The Azovstal site has become a place of refuge for “many civilians,” said Mariupol police chief Mikhail Vershynin on Sunday evening, according to a report by the Ukrainian state news agency Ukrinform. Meanwhile, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy again pushed for rapid arms deliveries.
Vershynin told local Mariupol TV that there are still 100,000 civilians in the city. They were used by the invaders “to clear away rubble and pick up corpses”. In this way, the Russian army wants to remove the traces of its crimes. In addition, all residents of the city are forced to wear white ribbons on their left arms and right legs. But all soldiers would also have the same ribbons, which “deliberately turns civilians into combatants”.
Ultimatum expired
An ultimatum from the Russian army to the Ukrainian fighters in the strategically important port city on the Azov Sea expired on Sunday. The Ukrainian government acknowledged that the fighters were already surrounded, but they would “fight to the end,” Prime Minister Denys Shmychal said. President Zelenskyy has threatened to end ceasefire talks with Moscow if Ukrainian militants are killed.
Selenskyj criticized delayed arms deliveries
In a video speech on Sunday evening, Selenskyj criticized the delays in arms deliveries for his country. In view of an expected new offensive by Russian troops, this means “permission for Russia to take the lives of Ukrainians”. He did not name any countries, but Kyiv had recently urged Germany in particular to deliver arms more quickly. Zelenskyy warned that the Russian military is preparing an offensive in the Donbass industrial region in eastern Ukraine in the near future. “Just as Russian troops are destroying Mariupol, they also want to raze other cities and towns in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions,” he said. In Mariupol, which has been under siege for weeks, it is assumed that thousands of residents have been killed.
Mariupol would be first great conquest
Should Russia capture Mariupol, it would be its first major conquest since the war began on February 24. According to Russia, its troops have the city largely under control. Only a group of Ukrainian fighters are entrenched on the Azovstal site, one of the two large steelworks in Mariupol. The factory site with countless buildings and railway tracks is more than eleven square kilometers in size. The Russian Defense Ministry, citing radio recordings, said there were 400 foreign mercenaries among the Ukrainian soldiers. These would have an order to shoot for anyone who wanted to surrender.
In his video message, Selenskyj reported on new victims in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv. In the past four days, 18 residents of the country’s second largest city have been killed by Russian shelling and 106 others injured. “Today, Russian troops shelled Culture, Shevchenko and Darwin streets in particular. Apparently, these words – culture, Shevchenko and Darwin – are particularly dangerous for Russia. It’s something that threatens their existence,” he said sarcastic humor known ex-comedian. Taras Shevchenko made a significant contribution to the development of the modern Ukrainian language as a poet in the 19th century, while the British naturalist Charles Darwin is considered the founder of the modern theory of evolution. This shelling alone on Sunday killed five people and injured at least 15 others.
Source: Nachrichten
