a bunch of flowers; they have greeted them with bravery, and they have greeted them with weapons in their hands.”

Exitsky: You can’t protest in Russia but you can leave. The NY Times reports that tens of thousands of young Russian professionals unhappy with their country are leaving, many of them to neighboring Armenia. They’ve taken their computers with them and many are working remotely, almost anywhere they’re needed and employable.

The Spin Rack: Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas is in the hospital with flulike symptoms receiving intravenous medication. They say it’s not serious. —One person was killed and at least 24 wounded, some of them children, during a shooting at a car show Saturday night in Dumas, Arkansas, southeast of Little Rock.  

Gallows Humor: Former Russian chess champion Gary Kasparov circulated a joke he says is making the rounds of the internet in Russia: “We are now entering day 24 of the special military operation to take Kyiv in two days.”

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