Russia has stepped up its eastern offensive, but has been repeatedly repulsed by Ukrainian forces, the UK Defense Ministry said, as Western governments promised to send more artillery and a new deadline for capitulation was approaching in Mariupol.
The defense ministry said late Tuesday that shelling and strikes were increasing over the Donbass control line, but Russian forces continued to be hampered by logistical and technological problems. He also noted the “inability to quell resistance” in Mariupol as a sign of failure to achieve Moscow’s goals.
Russia’s defense ministry has said it will propose a ceasefire to the besieged port city on Wednesday to allow Ukrainian defenders hiding at the Azovstal steel plant to lay down their arms. About 1,000 civilians are reportedly hiding in underground shelters under the Mariupol steel plant, according to the city council. Most civilians are believed to be women with children and the elderly.
The commander of the Ukrainian Marines in Mariupol said his forces “may be facing our last days, if not hours” and called for retrieval in a Facebook post posted early Wednesday.
“Our enemy is 10 to one superior,” said Sergei Volina of the 36th Separate Marine Brigade, hiding in a huge underground tunnel factory where Ukrainian defenders are being pressed by Russian fighters.
“We appeal and ask all world leaders to help us,” Volina said in the video. “We ask them to use the extraction procedure and take us to a third country.
Russia said it would begin a ceasefire at 14:00 Moscow time on Wednesday (11:00 GMT) and said it would allow the fighters to surrender and leave unscathed. An earlier offer was made and rejected on Tuesday, Russia said.
Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky has promised that his forces in Mariupol will “fight to the end” and ignore any ultimatums to surrender from Moscow, but that the situation there is “possibly difficult” as Russian forces block the creation of humanitarian corridors. .
In his last address on Tuesday night, Zelensky said: “The Russian army will forever go down in world history as perhaps the most barbaric and inhuman army in the world. The deliberate killing of civilians, the destruction of residential neighborhoods and civilian infrastructure, and the use of all kinds of weapons, including those banned by international conventions, is already the signature of the Russian military.
Russia has denied using banned weapons or targeting civilians during its invasion of Ukraine, and said without evidence that there were signs of atrocities.
Thousands of Russian troops, backed by artillery and rocket fire, are advancing in what Ukrainian authorities have called the Battle of Donbass. Russia’s nearly eight-week invasion has failed to capture any of Ukraine’s largest cities, forcing Moscow to relocate to and around separatist regions. This week, the small town of Kremina, home to 18,000 people, fell in the Donbass region of eastern Ukraine.
Luhansk Oblast Governor Sergei Gaidai said Russian forces had attacked “from all sides”. He added: “It is impossible to calculate the number of civilian casualties. We have official statistics – about 200 dead – but in reality there are many more, “he said.
The Donbass, which produces coal and steel, has been the focus of Russia’s 2014 destabilization campaign against Ukraine, when the Kremlin used proxies to create so-called “people’s republics” in parts of Luhansk and Donetsk provinces.
Russia is bombing the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol with bombs to destroy bunkers, an adviser to the Ukrainian president said late Tuesday. “The world is watching the killing of children online and is silent,” adviser Mikhail Podoliak wrote on Twitter. Details cannot be verified immediately.
A video released by Ukraine’s Azov Battalion claims it shows people living in the underground network under the steel plant, where they say hundreds of women, children and elderly civilians are sheltered with declining supplies.
Russia’s push to the east came when the United States, Canada and Britain said they would send more artillery for use by Ukrainian forces. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said he plans to equip Kyiv with anti-ship missiles and armored missile launchers – including by installing British Brimstone missiles on vehicles.
Sulfur was previously used by UK forces in Libya and Syria and is usually fired by high-speed jets against fast-moving land and sea targets. Stormer High Velocity Missile (HVM) launchers, which use Starstreak missiles to shoot down low-flying aircraft, will also be sent.
The Pentagon confirmed on Tuesday that some countries had sent additional planes to Ukraine, as well as spare parts to repair damaged planes.
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby did not provide details on which countries provided aircraft, but confirmed new transfers and said Ukraine has more capable fighters than two weeks ago. He explained that Washington had not provided planes to Kyiv, but had “helped transfer some additional spare parts”.
US President Joe Biden is expected to announce a new military aid package, roughly the same as last week’s $ 800 million in the coming days, a number of sources told Reuters.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Berlin would provide funding to help Ukraine buy weapons made in Germany.
In other developments:
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Russia has deployed up to 20,000 mercenaries from Syria, Libya and elsewhere in the Donbass region, sent into battle without heavy equipment or armored vehicles, according to a European official. The mercenaries are being sent as part of what Western defense officials have described as rushing for a victory that Vladimir Putin may declare at a military parade in Moscow on May 9 in honor of World War II.
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Russian tycoon Oleg Tinkov, one of Russia’s most prominent entrepreneurs and founder of Tinkoff Bank, has called on the West to help end this “crazy war.” Tinkov, who now lives outside Russia, said online that 90 percent of Russians were “against this war” and called Russian forces a “shit army.”
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Western countries are preparing to organize coordinated departures and other diplomatic disregards at a meeting of G20 finance ministers in Washington on Wednesday to protest Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen will boycott some meetings if Russian officials are present, a senior U.S. official said, a position other countries have said they will follow.
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Kyiv and Moscow have not held face-to-face talks since March 29. Each side blames the other for its breakup. “Obviously, against the background of the tragedy in Mariupol, the negotiation process has become even more complicated,” adviser to Ukrainian President Podoliak told Reuters.
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UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called for a four-day humanitarian pause in the fighting this weekend, when Orthodox Christians celebrate Easter to allow civilians to flee and deliver humanitarian aid.
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