The Russian Defense Ministry said Ukrainian soldiers surrendered at the Azovstal industrial complex on Tuesday. The steel plant was the last point of Ukrainian resistance in Mariupol.
Kyiv did not confirm the information released by the Russian news agency RIA, which could mean that the Russians take complete control of the city in the south of the country.
The Russian ministry also said it had opened a humanitarian corridor for the evacuation of those soldiers who “voluntarily laid down their arms.”
According to local reports, in addition to the soldiers who resisted in Azovstal, another thousand civilians have taken refuge inside the complex.
Russian army leaders reportedly delivered an ultimatum to Ukrainian troops tonight. According to Russian information, they had until 12:00 p.m. from Moscow (6:00 a.m. from Brasilia) to deliver the construction site.
Earlier this Tuesday, the leader of Russia’s Chechnya region said Moscow would take over Mariupol later this Tuesday.
Speaking on Indian television, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the country is in a new phase of the invasion, which Moscow is calling a “special operation.”
“Another phase of this operation (in eastern Ukraine) is beginning and I am sure that this will be a very important moment of this whole special operation,” Lavrov said.
The Russian minister talks about a new phase of the operation in Ukraine
Russian troops carried out 1,260 strikes on Ukrainian soil in the early hours of Tuesday. The number is four times higher than the attacks also registered by the Russian government on Monday (18).
The vast majority of these attacks took place in eastern Ukraine, where Moscow is attempting to take over cities. One of them, the one from Kreminna. Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov claimed all the bombings were aimed at Ukrainian military targets, but Kyiv has accused Russian troops of deliberately targeting civilian installations.
The increase in the offensive reflects a new phase in the war, with Moscow attempting to take full control of Mariupol and the Donbass region to the east.