Ukraine's remaining forces in the city of Mariupol may have "only a few days or hours left" as relentless Russian attacks continue. Another attempt to get civilians out of the battered port failed on Wednesday (April 20).
The warning that Ukrainians holding out against Russia's siege don't have long left came in a video message from a fighter, apparently calling for help. Defenders are making a last stand in a giant steel factory.
If Mariupol falls, it will be Vladimir Putin's biggest success of the war so far. It would help Russia form a land bridge from the Russian mainland, through the eastern Ukrainian region of the Donbas which it is trying to capture permanently, all the way to the Crimea - which Russia occupied for access to the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea in 2014.
Mariupol's last stand
In devastated Mariupol, Ukraine said the Russians dropped heavy bombs to flatten what was left of the sprawling Azovstal steel factory, believed to be the city’s last pocket of resistance. A few thousand Ukrainian troops, by the Russians’ estimate, remained in the factory and its labyrinth of tunnels and bunkers spread out across about four square miles.
Ukrainian President Zelensky said about 1,000 civilians were also trapped. A Ukrainian apparently in the facility posted a Facebook video urging world leaders to help evacuate people, saying: “We have more than 500 wounded soldiers and hundreds of civilians with us, including women and children.”
The officer identified himself as Serhiy Volynsky of the 36th Marine Brigade and warned: “This may be our last appeal. We may have only a few days or hours left.” The authenticity of the video could not be independently verified.
The Russian side issued a new ultimatum to the defenders to surrender, but the Ukrainians have ignored all previous demands. More than 100,000 people overall were believed trapped in Mariupol with little if any food, water, medicine or heat. The city’s pre-war population was 400,000.
Ukrainian deputy prime minister Iryna Vereshchuk said the latest effort to open a safe corridor for women, children and the elderly to escape failed because the Russians did not observe a cease-fire. Many previous such agreements have fallen apart because of continued fighting.
An adviser to Mr Zelensky, Mykhailo Podolyak, said on Twitter that he and other Ukrainian negotiators were ready to hold talks without conditions to save the lives of trapped Mariupol defenders and civilians. There was no immediate response from Russia.
Mariupol holds strategic and symbolic value for both sides. The scale of suffering there has made it a worldwide focal point of the war.
Mariupol’s fall would deprive Ukraine of a vital port, complete a land bridge between Russia and the Crimean Peninsula, and free up Russian troops to move elsewhere in the Donbas.
Russia steps up battle for the east
Elsewhere on the battlefield, Ukraine said Moscow continued to mount assaults across the east, probing for weak points in Ukrainian defensive lines. Russia said it launched hundreds of missile and air attacks on targets that included concentrations of troops and vehicles.
The Kremlin’s stated goal is the capture of the Donbas, the mostly Russian-speaking eastern region that is home to coal mines and metal and heavy-equipment factories. Detaching it from the rest of Ukraine would give Mr Putin a badly needed victory two months into the war, after the botched attempt to storm the capital, Kyiv.
The UK's Ministry of Defence said Russian forces were advancing from staging areas in the Donbas toward Kramatorsk, which continues to suffer from persistent rocket attacks. The MoD added in an assessment on Thursday that Russia likely wants to demonstrate significant successes ahead of its annual May 9 Victory Day celebrations. “This could affect how quickly and forcefully they attempt to conduct operations in the run-up to this date,” it said.
In a video address, President Zelensky said the Russians were not “abandoning their attempts to score at least some victory by launching a new, large-scale offensive”. The Luhansk governor said Russian forces control 80% of his region, which is one of two that make up the Donbas.
Before Russia invaded on February 24, the Kyiv government controlled 60% of the Luhansk region. Governor Serhiy Haidai said the Russians, after seizing the small city of Kreminna, are now threatening the cities of Rubizhne and Popasna.
He urged all residents to evacuate immediately. “The occupiers control only parts of these cities, unable to break through to the centres,” Mr Haidai said on the messaging app Telegram.
Analysts have said the offensive in the east could become a war of attrition as Russia faces Ukraine’s most experienced, battle-hardened troops, who have fought pro-Moscow separatists in the Donbas for eight years.
Russia presents terms for 'peace'
Russia said it presented Ukraine with a draft document outlining its demands for ending the conflict — days after Mr Putin said the talks were at a “dead end”. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said “the ball is in their court, we’re waiting for a response”.
He gave no details on the draft and it was not clear when it was sent or whether it offered anything new to the Ukrainians, who presented their own demands last month. Mr Zelensky said he had not seen or heard of the proposal, though one of his top advisers said the Ukrainian side was reviewing it.
Moscow has long demanded Ukraine drop any bid to join Nato. Ukraine has said it would agree to that in return for security guarantees from other countries.
Other sources of tension include the status of both the Crimean Peninsula, seized by Moscow in 2014, and eastern Ukraine, where the separatists have declared independent republics recognised by Russia.
Putin's missile boast as West sends more aid
President Vladimir Putin boasted that it can overcome any missile defence system and make those who threaten Russia “think twice”. His claims came after a successful test of a new type of intercontinental ballistic missile, the Sarmat, Russia said.
The head of the Russian state aerospace agency called the launch out of northern Russia “a present to Nato”. The Pentagon described the test as “routine” and said it was not considered a threat.
As Russia funnelled troops and equipment into the Donbas, western nations rushed to boost the flow of military supplies to Kyiv for this new phase of the war — likely to involve trench warfare, long-range artillery attacks and tank battles across relatively open terrain.
US President Joe Biden was set to announce plans on Thursday to send more military aid to Ukraine, according to a US official who was not authorised to comment publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity. Mr Zelensky said Ukraine’s western allies have “come to understand our needs better”, adding that Ukraine is receiving new shipments of western weapons “now, when Russia is trying to step up its attacks, not in weeks or in a month”.
Mr Putin, meanwhile, boasted that the Sarmat missile has “no equivalents in the world”. The Sarmat is intended to eventually replace the Soviet-built missile code-named Satan by Nato as a major component of Russia’s nuclear arsenal.
It will ”make those who, in the heat of frantic, aggressive rhetoric, try to threaten our country think twice”, Mr Putin said.
