Ukrainians defy Russian ultimatum to surrender in Mariupol

The devastated port city of Mariupol was on the brink to fall to Russian forces Sunday, seven weeks after being under siege. It would be Moscow’s first major success since its failure to storm Ukraine’s capital and its sinking of its Black Sea vessel.

According to the Russian military, 2,500 Ukrainian fighters were awaiting rescue at a massive steel plant that boasted a network of underground passageways and a wall of steel in the last pockets of resistance in Mariupol.

Moscow set a midday deadline for their surrender, saying those who laid down their arms were “guaranteed to keep their lives.” But the defenders did not submit, just as they rejected previous ultimatums.

“We will fight absolutely to the end, to the win, in this war,” Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal vowed on ABC’s “This Week.” He said Ukraine is prepared to end the war through diplomacy if possible, “but we do not have intention to surrender.”

The capture of Mariupol would free up Russian forces to join an expected all-out offensive for control of the Donbas, the industrial region in the country’s east where the Kremlin has focused its war aims after abandoning, for now at least, any attempt to take Kyiv, the capital.

The relentless bombardment and street fighting in Mariupol have left much of the city pulverized and killed at least 21,000 people, by the Ukrainians’ estimate. In the initial weeks of war, a Russian bomber struck a hospital for pregnant women. A theater in which civilians were sheltering was also hit.

Out of a prewar population 450,000, an estimated 100,000 remained in Mariupol. They were trapped without food, heat, or electricity during a siege that made Mariupol one of the most tragic scenes of the war.

“All those who will continue resistance will be destroyed,” Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov, the Russian Defense Ministry’s spokesman, saidIn announcing the latest ultimatum.

He saidIntercepted communications showed that there were approximately 400 foreign mercenaries at the Azovstal steel plant, which was not independently verified.

Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Malyar described Mariupol as a “shield defending Ukraine” as Russian troops prepare for the battle in the Donbas, where Moscow-backed separatists already control some territory.

In a reminder that no part of Ukraine is safe, Russian forces carried out missile strikes Sunday near Kyiv and elsewhere in an apparent effort to weaken Ukraine’s military capacity before the anticipated assault.

After the humiliating loss of the flagship of its Black Sea Fleet to what the Ukrainians boasted was a missile attack, Russia’s military vowed Friday to step up strikes on the capital. The Kremlin saidSunday saw the third strike by precision-guided missiles in the same span of days, when it attacked an ammunition plant close to Kyiv.

Russia claimed that it had also destroyed Ukrainian air defense radar equipment east of Sievierodonetsk as well as ammunition depots in other parts.

Overnight explosions were reported in Kramatorsk. Kramatorsk is an eastern city where rockets earlier in the month killed at most 57 people. It was also home to a train station that was crowded with civilians trying out to flee the Russian offensive.

Un regional official in eastern Ukraine saidTwo people were killed by Russian forces firing on homes in Zolote, near to the front line of the Donbass, in which they opened fire.

Malyar is the deputy defense minister. saidThe Russians continue to strike Mariupol with airstrikes, and may be getting ready to land an amphibious assault to bolster their ground forces.

Capturing the city would be Russia’s biggest victory after two months of costly fighting and could help reassure the Russian public amid the worsening economic situation from Western sanctions.

It would allow Russia land access to the Crimean Peninsula which it annexed from Ukraine last year. This would also remove Ukraine’s major port and valuable industrial assets.

Mariupol’s seizure also would make more troops available for the offensive in the east, which, if successful, would give Russian President Vladimir Putin a vital piece of the country and a badly needed victory that he could sell to the Russian people.

The Azovstal steel plant covers more than 11 km2 (or 4.2 miles) and has tunnels that allow the defenders hide and resist.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Ukrainian President saidAny attempt to negotiate peace could be scuttled by the fall of Mariupol.

“The destruction of all our guys in Mariupol – what they are doing now – can put an end to any format of negotiations,” Zelenskyy saidIn an interview with Ukrainian journalists

In his nightly address to the nation, Zelenskyy called on the West to send more heavy weapons immediately if there is any chance of saving the city, adding Russia is “deliberately trying to destroy everyone who is there.”

Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer, who met with Putin in Moscow this week – the first European leader to do so since the invasion Feb. 24 – said the Russian president is “in his own war logic” on Ukraine.

In an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Nehammer said he thinks Putin believes he is winning the war, and “we have to look in his eyes and we have to confront him with that, what we see in Ukraine.”

Like Mariupol in the east, Kharkiv’s northeastern suburb has been under attack since the early days. However, conditions have worsened before the eastern offensive.

At least five people were killed and 13 wounded in Russian shelling of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, on Sunday, regional officials said.

The barrage crashed into apartment buildings, leaving streets littered with broken glass and debris. Residents and firefighters tried to extinguish the flames in several apartments.

Zelenskyy estimated that between 2,500-3,000 Ukrainian troops had died during the war.

Amid the fighting, Zelenskyy spoke in his nightly address about Ukraine’s plans for a memorial “to remind all generations of our people of the brutal and senseless invasion Ukraine has been able to fend off.”

Pope Francis made an anguished Easter Sunday plea for peace in the “senseless” war in Ukraine.

“May there be peace for war-torn Ukraine, so sorely tried by the violence and destruction of this cruel and senseless war into which it was dragged,” Francis said, without mentioning Putin’s decision to invade.

“Please, please, let us not get used to war,” Francis pleaded.

Chernov reported from Kharkiv. Yesica Fisch from Kramatorsk in Ukraine and Associated Press journalists all over the world contributed to this article.