SEVERODONETSK, Ukraine — A Russian deadline for Ukrainian troops to surrender in the devastated port city of Mariupol came and went Sunday in a pitched battle whose outcome could change the course of the war.
A few thousand Ukrainian fighters bunkered in the Azovstal steelworks plant were offered a chance to lay down their arms, according to the Russian Defense Ministry. But the Ukrainian side appears to have rejected the offer, and Russia’s military warned that troops who refused “will be destroyed.”
In an address to the nation, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy acknowledged that the strategic coastal city was on the verge of being lost, saying Ukraine’s troops were outnumbered 6 to 1 and the situation there “remains as severe as possible.”
