Ukraine has rejected an ultimatum to surrender the besieged port city of Mariupol to Russian forces, its deputy prime minister told Ukrainian media.
"There can be no talk of surrendering weapons. We have already informed the Russian side of this," Iryna Vereshchuk told Ukrainska Pravda newspaper on Monday.
"It's a deliberate manipulation and it's a real hostage situation," she added of the demand.
Russia gave the city an ultimatum late Sunday, urging its defenders to surrender before 5am Moscow time (12pm AEST) on Monday.
"We call on units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, territorial defence battalions, foreign mercenaries to stop hostilities, lay down their arms and, along the humanitarian corridors agreed with the Ukrainian side, enter the territories controlled by Kyiv," said Mikhail Mizintsev, head of the Russian National Defence Control Centre.
The Russian defence ministry, addressing Mariupol authorities on messaging app Telegram, wrote: "You are the ones who now have the right to make a historic choice - either you are with your people or you are with the criminals.
"Otherwise, the court martial that awaits you is only a little of what you have already earned because of your despicable attitude toward your own citizens, as well as the horrible crimes and provocations you have committed."
Mariupol, a strategic, mostly Russian-speaking port in the southeast, has been one of the main targets of Moscow's attacks.
The city has been hammered by Russian shelling for days, has seen a near-total communications blackout and is cut off from food, water and other supplies.
The Russian defence ministry had said it would open humanitarian corridors to allow residents to leave by 10am Moscow time (5pm AEST) if the surrender was agreed.
Russia and Ukraine have traded blame for the failure to open such corridors in recent weeks.
Mr Mizintsev, without providing evidence, said that Ukrainian "bandits", "neo-Nazis" and nationalists had engaged in "mass terror" and gone on a killing spree in the city.
Ukraine says it is fighting for its existence and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Saturday that the siege of Mariupol was "a terror that will be remembered for centuries to come".
The West has imposed sweeping sanctions on Russia that the Kremlin says amount to a declaration of economic war by the United States and its allies.
Mr Mizintsev said Russia was not using heavy weapons in Mariupol.
He said Russia had evacuated 59,304 people out of the city but that 130,000 civilians remained as effective hostages there.
He said 330,686 people had been evacuated from Ukraine by Russia since the start of the "operation".
The Mariupol city council said on its Telegram channel late on Saturday that several thousand residents had been "deported" to Russia over the past week.
Russia's invasion of Ukraine has killed thousands of people, displaced more than three million and raised fears of a wider confrontation between Russia and the US.
Russian President Vladimir Putin says the "special military operation" in Ukraine was necessary to disarm and "denazify" its neighbour.
