Russian troops today increased their presence and geography of attacks on the Donetsk and Lugansk fronts in eastern Ukraine, and gave a new ultimatum to the Ukrainian troops resisting in the port city of Mariupol to surrender.
“The Russian occupiers continue to bomb the front lines and look for weak points in defense along the entire line of contact,” according to a part of the Ukrainian General Staff.
According to the Ukrainian military, Russian troops launched a new offensive towards the city of Lyman, in the Donetsk region, as part of Russia's attempts to control the entire Donbas and after Moscow this week launched the second phase of the military campaign in Ukraine.
Lyman, an important railway hub in the region, would be, according to the Ukrainian high command, one of the main Russian targets of the time, while the attacks also intensified in another Donetsk city, Marinka.
Increased military presence
British intelligence, in turn, reported an increase in the Russian military presence on the eastern border of Ukraine and the intensification of fighting in different parts of the Donbas as Russian forces seek to break Ukrainian defenses.
According to the last part of the intelligence, the Russian attacks on Ukrainian cities show their intention to try to stop the movement of Ukrainian reinforcements and weapons towards the east of the country.
Moscow has repeatedly criticized foreign arms supplies, which, according to Russia, are intended to prolong the conflict in Ukraine.
The Russian Foreign Ministry today denounced that the weapons delivered to Kiev are used to “attack peaceful cities of the Donetsk and Lugansk people's republics”, which Moscow recognized as independent.
He also accused Ukraine of hosting more than 7,000 foreign mercenaries from 63 countries of the world.
Kiev in turn replied that the refusal to hand over arms to Ukraine de facto implies support for “Russian aggression”.
New ultimatum
The clear goal of Russian troops remains to “capture” Mariupol and gain full control over the southern region of Kherson, according to the Ukrainian military command.
As the siege of the strategic city continues, Russia today again gave its defenders a new ultimatum to surrender and save their lives, although so far the soldiers have shown no sign of wanting to lay down their arms.
Moscow already gave an ultimatum yesterday, Tuesday, to the fighters of the Azov battalion and the Ukrainian soldiers to surrender and be able to evacuate civilians who are taking refuge in and around the Azovstal metallurgical factory.
According to the Ukrainian authorities, there are at least a thousand civilians, most of them women and children, a figure that Russia doubts, which also accuses Ukrainian forces of using these citizens as a “human shield”.
The pro-Russian militia in Donetsk today assured that five Ukrainian soldiers laid down their arms yesterday and left the Azovstal steel mill, a figure not confirmed by Russia. The pro-Russian separatists also claimed that they had evacuated more than 140 civilians from the vicinity of the steel mill.
At the same time, Kiev reported that an agreement has been reached in the midst of the emergency situation in Mariupol to open today a humanitarian corridor allowing some 6,000 children, women and the elderly to leave for Zaporiyia.
In the previous three days, no humanitarian corridors had been opened, either in Mariupol or in other parts of eastern Ukraine because of the fighting.
Negotiation offer
At the diplomatic level, calls for a truce between Russia and Ukraine continued, while Moscow reported that it had submitted a negotiation proposal to Kiev and was awaiting the Ukrainian reaction.
“We handed over to the Ukrainian side our draft document which includes absolutely clear and developed formulations. The ball is in their court, we expect an answer,” said the Kremlin.
Foreign Affairs said that the Russian proposal was delivered on the 15th and that so far no response has been received.
Kiev reported, for its part, that within the framework of the negotiations in Istanbul, at the end of last month, Ukraine made security proposals to Russia and then received its counterproposal, which is currently being studied.
Ukraine's top negotiator said yesterday, Tuesday, that it is difficult to predict when peace talks between the parties could resume.
The Secretary-General of the United Nations, António Guterres, asked Russia and Ukraine yesterday, Tuesday, a four-day truce in their fighting to coincide with Orthodox Easter, that is, from tomorrow, Thursday, and until next Sunday.
Commenting on the initiative, the head of the separatist Donetsk, Denis Pushilin, stated that during the eight years of conflict in the east of the country between the pro-Russian regions and the Ukrainian army there were more than 20 truces and “all of them failed because of the Ukrainian side”.
While the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry released a statement in which it favored a “humanitarian pause” in the coming days to evacuate thousands of civilians from combat zones.
(With information from EFE)
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