- Fighters surrendering in Mariupol will be spared – Moscow
- Russia says urban area of Ukrainian port city has been cleared
- Explosions hit Kyiv in the north, Lviv in the west
- Ukraine says situation in Mariupol is ‘very difficult’
April 17 – Russia ordered Ukrainian forces fighting in the besieged city of Mariupol to lay down their arms to save their lives from 6 a.m. Moscow time (0300 GMT) on Sunday.
Thirty minutes after the ultimatum, there were no immediate reports of activity in the strategic south-eastern port. Air raid sirens sounded regularly across the country, but there were no reports of strikes.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said its troops cleared the Mariupol urban area and only a small contingent of Ukrainian fighters remained at a steel mill in the city on Saturday.
Moscow’s claim that it had all but controlled Mariupol, scene of the war’s heaviest fighting and worst humanitarian catastrophe, could not be independently corroborated. It would be the first major city to fall to Russian forces since the February 24 invasion.
“Taking into account the catastrophic situation that has developed at the Azovstal Metallurgical Plant and guided by purely humane principles, the Russian Armed Forces offer the militants of nationalist battalions and foreign mercenaries from 06:00 (Moscow time) on April 17, 2022 to end all hostilities and lay down arms,” the Department of Defense said in a statement
“All those who lay down their arms are guaranteed their lives spared,” it said, adding that the defenders could leave the plant without weapons and ammunition until 10 a.m.
No immediate reply came from Kyiv.
“The situation is very difficult” in Mariupol, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told the news portal Ukrainska Pravda. “Our soldiers are blocked, the wounded are blocked. There is a humanitarian crisis… Nevertheless, the boys are fighting back.”
As Moscow launched long-range missile strikes across the country after the sinking of its Black Sea flagship, Moscow said its warplanes struck a tank repair factory in Kyiv on Saturday. An explosion was heard and smoke billowed over the south-eastern Darnytskyi district. The mayor said at least one person was killed and medics fought to save others. Continue reading
The Ukrainian military said Russian warplanes launched from Belarus fired missiles at the Lviv region near the Polish border and four cruise missiles were shot down by Ukrainian air defenses.
The Western town, which has remained relatively intact up to now, served as a place of refuge for refugees and international aid organizations.
TURNED STEEL, BLASTED CONCRETE
In Mariupol, Reuters journalists reached the huge Illich Steelworks, one of two metalworks where defenders had made stops in underground tunnels and bunkers. Moscow claimed to have taken it on Friday.
The factory became a ruin of twisted steel and blasted concrete, with no sign of defenders. Several civilian bodies were scattered on the surrounding streets.
The Russian Defense Ministry said its troops had “completely cleared the Mariupol urban area of Ukrainian forces” and blocked the “remnants” at the Azovstal Steel Plant, the RIA news agency said. It said Ukrainian forces had lost more than 4,000 personnel in the city as of Saturday.
Zelenskyy accused Russia of “deliberately trying to crush everyone” in Mariupol and said his government is in contact with the defenders. He did not address Moscow’s claim that Ukrainian forces were no longer in urban areas.
The governor of Kharkiv province in the east said at least one person was killed and 18 injured in a missile attack. Smoke billowed from burning cars and the remains of an office building in the city.
In Mykolayiv, near the southern front, Russia said it had attacked a military vehicle repair factory.
The attacks followed Russia’s announcement on Friday that it was stepping up long-range strikes in retaliation for unspecified acts of “sabotage” and “terrorism,” hours after it confirmed the sinking of its Black Sea flagship, the Moskva.
Kyiv and Washington say the ship, the sinking of which has become a symbol of Ukrainian defiance, was hit by Ukrainian missiles. Moscow says it sank after a fire and its crew of around 500 were evacuated.
The Russian Defense Ministry released a video of the Chief of the Navy, Admiral Nikolai Yevmenov, meeting with about a hundred sailors who were said to be members of the crew at a parade ground.
RUSSIA’S BIGGEST PRIZE
If Mariupol falls, it would be Russia’s greatest spoils of war yet. It is the main port of Donbass, a bi-provincial region in the southeast that Moscow wants to cede entirely to separatists.
Ukraine says it has so far held back Russian advances in the Donbass regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, where at least one person was killed by shelling overnight. Continue reading
Ukraine gained the upper hand in the early stages of a war, in part through the successful use of mobile units armed with Western-supplied anti-tank missiles against Russian tank convoys restricted to roads by muddy terrain.
But Putin appears determined to seize more Donbas territory in order to secure victory in a war that has left Russia exposed to increasingly punitive Western sanctions and has few allies.
The forthcoming European Union round of sanctions against Russia will target banks, including Sberbank (SBER.MM), as well as oil, European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen told German newspaper Bild am Sonntag.
Reporting by Reuters journalists in Kyiv, Lviv and Mariupol and Reuters offices worldwide; Writing by Raju Gopalakrishnan; Adaptation by William Mallard