On Saturday night, Russia claimed that it had taken full control of the urban parts of the strategic port city of Mariupol, which had been besieged since the invasion began on 24 February.
– The entire urban area is completely cleared of Ukrainian forces. The last remnants are completely cordoned off inside the area of the Azovstal steelworks. Their only chance to save their lives is to lay down their arms and surrender, said a spokesman for the Russian Ministry of Defense, Igor Konashenkov, according to the BBC.
Russia now has a deadline for the Ukrainian forces to surrender. If Ukrainian forces lay down their weapons by 06.00 Moscow time on Sunday morning, their lives will be saved, Russia’s defense ministry claims.
It writes Reuters, which quotes the Russian news agency Tass.
Ukrainian authorities have not commented on the Russian allegations that the port city has fallen or Russia’s new arms deadline, but in a official statement Wednesday Ukraine’s armed forces said they were maintaining their defenses in Mariupol and were in “continuous contact” with their troops on the ground.
SHOULD SHOW MATCHES:Video footage will show battles between Russian and Ukrainian forces in the city of Mariupol. Reporter: Maja Walberg Klev. Video: Twitter: Rob Lee sea view
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Zelenskyj with warning
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky describes the situation in the port city as “extremely serious” and “inhumane”.
– This is what Russia has done. Intentionally. Russia is trying to exterminate everyone in Mariupol, the president said in a video speech late Saturday night.
In an interview earlier Saturday, he warned that if the last Ukrainian forces in Mariupol are “destroyed”, it will mean the end of the peace talks with Russia.
– The annihilation of our forces, of our men, will put an end to any negotiation. The situation will be completely deadlocked, because we are not negotiating about our territory or about our people.
Zelensky gave no details about the situation of Ukrainian forces in the port city.
On Wednesday, Russia claimed that Ukraine had lost more than 4,000 troops in the city, and that another 1,400 had surrendered. This was rejected by Oleksij Arestovych, one of Zelensky’s advisers, who wrote on Facebook that the soldiers had not surrendered, but moved to another military unit.
The soldiers will continue the defense of Mariupol with reinforced force, he wrote.
DESTRUCTIONS: These new drone images show major destruction in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol. Video: Reuters. sea view
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Hard fights
Some of the most intense fighting of the war has taken place in Mariupol, which has been repeatedly described as “the heart of the war”.
Brutal images and cruel testimonies of Russian attacks on hospitals, schools, theaters and civilians desperately trying to flee have shaken the whole world.
According to Zelensky, tens of thousands of people have been killed in the Russian attacks on the port city. Mariupol’s mayor, Vadym Boychenko, said on Tuesday that the number of civilian deaths had exceeded 21,000, and that the streets of the city are “carpeted with corpses.”
Boychenko also claimed that 90 percent of the infrastructure in the city destroyed.
