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To save their lives, Russia instructed Ukrainian forces battling in the beleaguered southern port of Mariupol to lay down their arms on Sunday at 6 a.m. Moscow time (0300 GMT).
Only a small detachment of Ukrainian fighters remained inside a steelworks in Mariupol on Saturday, according to the Russian Defense Ministry.
The allegation by Moscow that it had almost completely gained control of Mariupol, the war’s most intense fighting and biggest humanitarian disaster, could not be independently verified. Since the Russian invasion on February 24, it would be the first major city to fall to Russian forces.
“All who lay down their arms will have their lives spared,” it stated, adding that the defenders could leave the plant without weapons or ammo by 10 a.m.
Kyiv did not respond in a timely fashion.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy told the Ukrainska Pravda news outlet that the situation in Mariupol is “extremely challenging.” “Our soldiers are being held hostage, and the wounded are being held hostage.” A humanitarian disaster has occurred… Despite this, the guys are fighting back.”
Moscow said its aeroplanes hit a tank repair plant in Kyiv on Saturday, as it conducted long-range missile attacks across the country in the aftermath of the sinking of its Black Sea flagship. Smoke rose over the Darnytskyi neighbourhood in the southeast after an explosion. At least one person was murdered, according to the mayor, and medics were battling to save the lives of others.
Russian jets took out from Belarus and launched missiles at the Lviv region near the Polish border, according to the Ukrainian military. Ukrainian air defences shot down four cruise missiles.
So far, the western city has remained mostly undamaged, serving as a safe haven for refugees and international humanitarian organisations.
CONCRETE BLASTED WITH TWISTED STEEL
Reuters journalists arrived in Mariupol and visited the massive Illich steelworks, one of two metals complexes where defenders had hunkered down in underground tunnels and bunkers. It was caught on Friday, according to Moscow.
With no indication of defenders, the factory was reduced to a twisted steel and blasted concrete ruin. Several people’ remains were found strewn throughout the streets.
Russia, Zelenskiy claimed, was “deliberately trying to destroy everyone” in Mariupol, and that his administration was in contact with the defenders. He didn’t respond to Moscow’s assertion that Ukrainian military were no longer stationed in urban areas.
A missile strike killed at least one person and injured 18 others, according to the governor of Kharkiv region in the east. Smoke billowed from the remnants of a city office building and burning autos.
Russia claimed to have hit a military vehicle repair factory on the southern front in Mykolaiv.
Russia announced on Friday that it would intensify long-range strikes in retribution for undefined acts of “sabotage” and “terrorism,” just hours after its Black Sea flagship, the Moskva, was sunk.
The ship, whose sinking has become a symbol of Ukrainian resistance, was hit by Ukrainian missiles, according to Kyiv and Washington. According to Moscow, the ship sank following a fire, and the crew of roughly 500 people were evacuated.
The Russian Defense Ministry released video showing Admiral Nikolai Yevmenov, the navy’s commander, speaking with roughly a hundred servicemen who were supposed to be crew members on a parade field.
THE MOST IMPORTANT AWARD IN RUSSIA
If Mariupol falls, it will be Russia’s biggest war prize to date. It is the principal port of the Donbas, an area in the southeast consisting of two provinces that Moscow demands be totally handed over to separatists.
Ukraine claims it has so far resisted Russian advances in the Donbass areas of Donetsk and Luhansk, where at least one person was killed in overnight bombardment.
In the early stages of a battle, Ukraine earned an advantage by successfully deploying mobile battalions armed with anti-tank missiles supplied by the West against Russian armoured convoys constrained to highways by muddy terrain.
Putin, on the other hand, appears to be hell-bent on capturing more Donbas territory in order to declare victory in a war that has left Russia beset by Western sanctions and with few allies.
The European Union’s next round of sanctions against Russia will target banks, including Sberbank, as well as oil, according to EU Commissioner Ursula von der Leyen, who spoke to the German tabloid Bild am Sonntag.
