Russia has hinted that the final takeover of the port city of Mariupol is imminent, but Ukraine says resistance continues.
17.4. 8:00 | Updated 17.4. 15:14
Ukraine troops continue to defend the city of Mariupol despite Russia’s threat demand, Mariupol authorities said on Sunday. Among other things, the news was reported CNN.
Russia said it had previously captured the Mariupol metropolitan area and that there would no longer be Ukrainian defense forces at the Azovstal steel plant. Russia has also hinted that the final takeover of Mariupol is imminent.
According to Reuters, Russia allowed soldiers at the steel plant to surrender by 1 p.m. on Sunday.
An adviser to the mayor of Mariupol responded to the demands of the Russian Ministry of Defense that Ukrainian troops continue to fight.
“On Saturday night, the occupiers announced that they would offer the opportunity to surrender to the remaining troops, but we will continue to defend,” Peter Andrushchenko said in a telegram.
According to Andriushchenko, resistance against the Russians also continued outside the Azovstal steel plant and that fighting took place last night on Taganrog Street, five kilometers from Azovstal. Information about the fighting has not been confirmed.
Read more: The last Ukrainian troops in Mariupol are lurking in the mazes of a huge steel mill area
When the Russian Ministry of Defense reiterated its threat to eliminate the resistance soldiers fighting in Mariupol, CNN says.
A statement from Russia’s defense ministry said “the Kiev nationalist regime had denied talks.”
The ministry also claimed that previously surrendered Ukrainian soldiers have said the steel plant has trapped up to 400 foreign mercenaries, including European and Canadian soldiers.
“If opposition persists, everything will be eliminated,” the ministry said.
Read more: Russia claimed to have taken over the area of the Ilyich steel plant in Mariupol
Russia has hinted that the final takeover of the port city of Mariupol in southern Ukraine is imminent. Russian News Agency Tassin A spokesman for Russia’s defense ministry said on Saturday that Mariupol’s urban areas had been almost completely emptied of troops fighting for Ukraine.
According to Tassi, the Russian major general says that there would no longer be Ukrainian fighters at the Azovstal metal plant, which in turn would be besieged by Russia. According to him, a maximum of 2,500 people are seeking protection from the factory.
Russia’s allegations have been reported in English at least by the news agency AFP and the US newspaper The New York Times.
Russia on Sunday allowed the soldiers at the steel plant to surrender and promised that all soldiers laying down their arms would keep their lives.
According to Reuters, the time window was opened at 6 o’clock in the morning in Moscow, including Finland, and closed at 1 p.m.
Fighting of the strategically important Mariupol have practically continued since the beginning of the war of aggression launched by Russia at the end of February. Russia is trying to take over the city to create a route between its own territory and Crimea.
Despite a severe attack, Ukrainian forces have defended their positions in the city’s large factory areas. The situation of the city’s civilians in a besieged city is very difficult and people are already starving.
According to The New York Times, local authorities have said thousands of civilians have died in the eight-week bombing. The head of the UN’s World Food Program (WFP), for his part, has warned that civilians trapped in the port city are in danger of starving to death.
Read more: Ukraine’s richest man promises to rebuild the city of Mariupol after Ukraine defeats the enemy
Russian troops has also been charged with war crimes in Mariupol. During its offensive war, Russia has reportedly hit several civilian targets in the city, including hospitals.
City officials have said most of the city has been destroyed, and the governor of eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region said on Friday that Russian troops had “wiped out Mariupol from the ground.”
“The situation in Mariupol is still as serious as possible,” he said Volodymyr Zelenskyi in turn, said in a recent publication in its opinion and described the situation as simply inhumane.
“Russia is deliberately trying to destroy everyone in Mariupol,” he added.
In his speech, on the other hand, the president did not comment on Russia’s claims that Russian troops had almost emptied Mariupol from Ukrainian troops.
British Broadcasting Corporation BBCHowever, Zelenskyi said earlier Saturday that Ukrainian forces held only a small portion of Mariupol. He said his administration was in daily contact with Mariupol’s defenders.
Previously on Saturday, Zelenskyi also said the elimination of the last Ukrainian troops in Mariupol would mark the end of Ukraine’s talks with Russia.
“That’s when we get into a dead end because we don’t negotiate with our region or our people,” the president said. Ukrainska Pravda blog.
Ukraine and Russia have been in contact since the beginning of the war, but the results of the low-level talks have been limited. President of Russia Vladimir Putin it is said to have already said that he believes the negotiations have reached a stalemate.
Putin’s Austrian Chancellor met in Moscow on Monday Karl Nehammer believes that the Russian president believes that war is necessary for the future of his country.
“I think he’s in his own war logic,” Nehammer told a news channel in an interview with NBC, parts of which were released on Saturday.
“I think he believes he is winning the war,” Nehammer added.
Nehammer said Monday that the meeting with Putin was “straightforward, open and difficult”. At the time, he still said Putin “clearly still has confidence” in the talks between Russia and Ukraine in Turkey.
Chancellor met Putin before the sinking of Moscow, the flagship of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, which has been seen as at least a significant symbolic defeat for Russia.
Read more: A huge amount of armaments, recent history and the glory of the navy went to the seabed with the Russian flagship Moscow
Moscow has had a crew of about 500, but little has been known about their fate.
Read more: Russia does not say the reason for the sinking of the cruiser Moscow or the number of victims – BBC says victims of the attack held a memorial service in Sevastopol on Friday
On Saturday, the Russian Ministry of Defense released a 30-second video alleging the presence of crew members rescued from the ship that sank on Thursday. The alleged members of the Moscow crew met on video with the commander of the Russian Navy.
In addition to AFP, the US channel has reported on the matter CNN and the British Broadcasting Corporation BBC.
Russia has claimed the sinking was the result of a fire. Ukraine, on the other hand, has said it has hit the ship with two Neptune naval missiles, and the U.S. Department of Defense has also said Ukrainian missiles hit the ship.
According to AFP, Russia has claimed all crew members have been rescued in the past. According to the BBC, no evidence has been provided before that the Moscow crew survived.
The Ukrainian Interior Ministry, on the other hand, has said that the master of the Moscow ship Anton Kuprin would have died as a result of the attack
The commander of the fleet is said to have recently said that the crew would “continue their service”.
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