Thread by @fulelo

Ukraine news 🧵 on @bbcworldservice at 2200 GMT on 21.03 - listen live: bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/li…

The Ukrainian president, Volodomyr Zelensky, has said his country will never bow to ultimatums from Russia to surrender its biggest cities. Kyiv refused an offer of

what Moscow termed safe passage for those in Mariupol if they laid down their arms. Mr Zelensky said Ukrainians would have to approve any compromise agreed with Russia. Local commanders said the death toll in Mariupol now exceeded 3000 people. But they added the true figure

was unknown as many bodies had been buried in mass graves and others lie in the streets. Efforts to get hum. aid through to an estimated 300 000 people trapped in the city have again failed. It was not included on a list the Ukrainian authorities said had been agreed with Russia

The first international journalists have arrived in those parts of Mariupol now controlled by Russian forces. The Reuters news agency describes an apocalyptic wasteland, where apartment blocks are all charred black. Bodies are being buried by the roadside as families emerge from

days and nights sheltering underground. Debris is everywhere, but food and water are in short supply. On the other side of the frontline, a resident describes a dead city, without cars or voices or children, but with burning buildings and dead bodies lying beside the houses.

Any remaining residents live in their basements, with little food, water or light. A resident, Nadezhda Sukhorukova, says she herself expects to die soon, but hopes it will not be a scary death and her body remains intact.

A report in a Russian newspaper has indicated that almost ten thousand Russian servicemen have been killed in Ukraine in the three and a half weeks since the invasion began. An article on the website of the popular daily - Komsomolskaya Pravda, published on Sunday - quoted

figures from the Defence Ministry. But it was removed shortly after. Vladimir Sungorkin, the editor-in-chief of Komsomolskaya Pravda, has now told the BBC's Moscow correspondent that the article was the result of a hack, and that the newspaper would be posting an explanation

later. The briefly available figures fall in line with American intelligence assessments cited by @nytimes, which last week suggested more than 7000 Russian troops had been killed at "the conservative side of the estimate."

The last available official Russian figures spoke of just over 400 Russian soldiers dying.

Here is a screenshot of today's Komsomolskaya Pravda article:

Russia has summoned the US ambassador to protest about statements by President Biden, who recently labelled President Putin a 'war criminal' over the conflict in Ukraine. Russia's foreign ministry said recent statements were unworthy of a statesman, and pushed

Russian- American relations to breaking point. In the past few hours Mr Biden has discussed what the White House called "Russia’s brutal tactics" in Ukraine with the leaders of Germany, Britain, France and Italy. They reiterated their continued support for Ukraine --

including providing security assistance and humanitarian assistance to the millions of Ukrainians who have fled the violence. Mr Biden will be visiting Europe later this week. Moscow has also announced it's suspending peace talks with Japan following Tokyo's decision

to impose sanctions on Moscow over Ukraine. The two countries have not formally ended their Second World War hostilities .

A Ukrainian survivor of the Nazi Holocaust has been killed in a Russian attack on the eastern city of Kharkiv. Relatives of Boris Romantschenko said he died during Russian bombing of his apartment block on Friday. The 96 yo was rounded up by Nazi troops after the invasion of

the Soviet Union and was sent to concentration camps, including Bergen Belsen and Buchenwald. On a memorial visit to the latter camp in 2012 he recited a survivors' pledge to create a new world where peace and freedom reign.