mariupol: Mariupol on the brink as Ukrainians defy Russia’s surrender-or-die threat – Times of India
KYIV: The shattered port city of Mariupol appeared on the brink of falling to the Russians on Sunday after seven weeks under siege, in what would give Moscow a crucial success following its failure to storm the Ukrainian capital and the sinking of its Black Sea flagship.
The Russian military estimated that 2,500 Ukrainian fighters were holding out at a hulking steel plant with a warren of underground passageways in the last pocket of resistance in Mariupol. Moscow set a midday deadline for their surrender, saying those who laid down their arms were “guaranteed to keep their lives”. The Russian defence ministry said that the Ukrainian forces holding out at a sprawling steel plant in the city had “forbade negotiations about surrendering,” citing an intercepted radio transmission, and repeated a demand that they put down their weapons immediately. “In case of further resistance,” the ministry said, “all of them will be eliminated. ”
But the defenders did not submit, just as they rejected previous ultimatums. “We will fight absolutely to the end, to the win, in this war,” Ukrainian PM Denys Shmyhal vowed on ABC’s “This Week”. He said Ukraine is prepared to end the war through diplomacy if possible, “but we do not have intention to surrender”. NYT however reported that President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukrai- ne appeared to acknowledge the impending takeover, saying that Ukrainian troops controlled only a small part of Mariupol and faced much larger Russian numbers. “Nevertheless, our guys are heroically defending,” he said.
The capture of Mariupol would free up Russian forces to join an expected all-out of- fensive for control of the Donbas, the industrial region in the country’s east where the Kremlin has focused its war aims after abandoning, for now at least, any attempt to take Kyiv, the capital. The relentless bombardment and street fighting in Mariupol have left much of the city pulverized and killed at least 21,000 people, by the Ukrainians’ estimate. An estimated 1,00,000 remained in the city out of a prewar population of 4,50,000, trapped without food, water, heat or electricity in a siege that has made Mariupol the scene of the some of the worst suffering of the war.
“All those who will continue resistance will be destroyed,” Major General Igor Konashenkov, the Russian defen- ce ministry’s spokesman, said in announcing the latest ultimatum. He said intercepted communications indicated there were about 400 foreign mercenaries along with the Ukrainian troops at the Azovstal steel mill, a claim that could not be independently verified. Ukrainian deputy defence minister Hanna Malyar described Mariupol as a “shield defending Ukraine” as Russian troops prepare for the battle in the Donbas, where Moscow-backed separatists already control some territory. Malyar, the deputy defence minister, said the Russians continued to hit Mariupol with airstrikes and could be getting ready for an amphibious landing to beef up their ground forces.
The Russian military estimated that 2,500 Ukrainian fighters were holding out at a hulking steel plant with a warren of underground passageways in the last pocket of resistance in Mariupol. Moscow set a midday deadline for their surrender, saying those who laid down their arms were “guaranteed to keep their lives”. The Russian defence ministry said that the Ukrainian forces holding out at a sprawling steel plant in the city had “forbade negotiations about surrendering,” citing an intercepted radio transmission, and repeated a demand that they put down their weapons immediately. “In case of further resistance,” the ministry said, “all of them will be eliminated. ”
But the defenders did not submit, just as they rejected previous ultimatums. “We will fight absolutely to the end, to the win, in this war,” Ukrainian PM Denys Shmyhal vowed on ABC’s “This Week”. He said Ukraine is prepared to end the war through diplomacy if possible, “but we do not have intention to surrender”. NYT however reported that President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukrai- ne appeared to acknowledge the impending takeover, saying that Ukrainian troops controlled only a small part of Mariupol and faced much larger Russian numbers. “Nevertheless, our guys are heroically defending,” he said.
The capture of Mariupol would free up Russian forces to join an expected all-out of- fensive for control of the Donbas, the industrial region in the country’s east where the Kremlin has focused its war aims after abandoning, for now at least, any attempt to take Kyiv, the capital. The relentless bombardment and street fighting in Mariupol have left much of the city pulverized and killed at least 21,000 people, by the Ukrainians’ estimate. An estimated 1,00,000 remained in the city out of a prewar population of 4,50,000, trapped without food, water, heat or electricity in a siege that has made Mariupol the scene of the some of the worst suffering of the war.
“All those who will continue resistance will be destroyed,” Major General Igor Konashenkov, the Russian defen- ce ministry’s spokesman, said in announcing the latest ultimatum. He said intercepted communications indicated there were about 400 foreign mercenaries along with the Ukrainian troops at the Azovstal steel mill, a claim that could not be independently verified. Ukrainian deputy defence minister Hanna Malyar described Mariupol as a “shield defending Ukraine” as Russian troops prepare for the battle in the Donbas, where Moscow-backed separatists already control some territory. Malyar, the deputy defence minister, said the Russians continued to hit Mariupol with airstrikes and could be getting ready for an amphibious landing to beef up their ground forces.
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