Ukrainians defy Russia’s surrender-or-die call in Mariupol on ‘Easter of War’

LVIV/KYIV: Ukrainian troops on Sunday protested a Russian ultimatum to lay down their arms in the pulverized port of Mariupol, which Moscow said its military had almost completely seized would be the biggest prize of nearly two months of war.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Denis Schmaehl said troops in Mariupol were still fighting despite Russian calls to surrender by morning. “The city still hasn’t fallen,” he told ABC’s “This Week” program, adding that Ukrainian troops continued to control parts of the southeastern Ukrainian city.

Russia said on Saturday it had control of urban areas, with some Ukrainian fighters remaining at the Azovstal steelworks overlooking the Azov Sea.

Capturing Mariupol, the main port in the Donbass region, would be a strategic reward for Russia, which links territory formerly held by pro-Russian separatists to the Crimean region that Moscow captured in 2014.

After failing to overcome Ukrainian resistance in the north, Russian forces have resumed their ground attack on the Donbass, launching long-range attacks elsewhere, including in the capital Kyiv.

Nearly four million Ukrainians have fled the country, shattering cities and killing thousands since the invasion began on February 24. The economic damage is also significant – Shamyal said Ukraine’s budget deficit was about $5 billion a month and called on Western governments to provide more financial aid.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Twitter that he had discussed ensuring Ukraine’s financial stability and preparedness for post-war reconstruction with International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva. He replied that the support was “essential to lay the foundation for the reconstruction of modern competitive Ukraine.”

Earlier, he posted pictures of the destruction on his Telegram account, which he described as similar to World War II. “Whatever they did in Ukraine, the occupiers would be responsible,” Zelensky said.

‘Brutal and senseless war’

Explicitly criticizing Russia, Pope Francis pleaded for an end to the bloodshed and mourned the “Easter of War” during his address in St. Peter’s Square after Mass. “May peace be for war-torn Ukraine, so badly tried as the violence and destruction of the brutal and senseless war in which it was dragged,” he said.

Zelensky on Saturday accused Russia of “deliberately trying to destroy everyone” in Mariupol. One of Europe’s largest metallurgical plants with a maze of railroad tracks, tunnels and blast furnaces, the Azovstal steelworks has become a last stand for the city’s defenders.

Russia’s defense ministry said on Saturday that “all those who lay down arms are guaranteed that their lives will be spared.” It was not known how many soldiers were in the steelworks. Satellite images show smoke and fire coming from the area. Zelensky has said that killing his soldiers would end peace efforts.

Russia said Ukraine had lost more than 4,000 troops in Mariupol as of Saturday. Kyiv says that the total military losses across the country so far in the war are less than between 2,500 and 3,000. Reuters could not confirm the figures on both sides.

Russia calls its action a special military operation to demilitarize Ukraine and eliminate dangerous nationalists. The West and Kyiv accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of unprovoked aggression.

A representative in Mariupol of the Azov forces – once a far-right militia now part of Ukraine’s National Guard, whose destruction is among Moscow’s war objectives – said international intervention was needed to help civilians, including children, who are in refuge. Steelworks.

Azov’s representative said in a message to Reuters: “There are citizens in Azovstal who are afraid of a guaranteed exit from Russia.” Reuters has not been able to verify whether there are a large number of civilians at the plant.

Talks between Ukraine and Russia have been going on since the start of the war.
Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmitro Kuleba said in an interview to CBS News on Sunday that the situation in Mariupol was “grave” and there could be a “red line” in the path of talks.

nationwide strike

Elsewhere in Ukraine, there were more reports of Russian attacks around major population centers on Sunday. Local media reported an explosion in Kyiv, although deputy mayor Mykola Povoroznik said air defense systems had thwarted Russian attacks. The mayor of the city of Brovari, near Kyiv, said the missile attack had damaged infrastructure.

According to the RIA news agency, Russia said it had destroyed an ammunition factory near the capital. Five people were killed and 13 were injured in shelling in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city.

A Reuters correspondent in Kharkiv heard several explosions after another and saw debris from missiles. “This is nothing but deliberate terror: mortars, artillery against ordinary residential quarters, against ordinary civilians,” Zelensky said in his nightly video address.

Ukraine’s Human Rights Ombudsman said clean-up operations are underway in areas where the Russians have retreated, with almost all high-rise buildings in the city of Okhtyrka unfit for occupation. The state emergency service said 41 bodies had been recovered in the city of Borodyanka.

Most Ukrainians celebrate Orthodox Easter on the following Sunday, but in Bucha, a town north of Kyiv where Ukraine has accused Russia of killing dozens of civilians, some 50 attended a church service, carrying pussy willows and praying for the dead. were praying for.

Russia denied targeting civilians and called Bucha’s images fake. “I just prayed today to stop crying,” said resident Evgenia Lebedko after the service. “We have survived these horrors and we are crying incessantly.”

Despite the hopeless situation in Mariupol, Ukraine said it was blocking Russian forces in Donetsk and other parts of the Donbass regions of Luhansk, which were partly controlled by Russian-backed separatists prior to the invasion.

On Sunday, police in the Donetsk region said Russian forces opened fire on 13 settlements under Ukrainian control in the past 24 hours, killing two civilians.

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