Photo: ANDREY BORODULIN / AFP / Getty Images
The Kremlin has given Mariupol a deadline to surrender at 6 am Sunday Moscow time (11 pm ET Saturday), according to the Russian Defense Ministry.
Russia has said that it has almost taken control of Mariupol, but the president of Ukraine denies this.
The Russian Ministry of Defense has offered to save the lives of Ukrainian soldiers fighting in the key port city of Mariupol, but only if they lay down their arms on Sunday.
The Russian government said that the Ukrainian soldiers and “foreign mercenaries” still fighting in Mariupol, could lay down their arms among the 00: and the 13: 00 Moscow time (03: 00-10: 00 GMT) and your security would be guaranteed. Those who do so will be treated in accordance with the Geneva Convention on prisoners of war.
The statement did not say what would happen to soldiers who refused to stop fighting .
Russia seems poised to capture the devastated port city of Mariupol, which is strategically important for the Kremlin because it would connect Crimea, annexed by Russia, with the eastern region of Donbas in Ukraine.
Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelensky said on Saturday that the situation is “difficult” and warned that if Mariupol is found to have suffered atrocities on the scale of discovered in Bucha and other cities, could be the end of any negotiation with Russia.
Zelensky said that negotiations between Ukraine and Russia could end if Russian forces kill all the Ukrainians defending the port city of Mariupol.
In an interview with the Ukrainian media, Zelensky was asked about the ceasefire and peace negotiations stalled after destruction in towns like Bucha and Borodyanka, an area northwest of kyiv that had been hit by airstrikes earlier this month. The devastation in Borodyanka caused huge damage to residential buildings.
Zelensky warned that if Mariupol is found to have suffered atrocities of the magnitude of the discovered in Bucha and other cities, it could be the end of the negotiations. “There could be Borodyankas there,” he said of Mariupol .
Zelensky added that “the destruction of all our guys in Mariupol” could “ to any negotiation format”. He told journalists that the Ukrainian government knows how much of Mariupol they control “and how small it is”.
“I think this it is a big mistake if they definitely want to end the war as they say,” Zelensky said of the Russian aggression in the port city. “This is a dead end because… we are not bartering using our territories and people. And we understand that the talks are necessary to defend our country and end the war”.
The ceasefire negotiations between Ukraine and Russia have essentially collapsed in recent weeks, with both sides unwilling to engage in serious talks, according to an analysis released Friday by the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War.
Zelensky told the Ukrainian media that the situation in Mariupol is “very difficult”, and acknowledged that “many people have disappeared” from the city . He reiterated that the wounded who remained blocked from leaving Mariupol needed to be able to leave the city.
“A ceasefire is needed to pick up the wounded,” he said, according to the Ukrainian media outlet Pravda. “But it depends on Russia’s wish. They offer our people to surrender.”
Zelensky said that the situation in Mariupol remains “inhumane” and that Russia “is deliberately trying to destroy everyone who is there ”.
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