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‘Immediately lay down arms’: Russia's new warning after battle of Donbas starts
The Ukraine war has entered the 55th day and Russia has stepped up attack in the war-battered nation.
“Immediately lay down arms” - Russia told the Ukrainian forces on Tuesday as it gave a warning to the defenders in the strategic port city of Mariupol, hours after the battle for the rebel-held region of Donbas, in the eastern part of the war-hit nation, started. But Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky's adviser, Oleksiy Arestovych, said that Moscow won't be able to make gains, pledging resistance till the last moment. "The battle for Donbas, which was announced and apparently began yesterday, is underway and is going very cautiously. The battle will not go in Russia's favour," he said.
Here are ten updates on the Ukraine war:
1. Russia has claimed that it’s making rapid gains. More than 1,200 Ukrainian targets were struck overnight, the defence ministry. A Ukrainian MiG-29 jet in the Donetsk region was forced down, Reuters cited the officials as saying.
2. Calling on Kyiv to show "reason and give the corresponding orders to fighters to cease their senseless resistance", Moscow has said defenders in the strategic port city of Mariupol would be "guaranteed survival" if they laid down their arms starting at noon.
3. Russia’s Colonel General Mikhail Mizintsev has reportedly given time to the Ukrainian troops - holed up at the giant Azovstal steel mill in Mariupol - until midday (0900 GMT) Tuesday to surrender.
4. The Kremlin's focus has shifted back to Mariupol which, according to an AP report, could free up nearly a dozen battalion tactical groups for use elsewhere in the Donbas.
5. In the past, the Ukrainian troops have refused to accept such offers. The Azovstal plant, which covers the territory of about 11 square kilometers (over 4 square miles) is the last major Ukrainian pocket of resistance in Mariupol.
6. Earlier, Zelensky, in his nightly address, had said: "We can now confirm that Russian troops have begun the battle for the Donbas, which they have been preparing for a long time. No matter how many Russian soldiers are brought here, we will fight. We will defend ourselves."
7. No civilian evacuations were allowed for the third straight day in Ukraine. "Today, April 19, there will unfortunately be no humanitarian corridor," Ukraine's deputy prime minister Iryna Vereshchuk wrote on Telegram.
8. On Monday, at least six people were killed in the Russian missile strikes in the western city of Lviv, which was considered to be largely safe.
9. Over 4 million people have so far been forced out of their homes in the war-battered nation.
10. The eastern part of the country remains largely besieged as the war enters the eighth week.
(With inputs from AFP, Reuters, AP)
