The Ukrainian soldiers besieged in Mariúpol (southeast) seemed at the close of this edition to ignore Russia’s ultimatum. Staying with that town would be key for the Kremlin, since it would close Ukraine’s exit to the Sea of Azov, consolidate a land bridge between its conquests in the separatist east and south, and speed up the closure of the rest of the coast on the Black Sea . The town had 440,000 inhabitants before the war, but a large part of them have left as refugees.
Moscow desperately needs a win after being severely hit by the sinking of the Moskva cruiser, the flagship of its Black Sea fleet (see separate note).
Quarrel
The Ukrainian prime minister also rejected recent claims by Vladimir Putin that Russian troops are winning the war.
“Not a single great city has fallen. Only Kherson is under the control of the Russian forces, but all the other cities are under the control of Ukraine”, insisted Shmygal, specifying that more than 900 municipalities, including the capital, kyiv, remained free.
“We are currently fighting in the Donbas region and we have no intention of giving up,” added the chief, speaking in English, referring to the Russian-speaking eastern region, where the army is fighting separatist militias.
In an interview also broadcast yesterday by another US television network, CNN, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky dismissed the idea of letting Moscow seize Donbas and parts of eastern Ukraine to stop the bloodbath.
“Ukraine and its people are clear about it. We have no right to anyone else’s territories, but we are not going to give up our own,” she said.
The situation in Mariupol is “inhumane,” Zelensky declared. “It is as serious as it could be. Simply inhumane,” the president insisted in a video, in which he accused Russia of “deliberately destroying anyone who is” in that city.
The president pointed out that there were only “two options”: the supply from Western countries of “all the necessary weapons” to break the long siege of Mariupol or “the path of negotiation” in which “the role of the allies must be equally decisive.
His remarks coincided with a statement from the Russian Defense Ministry that demanded that the last Ukrainian soldiers entrenched in a huge metallurgical complex in Mariupol give up the fight.
Before that message, Zelensky had warned that an “elimination” of the soldiers entrenched in Mariupol “would put an end to any peace negotiations” in this conflict that has already caused five million exiles and seven displaced.
After more than 40 days of siege and under constant bombardment, the UN World Food Program estimates that more than 100,000 civilians are on the verge of starvation in Mariupol, where there is also no water or heating.
“There is no food, no water, no medicine,” Zelensky said in an interview. In terms of deaths, “Mariúpol can be ten times Borodianka”, a small city near kyiv completely destroyed by the Russian invasion, he denounced.
Source: Ambito
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