04.17.2022 06:11 (Akt. 04.17.2022 06:11)
In view of the “inhumane” situation in the port city of Mariupol, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called for more support from the West. Either the “partners will immediately supply Ukraine with all necessary heavy weapons” or support it in negotiations to end the siege, Zelensky said late on Sunday. Meanwhile, Moscow called on the remaining Ukrainian fighters to surrender.
Zelenskyj wants to “reduce pressure on Mariupol and break the siege” with Western fighter jets. The Ukrainian president admitted that finding a “military or diplomatic” solution to the situation was “extremely difficult”.
Earlier, Zelenskyy said that killing the remaining Ukrainian forces in Mariupol would spell the end of negotiations with Russia. Talks between the warring parties have not brought any results in recent weeks. Russian President Vladimir Putin said they had reached a “dead end”.
Mariupol has been under siege since the first days after the Russian invasion on 24 February. Meanwhile, the city in the southeast, which once had more than 400,000 inhabitants, has been largely destroyed and the humanitarian situation is catastrophic. Selenskyj recently spoke of “tens of thousands” killed in the siege. On Saturday, he again accused Russia of not allowing escape corridors.
The Defense Ministry in Moscow claimed that Russian troops were in control of “the entire area of the city”. The ministry added that Ukrainian troops were surrounded in an industrial area. He called on the militants to give up resistance and leave the Azovstal Works site by 12:00 CEST on Sunday. “Their only chance to save their lives is to voluntarily lay down their arms and surrender,” the ministry said.
Zelenskyi told Ukrainian media that Ukraine must prepare for the possibility of Russia using nuclear weapons as the conflict unfolds. The Ukrainian president had already said the day before that Russia might use nuclear or chemical weapons out of desperation in military setbacks.
According to Zelensky, the situation in Mariupol remains extremely serious. He accused Moscow of deliberately trying to wipe out everyone there. Zelenskyy did not provide any information about the situation of the Ukrainian armed forces in the city. Not a day has passed since the start of the blockade that Kiev has not sought a solution – militarily or diplomatically, “whatever it is to save the people”. However, finding the solution is very difficult, so far there has not been a single fully viable option.
Meanwhile, according to Ukrainian sources, around 1,450 people were rescued on Saturday from contested areas of the country. About 1,380 people arrived in the city of Zaporizhia from several cities in the south and east of the country, including 170 from the port city of Mariupol, the president’s office said on Telegram on Saturday.
68 people were taken from three cities in the Luhansk region “under constant fire”. An evacuation from the city of Lysychansk in the area was thwarted due to “massive bombing”.
Moscow said on Saturday that “despite the obstacles caused by Kiev” some 15,800 people were evacuated to Russia from dangerous regions of Ukraine and the Donetsk and Luhansk regions within 24 hours without the involvement of Ukrainian authorities.
Ukraine and Russia accuse each other of sabotaging the flight of civilians through so-called humanitarian corridors that are created every day. Moscow recently said it would focus combat operations in eastern Ukraine.