- Russia is telling Ukrainians at the Mariupol plant to lay down their arms
- The United States, Britain, Canada, France and Germany have pledged more aid
- The United States is planning a new package of military aid in the next few days – sources
Kyiv / KHARKIV, April 20 (Reuters) – Russia gave a new ultimatum to Ukrainian fighters still holding in Mariupol on Wednesday as it called for a decisive victory in its new eastern offensive as Western governments pledged more military aid. Kyiv.
Thousands of Russian troops, backed by artillery and rocket fire, have advanced 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.
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However, the biggest attack on a European country since 1945 has led to nearly 5 million people fleeing abroad and turning cities into ruins.
Russia has hit the Azovstal steel plant, the main remaining fortress in Mariupol, with bombs to destroy bunkers, an adviser to the Ukrainian president said late Tuesday. Reuters could not verify the details.
“The world is watching the killing of children online and is silent,” adviser Mikhail Podoliak wrote on Twitter.
After an earlier ultimatum to surrender was dropped and with the approach of midnight, the Russian Ministry of Defense said that no Ukrainian soldier had laid down his arms, and renewed the proposal. Ukrainian commanders have vowed not to surrender.
“Russia’s armed forces, based on purely humanitarian principles, are once again proposing that fighters from nationalist battalions and foreign mercenaries cease hostilities from 14:00 Moscow time on April 20 and lay down their arms,” the Russian Defense Ministry said.
The United States, Canada and Britain have said they will send more artillery.
“We will continue to provide them with more ammunition as we provide them with more military aid,” said White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki, adding that new sanctions were being prepared.
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.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called for a four-day humanitarian pause in the fighting next weekend as Orthodox Christians celebrate Easter to allow civilians to flee and deliver humanitarian aid.
Russia says it launched what it calls a “special military operation” on February 24 to demilitarize and “denationalize” Ukraine. Kyiv and its Western allies reject this as a false pretext.
THE CITY IS BLOODY
Savior works in a residential building damaged during the conflict between Ukraine and Russia in the southern port city of Mariupol, Ukraine, April 19, 2022 REUTERS / Alexander Ermochenko
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Ukraine says the new attack has led to the capture of Kremina, an administrative center with 18,000 people in Luhansk, one of Donbass’s two provinces.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov confirmed that “another stage of this operation is beginning”.
Expelled by Ukrainian forces in March from the attack on Kyiv in the north, Russia instead expelled troops to the east for the Donbass offensive. He has also struck long-range strikes on other targets, including the capital.
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 separatist “people’s republics” in parts of Luhansk and Donetsk provinces.
In Mariupol, the scene of the worst fighting in the war and the worst humanitarian catastrophe, about 120 civilians living near the large Azovstal steel plant have left the humanitarian corridors, Russian state television reported on Tuesday, Interfax reported.
Mariupol has been under siege since the first days of the war. Tens of thousands of residents have been trapped without access to food or water, and bodies have been scattered in the streets. Ukraine estimates that more than 20,000 civilians have died there.
“The Russian army will forever go down in world history as perhaps the most barbaric and inhuman army in the world,” President Vladimir Zelensky said in a video address.
“The deliberate killing of civilians, the destruction of residential neighborhoods and civilian infrastructure and the use of all kinds of weapons, including those prohibited by international conventions, is already the signature of the Russian army.
Russia has denied using banned weapons or targeting civilians during its invasion of Ukraine, and said without evidence that there were signs of atrocities.
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.
“We lost our home, we lost our livelihood. We want to live a normal, peaceful life. We want to get out of here, “said an unidentified woman in the video.
“There are a lot of children here – they are hungry. Get us out of here, please. We have already shed all our tears. We can’t cry anymore,” she added.
Reuters could not independently verify where and when the video was taken.
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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Report by Reuters journalists; Writing by Lincoln Feast; Edited by Himani Sarkar
Our standards: Thomson Reuters’ principles of trust.
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