"The Russians have decided, they will destroy Mariupol to the ground"

"The Russians have decided, they will destroy Mariupol to the ground"

The defenders of Mariupol will fight to the end, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said earlier.

The city is strategically important for Russia because its conquest gains control over the Sea of Azov, but also over a large part of southern and eastern Ukraine, given that it connects the Crimean peninsula with the industrially developed Donbas, which includes the pro-Russian regions of Donetsk and Lugansk.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said that Russia had decided to destroy Mariupol to the ground. "If the Russians do not want negotiations, we will fight to the end, absolutely. We will not capitulate," Kuleba said, adding: "We will not leave our country, our families, our soil."

The Ukrainian General Staff reported on Sunday night about new missile and bomb attacks on the besieged Mariupol, and as it is stated, the Russians used Tu-22M3 ultrasonic bombers in the attacks.

Ukraine demanded that Russian forces open humanitarian corridors from Mariupol in order to enable the departure of civilians and wounded Ukrainian soldiers, but there have been no major evacuations for several weeks.

Local authorities say that Russian forces have announced that they will prevent anyone from entering or leaving the city, BBC reports.

The Russian military claims to control almost all of Mariupol, while the Ukrainian battalion of Azov still holds Azovstal, a huge ironworks overlooking the Sea of ​​Azov. The head of the Mariupol police says that a large number of civilians took refuge in the Azovstal circle, who were hiding from the shelling.

About 100.000 inhabitants remained in Mariupol, and before the war, that city had about 400.000 inhabitants. Thousands of civilian casualties are feared due to the long siege and constant shelling.

The Russian army is expected to attack the Azovstal ironworks complex. "In case of further resistance, everyone will be destroyed," said Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov.

If Russia conquers a strategically important port city, it could also affect the ceasefire negotiations, the agencies report. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has threatened to suspend negotiations if Russian forces kill Mariupol's defenders.

Ukrainian president warned that the Russian army is preparing an offensive on the industrial region of Donbass in eastern Ukraine in the near future: "As Russian troops destroy Mariupol, they want to destroy other cities and places in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions," he claims.

Military experts assume that Ukraine will need significantly more heavy weapons in the east of the country in order to withstand the attacks, reports the German Spiegel.

Occupying Mariupol would mean a heavy defeat for Ukraine, both symbolically and strategically. Mariupol is located in the Donbas region, over which pro-Russian separatists want to take complete control with the help of Moscow. Occupying the port city would help Russia create a direct land connection with the Crimean peninsula, which they occupied in 2014 and then annexed.

Since the withdrawal of Russian armed forces from the wider area of ​​Kyiv, the fighting has increasingly shifted to southern and eastern Ukraine. Experts assume that Russia wants to announce victory in the Ukrainian Donbas by the symbolically important anniversary on May 9th.