Russia issued an ultimatum: Ukrainian forces in Mariupol this morning must lay down their arms

A building in Mariupol was damaged after the fighting – Photo: REUTERS

TASS news agency quoted Colonel Mikhail Mizintsev, head of the Russian Federal Center for Defense Control, as saying that Moscow made the offer due to the “catastrophic situation” at the Azovstal steel plant as well as “principles” humanitarian”.

Earlier, Russia said it had wiped out all Ukrainian resistance forces in the urban area of ​​the city of Mariupol, in southeastern Ukraine. The number of soldiers still resisting, including Ukrainians and foreigners, is besieged at the Azovstal steel plant.

“We guarantee that whoever lays down their weapons will be spared their lives,” Mizintsev added.

According to Russia’s proposal, the remaining forces at the Azovstal plant must leave between 6am and 1pm (local time) without carrying weapons and ammunition.

Currently, Kiev has not responded to the offer from Russia. On April 16, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky admitted that the situation in Mariupol was “very serious”.

Also according to TASS, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said the loss of Ukrainian troops and foreign mercenaries was 23,367 people.

Konashenkov added that President Zelensky’s recent claim in Western media that Ukraine had between 2,500 and 3,000 service members killed was “a lie”.

“The Russian Ministry of Defense has reliable statistics on the actual losses of the Ukrainian army, which Zelensky is afraid to inform the people,” Konashenkov said.

Analysts predict Mariupol could become the first major Ukrainian city to fall next week, according to the newspaper Washington Post.

Occupying Mariupol would give Russia control of the Azov Sea coast and serve as a land bridge between separatist-held eastern Ukraine and Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014.