Ukraine reported that Russian troops continue to advance in the east of the country

The Ukrainian General Staff reported on Sunday that Russian troops continue to advance throughout the east of the country, including the port city of Mariupol, to which Russia has urged to surrender.

“The enemy continues its air strikes on Mariupol, as well as in the rest of the Donetsk region,” Ukrainian military sources reported, through the social network Facebook.

Defense sources claimed, on the other hand, that they had succeeded in repelling successive air strikes on the capital, Kiev.

Last night Russia urged the Ukrainian military in the besieged city of Mariupol to cease hostilities and lay down their weapons from 06.00 Moscow time (03. 00 GMT) and assured that they will be guaranteed their lives.

In a message released yesterday, Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelensky called the situation in that port city “inhuman” and accused Russia to “destroy” everything it finds in its path.

The Ukrainian leader had warned in a previous message, also on Saturday, that Russia's “elimination” of its soldiers resisting in Mariupol would mean “the end of any peace negotiation”.

According to Viacheslav Volodin, president of the Russian Duma, the Kiev government uses negotiations to buy time while asking NATO for military aid. The Russian official stressed that if Zelensky is concerned about the citizens of Ukraine, he must immediately take two decisions: “First, to withdraw troops from the Donetsk and Lugansk people's republics, and, secondly, to establish in a treaty the recognition of Crimea (as a Russian territory) and the neutral status of Ukraine, as well as denazification and demilitarization of the country. It won't be otherwise.”

“The city hasn't fallen. There are still our soldiers and they will fight to the end. For now they are still in Mariupol,” said Ukrainian Prime Minister Denis Shmyhal in an interview with the US network ABC.

The demand for surrender had little sign of being met by the Ukrainian military, who are presenting numantine resistance to Russian troops and militias of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR, pro-Russian), recognized by Moscow as an Independent State

Already this Saturday, the leader of the DPR, Denis Pushilin, pointed out that the nationalist battalions remaining in Mariupol “do not intend to surrender and must therefore be annihilated”.

Mariupol, by the Sea of Azov, is one of the strategic goals of the Russians in their efforts to achieve full control of the Donbas region and form a land corridor in the east of the country from the annexed Crimean peninsula.

According to its mayor's office, up to 20,000 civilians have died in the city since the start of the Russian invasion.

The Ukrainian authorities consider that some 120,000 civilians remain in the besieged city, who defend the Azov Regiment, the Marines and other forces.

According to Kiev estimates, on the 53rd day since the start of the Russian invasion, there have been some 20,300 casualties in the Russian army, including deaths, injuries or prisoners.

Meanwhile, the Russian Army continued its high-precision missile and artillery fire attacks on Ukrainian facilities, including an ammunition factory in the Kiev region.

Authorities in Kharkiv, a Ukrainian city in eastern Ukraine near the Russian border, today reported that at least five people were killed and 13 others were injured in a rocket attack.

From the Vatican, Pope Francis today called for peace to come to Ukraine in his traditional Easter message. “May there be peace in the martyred Ukraine, so harshly tested by violence and the destruction of the cruel and senseless war into which it has been dragged. May a new dawn of hope soon emerge on this terrible night of suffering and death,” he said.

With information from EFE