April 18,2022: Ukrainian soldiers holed up in a steel factory in the shattered city of Mariupol have ignored a Russian surrender-or-die ultimatum as Moscow appeared poised for a strategic victory in the southeastern port city.
The fall of Mariupol, the site of a merciless seven-week-old siege that has reduced much of the city to a smoking ruin, would be Russia’s biggest conquest of the war and free up troops to take part in the battles for control of Ukraine’s industrial east.
Capturing the city would also allow Russia to fully secure a land corridor to the Crimean peninsula, which it seized from Ukraine in 2014, and deprive Ukraine of a major port and its prized industrial assets.
The Russian Armed Forces, who claimed the city has been “completely cleared”, issued an ultimatum on Saturday, urging their opponents to lay down their arms by 6am Moscow time (03:00 GMT) on Sunday and to evacuate before 1pm.
Several hours after the deadline passed on Sunday, there was no sign of compliance by Ukrainian fighters holed up in the smouldering Azovstal steel works, one of Europe’s biggest metallurgical plants.
Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said the remaining Ukrainian forces in Mariupol were still fighting.
“The city still has not fallen,” Shmyhal told ABC’s This Week programme on Sunday. “We will fight absolutely to the end, to the win, in this war.”
He said Ukraine is prepared to end the conflict through diplomacy if possible, “but we do not have intention to surrender”.
Russia estimated that 2,500 Ukrainian troops and about 400 foreign mercenaries were dug in at the Azovstal plant, which covers more than 11 square kilometres (four square miles) and is laced with tunnels.
