Russia’s new deadline for the Ukrainian forces in the besieged port city of Mariupol to surrender by 7 a.m. Eastern time Wednesday has passed, raising fresh concerns about the fate of the troops and civilians holed up in a steel plant. Previous ultimatums issued by the Kremlin to surrender were rejected by the Ukrainian authorities.
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Ukrainian officials confirmed that fighting continued at the sprawling Azovstal Iron and Steel Works that is serving as the last holdout for Ukrainian fighters.
“Mariupol is holding on,” Oleksiy Arestovych, an adviser to Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky, said Wednesday in a video. He said Russia was escalating offensives in eastern Ukraine on multiple fronts.
The situation of the Ukrainian soldiers who remain inside the plant, vastly outnumbered and subject to constant shelling by the Russians, seemed desperate. The Ukrainian commander, Maj. Serhiy Volyna of the 36th Separate Marine Brigade, in audio messages sent to The Washington Post, said his soldiers were “dying underground.”
“While the world is asleep, in Mariupol, the guys are dying,” Volyna said.
Zelensky said the situation in strategically important Mariupol remains “severe,” and the fate of city residents relocated to Russian-controlled areas was unknown.
A planned humanitarian corridor from Mariupol announced by Ukrainian officials Wednesday morning also fell through, after Russia was unable to ensure a cease-fire, according to Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk.
Here’s what to know about Mariupol and the humanitarian catastrophe unfolding there.
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