Russia gave Ukrainian soldiers an ultimatum to lay down their arms on Sunday in Mariupol, in southeastern Ukraine. Moscow says its forces almost completely control the city, in what would be its biggest achievement in nearly two months of war.
Ukrainian fighters, however, remain at the Azovstal steel plant, situated on the outskirts of the Sea of ​​Azov, with no sign of surrender. Prime Minister Denis Shmihal told the American network ABC that “Mariupol has not yet fallen”.
On Saturday, the Russian Defense Ministry had already stated that it would spare the lives of Ukrainian forces who lay down weapons.
“Everyone who lays down their weapons is guaranteed that their lives will be spared,” the Russian ministry said on Sunday, citing a four-hour deadline for Ukrainians to leave the factory without weapons or ammunition.
The port of Mariupol, the main port on the Sea of ​​Azov, has been in dispute for weeks, driving the city of 400,000 into humanitarian chaos.
Having failed to overcome Ukrainian resistance in the north of the country, the Russian military redirected its ground offensive towards the Donbass region of eastern Ukraine, maintaining long-range attacks in other parts of the country, including the capital Kiev.
Lamenting an “Easter of War” during a speech in St. Peter’s Square, Pope Francis called for an end to bloodshed and implicitly criticized Russia.
“May there be peace for war-torn Ukraine, so sorely tested by the violence and destruction of a cruel and senseless war into which it was dragged,” he said, thanking those who welcomed the country’s approximately 4 million refugees.
Mariupol has seen some of the worst fighting with major consequences for the civilian population since the country’s invasion at the end of February.
Among them is the bombing of a maternity hospital with children and pregnant women, in which at least three people died, including a pregnant woman whose image of her rescue on a stretcher went around the world. An attack on a theater that housed thousands of displaced people was another episode that drew international attention. Moscow denied the attack.
The steel mill in Mariupol, one of Europe’s largest metallurgical plants, with a maze of rails and furnaces, has become a site of resistance for local defenders.
According to the New York Times, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky acknowledged in an evening speech that Ukrainian fighters controlled only a small part of Mariupol and were outnumbered six by Russians.
Zelensky accused Russian forces of “deliberately trying to destroy everyone who is [em Mariupol]” and threatened to end peace talks with Moscow if Russian forces commit atrocities.
“Our soldiers are under siege, the wounded are under siege. There is a humanitarian crisis… However, they are defending themselves,” he told the Ukrainska Pravda news portal.
The capture of Mariupol, if confirmed, would be a strategic achievement for Moscow, connecting the territory in Donbass with the Crimean peninsula, annexed in 2014. In Donbass are situated the two self-proclaimed Russian-majority separatist republics that Moscow recognized shortly before giving the start of the invasion — the region where Russian forces are now concentrating their forces.
It is not known for sure how many soldiers are in the steel mill. Satellite images showed smoke and fire coming from the area, which has underground tunnels.
Petro Andryushchenko, an assistant to the mayor of Mariupol, said the Russians were giving hundreds of civilians permission to move around the central parts of the city.
In addition to Mariupol, other regions in Ukraine have reported Russian attacks. According to local newspapers, Kiev suffered an explosion — although deputy mayor Mykola Povoroznyk said air defense systems stopped Russian attacks. The mayor of Brovary, near Kiev, also reported that a missile attack had taken place in the city.
Russia said it destroyed an ammunition factory near the Ukrainian capital, according to the RIA news agency. Russian artillery attacks in several neighborhoods of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, left five dead and injured 31 people, including four children, regional governor Oleh Synehubov said.
At least two people died and four were injured in a bombing in Zolote, in eastern Ukraine.
Ukrainian police in Donetsk said that in the past 24 hours Russian forces had used tanks, rocket launchers and heavy artillery on 13 settlements under Ukrainian control, killing two civilians.
On Friday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensk told CNN that between 2,500 and 3,000 Ukrainian soldiers had died in the 51 days since the Russian invasion. The president also spoke of about 10,000 wounded agents, some seriously, and said that there were no civilian casualties.
