Russia’s deadline ends, Ukrainian soldiers do not lay down their weapons

According to The Guardian, in a statement released early this morning, the Russian Defense Ministry said that the Russian forces had opened a humanitarian corridor from the Azovstal factory for Ukrainian servicemen to voluntarily lay down their weapons and evacuate. civilians. “As of 10 p.m., Moscow time on April 19, 2022, no one is using this corridor.” After that, Russia once again gave Ukrainian troops the option to “stop fighting and hand over weapons” from 2pm on April 20.

The Azovstal Steel Plant, Ukraine’s last stronghold at Mariupol, was hit by a bunker bomb. According to Ukrainian officials, hundreds of civilians are sheltering underneath the factory.

Russia tried to gain full control over Mariupol from the very beginning of the war. Controlling this port city would be a huge strategic prize for Russia. Mariupol connects territory occupied by Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine with Crimea, which was annexed by Russia in 2014.

The Russian-backed separatists said that before the two-hour deadline, only five people showed up. A day earlier, Russia said that no one had responded to a similar offer to lay down arms it made on April 17.

This week, Ukraine announced plans to send 90 buses to evacuate 6,000 civilians in Mariupol, after reaching a preliminary agreement with Russia on a safe corridor. However, previous similar agreements were unsuccessful because Moscow blocked all convoys.

Once a prosperous port city of 400,000 people, Mariupol is now a wasteland. According to Ukrainian officials, tens of thousands of civilians here have died.

The United Nations today (April 20) said that the number of refugees leaving Ukraine since Russia attacked the country on February 24 has exceeded 5 million. More than half of them are children.

After almost 8 weeks attack UkraineRussia has yet to control any major cities of its neighboring country. Moscow was forced to withdraw from northern Ukraine after last month’s attack on Kiev was repulsed. Starting this week, however, Moscow regrouped in preparation for an attack to the east.

Hoai Linh