Abroad|The Russian attack
Ukraine’s deputy prime minister is urging Russia to ensure that residents stuck in Mariupol get out.
Ukraine immediately overthrew the Russian Ministry of Defense’s demand for the surrender of the city of Mariupol on Sunday. Hundreds of thousands of people are still trapped in a besieged city that has been extensively bombed by Russian forces.
Russia’s defense ministry demanded on Sunday that Ukrainians still in Mariupol should surrender by 5 p.m., Monday. The surrendered would have been allowed to leave the city, according to the Russian Ministry of Defense, but those who remained in the city would instead face the courts of the puppet administrations in the Donbass region.
“Surrender or lowering of arms is out of the question,” said the Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine Iryna Vereštšuk told the Ukrainian newspaper Ukrainska Pravdalle just hours before the time limit set by Russia expired.
“We have already informed the Russians.”
Instead of agreeing to Russia’s proposal, Vereshchuk demanded that Russia ensure the opening of humanitarian corridors so that the approximately 350,000 people trapped in Mariupol could leave the city in safety.
Due to its location, the southern port city of Mariupol is strategically important to conquer for the Russian army. The city would connect the puppet regions of eastern Ukraine and the Crimean peninsula and facilitate the movement of Russian troops to the southwestern part of Ukraine, for example.
Read more: Conquering Mariupol would improve Russia’s position in the east and south – Land connection between Donetsk and Crimea could be established in days
Read more: The tragedy of Mariupol deepens – images tell of the devastation of the war
Residential houses in Mariupol damaged by Russian attacks.
RIA Novostin Russia said it would have opened humanitarian corridors in Mariupol by the morning, if it had received a written response to its proposal from Kiev before 5 a.m. Moscow time.
The fighting in the city would have been halted for two hours between the hours of twenty and twelve on the route agreed with Ukraine.
Russia signaled its call for “all units of the Ukrainian armed forces, regional defense battalions and foreign mercenaries to cease hostilities and lay down their arms”.
Victims of the war have been buried in the residential area in Mariupol. Some were waiting to be buried last Friday.
Mariupolin the city has been heavily bombed by besieged Russian troops since the outbreak of the war of aggression on 24 February. On Friday, Russian troops were allowed to advance into the city center, where fierce fighting was also fought.
Head of the Russian-backed puppet regime in the Donetsk region Denis Pušilinin however, the capture of Mariupol would take more than a week, according to Russian news agency Interfax Reuters.
“I don’t really think it would work out in two or three days or a week. Unfortunately, no, the city is big, ”Pushilin said, according to Interfax.
Minister of Defense of Ukraine Oleksi Reznikov in turn, praised Mariupol’s “hero defenders” in a press release. According to Reznikov, Mariupol’s defenders have helped prevent Russian troops from advancing to other major Ukrainian cities.
“Thanks to their devotion and superhuman courage, tens of thousands of lives across Ukraine have been spared. Today, Mariupol protects Kiev, the Dnipro and Odessa. ”
In town Greek diplomat at the time of the bombing Manolis Androulakis described the destruction in the city to be of the same order as that caused by the most devastating wartime attacks in history.
“Mariupol will be included in the list of cities that were completely destroyed by the war, such as Guernica, Stalingrad, Grozny, Aleppo,” Androulakis told Reuters.
Androulakis got home on Sunday. He was the last European diplomat in Mariupol.
The UN has said that the humanitarian situation in Mariupol is extremely serious. Residents are short of food, water and medicine.
According to official figures, 2,400 people have been confirmed dead in the bombing of Mariupol, but the actual death toll is likely to be much higher, even tenfold, the authorities estimated last week.
Before the war, Mariupol, on the shores of the Sea of Azov, was home to about 430,000 people. Authorities say the city is still trapped by about 350,000 people.
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