Ukrainian fighters who remain in Mariupol and refuse to surrender will be eliminated, said the leader of the Russian-backed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR).
Russian troops are close to capturing the southern city of Mariupol, but Ukrainian forces are believed to have stopped their advance in the area of the port and the Azovstal plant.
Videos have surfaced in which Ukrainian forces have vowed not to back down.
This week, Moscow said more than 1,000 Ukrainian Marines had surrendered in Mariupol, but Ukraine denied the allegations.
Speaking to reporters in Mariupol, DNR leader Denis Pushilin said: “These members of the regular army, like the Marines you saw who are ready to surrender, have surrendered.
While nationalists, ie. the members of the nationalist battalions do not seem to intend to surrender, they must be liquidated. ”
Footage of Pushilin’s statement, which stands next to Chechen politician Adam Delimkhanov and is surrounded by soldiers, was broadcast on Russia’s 24 news channel.
Mariupol is located on a territory claimed by the so-called DNR and is of strategic importance to the Russian army, which seeks to establish a land route between Crimea to the west and Donbas to the east.
Britain: Fighting in eastern Ukraine will intensify in the coming weeks
Fighting in eastern Ukraine will intensify in the next two to three weeks as Russia continues to redirect its efforts to that part of the country, the British Ministry of Defense said in a regular Twitter newsletter today.
The statement said Russian attacks remained aimed at Ukrainian positions around Donetsk and Luhansk, and British intelligence expected fighting around Kherson and Nikolaev, as well as renewed pressure on Kramatorsk.
The transfer of Russian troops from Belarus to eastern Ukraine continues, the ministry said.
DNR: The port of Mariupol is under our control
The information comes from the leader of the separatist republic Denis Pushilin, and he announced the news on Channel One.
When the DNR declared independence in 2014, Mariupol, with a population of about 450,000, remained effectively under Ukrainian control. The attack of the Russian forces on Mariupol started at the beginning of the offensive, and at the beginning of March, the city was surrounded.
According to Eduard Basurin, a spokesman for the DNR’s People’s Militia, the main forces of the nationalists are concentrated in the Azovstal industrial zone, which has up to 3,500 fighters.
