Russia’s defence ministry has told the Ukrainian forces still fighting in the besieged southern port of Mariupol to lay down their arms starting 6 a.m. Moscow time on Sunday to save their lives.
Russia’s earlier claim that its troops had cleared the urban area of Mariupol, scene of the war’s heaviest fighting and worst humanitarian catastrophe, could not be independently verified. It would be the first major city to have fallen to Russian forces since the February 24 invasion.
The total capture of Mariupol would give Russia an option to build a land bridge to Crimea and control the entire north shore of the Sea of Azov.