Ukraine vows to fight to the end in Mariupol as ultimatum expires

Rtv news

18 Apr 2022, 11:55

Photo: Collected

Ukraine on Sunday vowed to fight
to the end in Mariupol after a Russian ultimatum expired for remaining forces
to surrender in the Black Sea port city where Moscow is pushing for a major
strategic victory.

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"The city still has not fallen," Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said hours
after Moscow's deadline had passed for fighters holed up and surrounded in a
sprawling fortress-like steelworks to surrender.

"There's still our military forces, our soldiers. So they will fight to the
end," he told ABC's "This Week".

Moscow has shifted its military focus to gaining control of the eastern
Donbas region and forging a land corridor to already-annexed Crimea.

Russia's defence ministry said there were up to 400 mercenaries inside the
encircled Azovstal steel plant, calling on Ukrainian forces inside to "lay
down their arms and surrender in order to save their lives".

Moscow claims Kyiv has ordered fighters of the nationalist Azov battalion
to "shoot on the spot" anyone wanting to surrender.

- 'Dead end' -

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky said if Russian forces killed the
remaining troops defending the city, it would end the peace talks.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has already said the talks are at a "dead
end".

Shmyhal said Ukraine wanted a diplomatic solution but would fight to the
end if necessary. "We will not surrender."

While several large cities are under siege, he said, not one -- with the
exception of Kherson in the south -- had fallen, and more than 900 towns and
cities had been liberated.

As Russia scales up attacks on Ukraine's eastern flank, at least five
people were killed and 20 wounded in a series of strikes in second city
Kharkiv, just 21 kilometres (13 miles) from the Russian border.

Russian forces continued to shell the eastern Lugansk region and two people
died in the town of Zolote, governor Sergiy Gaiday told Ukrainian media.

In addition, two people died and four were wounded in attacks on the towns
of Marinka and Novopol, west of Donetsk, regional governor Pavlo Kyrylenko
said on Telegram; and an air strike hit an armaments factory in the capital
Kyiv.

Maksym Khaustov, the head of the Kharkiv region's health department,
confirmed the deaths there following a series of strikes that AFP journalists
on the scene said had ignited fires throughout the city and torn roofs from
buildings.

"The whole home rumbled and trembled," 71-year-old Svitlana Pelelygina told
AFP as she surveyed her wrecked apartment. "Everything here began to burn."

"I called the firefighters. They said, 'We are on our way but we were also
being shelled.'"

- 'Inhuman' -

Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk urged Russian forces to
let people flee besieged Mariupol.

"Once again, we demand the opening of a humanitarian corridor for the
evacuation of civilians, especially women and children, from Mariupol,"
Vereshchuk wrote.

Zelensky, describing the situation there as "inhuman", called on the West
to immediately provide heavy weapons.

Mariupol has become a symbol of Ukraine's unexpectedly fierce resistance
since Russian troops invaded the former Soviet state on February 24.

The UN World Food Programme says that more than 100,000 civilians there are
on the verge of famine, and lacking water and heating.

Ukrainian officials said the city was on the verge of a humanitarian
catastrophe.

They were compiling evidence of alleged Russian atrocities there, said
Minister of Digital Transformation Mykhailo Fedorov. "We will hand everything
over to The Hague. There will be no impunity."

The mayor of Bucha -- a town near Kyiv where the discovery of dead
civilians sparked international condemnation and war crimes accusations --
said Russian troops had raped men as well as women and children there.

Ukrainian authorities have urged people in the eastern Donbas area to move
west to escape a large-scale Russian offensive to capture its composite
regions, Donetsk and Lugansk.

"Russian troops are preparing for an offensive operation in the east of our
country in the near future. They want to literally finish off and destroy
Donbas", Zelensky said in an evening statement.

Deputy Prime Minister Vereshchuk said humanitarian corridors allowing
civilians to flee would not open on Sunday after a failure to agree terms
with Russian forces.

But Lugansk governor Gaiday said he had nevertheless proceeded with
evacuations. "At our own peril and risk, we took out several dozen people
anyway, but it's already dangerous," he told Ukrainian media.

- 'Easter of war' -

"May there be peace for war-torn Ukraine, so sorely tried by the violence
and destruction of the cruel and senseless war into which it was dragged,"
said Pope Francis as he celebrated Easter Sunday at the Vatican.

Zelensky said he had invited his French counterpart to visit Ukraine to see
for himself evidence that Russian forces have committed "genocide", a term
President Emmanuel Macron has avoided.

"I talked to him yesterday," Zelensky told CNN in an interview recorded on
Friday but broadcast Sunday.

"I just told him I want him to understand that this is not war, but nothing
other than genocide. I invited him to come when he will have the opportunity.
He'll come and see, and I'm sure he will understand."

- 'Unpredictable consequences' -

Russia warned the United States this week of "unpredictable consequences"
if it sent its "most sensitive" weapons systems to Ukraine, as Zelensky has
requested.

Its defence ministry claimed Saturday to have shot down a Ukrainian
transport plane in the Odessa region, carrying weapons supplied by Western
nations.

On Sunday, spokesman Igor Konashenkov said Russian missiles had destroyed
ammunition, fuel and lubricant depots in eastern Ukraine and 44 Ukrainian
military facilities, including command posts.

Russian air defence systems shot down two Ukrainian MiG-29 aircraft in the
Kharkiv region and a drone near the city of Pavlograd, he added.

Source: AFP/BSS

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