Ukrainian forces inside the besieged city of Mariupol on Sunday rejected an offer from Russian military officials to spare their lives if they lay down their arms and surrender.
The deadline for the surrender-or-die ultimatum passed with no indication that Ukrainian troops in the city were interested in handing over their weapons.
Officials said the situation in Mariupol is dire. A critical port city in southeastern Ukraine along the Sea of Azov, Mariupol has been under bombardment since Russian President Vladimir Putin launched the invasion in late February.
“The city has not fallen,” Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said on ABC’s “This Week.” “There is still our military forces — our soldiers — who will fight to the end.”
Russian officials claimed to have intercepted radio communications between the defenders inside Mariupol and Ukrainian officials in Kyiv, according to the Russian news agency Tass.
“The militants offering resistance are in a hopeless situation, practically without food and water,” said Mikhail Mizintsev, chief of Russia’s National Defense Management Center. “They urge permission to lay down arms and surrender from the Kyiv authorities.”
Ukrainian officials threatened executions for anyone who surrendered, said Mr. Mizintsev, according to Tass.
“Out of purely human principles, the Russian armed forces offer the militants from nationalist battalions and foreign mercenaries to end hostilities and lay down arms,” Mr. Mizintsev said.
A small contingent of Ukrainian fighters who have sought cover inside a steelworks complex is all that remains of the country’s resistance forces inside Mariupol.
Meanwhile, Reuters reported more explosions inside the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv.
Mariupol is facing a humanitarian crisis even more severe than the invasion, Mr. Shmyhal told ABC News host George Stephanopoulos.
“They have no water, no food, no heat, no electricity,” the Ukrainian prime minister said. “We ask of our partners to support and help stop the humanitarian catastrophe.”
In addition to the weapons and ammunition from the West, Ukrainian officials said, they need help to ensure that they can carry out humanitarian and social obligations. The country is running a budget deficit of about $5 billion per month because of the economic fallout of the invasion.
“Only half of our country is working. So we ask for financial support,” Mr. Shmyhal said. “We appreciate and are so [grateful] for any financial support from the side of the United States and all of our international partners.”
Although Russian troops have pulled back from Ukraine’s capital to consolidate forces in eastern Ukraine, Moscow hasn’t completely turned away from attacking sites in and around Kyiv.
On Sunday, the Russian Interfax news agency said the army had destroyed a nearby ammunitions factory near the city of Bovary with long-range precision missiles and hit other military facilities with airstrikes.
“During the night, army aviation hit four accumulations of manpower and equipment, as well as a convoy of equipment on the march,” a spokesman for the Russian Defense Ministry told Interfax. “At the same time, more than 50 Ukrainian servicemen, seven infantry fighting vehicles and armored personnel carriers, and 14 armored vehicles were destroyed.”
Russia also said it destroyed an armored vehicle plant in Kyiv and a repair facility in the city of Mykolaiv, according to Interfax, citing Russian Defense Ministry officials.
Mariupol had a prewar population of about 450,000, and Ukrainian officials estimate only about 100,000 remain. They are trapped without food, water, heat or electricity in a city that has experienced some of the worst fighting of the war. Much of the city has been leveled by wave after wave of Russian aerial attacks.
“All those who will continue resistance will be destroyed,” Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov, Russia’s military spokesman, said, according to The Associated Press.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the situation in Mariupol is severe and accused Russia of acting in an inhumane manner.
“It is deliberately trying to destroy everyone who is there in Mariupol,” Mr. Zelenskyy said in an address to Ukrainian journalists. “There has not been a single day since the blockade of Mariupol that we have not sought a solution — military or diplomatic — anything to save people.”
The U.S. has supplied more than $3.2 billion in security assistance to Ukraine since the start of the Biden administration. That includes about $2.6 billion since Russia’s invasion, which began on Feb. 24.
A concern for escalating tensions with another nuclear superpower has always been factored into the supply list.
Mr. Zelenskyy accused Mr. Putin of being unstable and said world leaders should prepare for his possible use of nuclear weapons in Ukraine.
“For them, life of the people is nothing,” Mr. Zelenskyy said, according to CNN. “I think all of the world, all of the countries have to be worried.”
Pope Francis called for peace in Ukraine during an Easter address to thousands of worshippers gathered in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican.
“We have seen all too much blood, all too much violence. Our hearts, too, have been filled with fear and anguish as so many of our brothers and sisters have had to lock themselves away in order to be safe from bombing,” the pontiff said. “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.” THE WASHINGTON TIMES
