Zelenskyy accuses Russia of destroying Donbass as Mariupol prepares for final defence

While the Russian military claimed a victory in the southern besieged port city of Mariupol raining missiles and rockets and giving a deadline to the Ukrainian Army to lay down weapons, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Russia of trying to"destroy" the entire eastern oblast of Donbass.

"Russian troops are preparing for an offensive operation in the east of our country in the near future. They want to literally finish off and destroy Donbass," Zelenskyy said in an evening statement recorded in Kyiv. 

Moscow has been trying to seize control of the strategically located port city to link the comrades in Luhansk and Donetsk, as well as establish the land corridor to the annexed Crimea. The siege would also render 80% of Ukraine's Black Sea coastline in control of the Russian soldiers - cutting Ukraine’s maritime trade with the world.

Even as Russian troops declared victory, the Ukrainian forces say that they are still holding out against advancing forces despite running out of food and ammunition on Sunday. Ukrainian President Zelenskyy said that Russians want to "destroy everyone who is there in Mariupol including civilians.” Ukraine faces a situation where there is "permission for Russia to take the lives of Ukrainians," Zelenskyy said.

(Bodies are put into a mass grave on the outskirts of Mariupol, Ukraine. Image: Evgeniy Maloletka/Associated Press)

'This is nothing but deliberate terror': Zelenskyy

Elsewhere in Kharkiv, at least 18 people were killed and 100 others were wounded during intense Russian shelling. "This is nothing but deliberate terror: mortars, artillery against ordinary residential quarters, against ordinary civilians,” said the angry Zelesnkyy. In the suburb of Saltivka, five were killed and 20 injured from the missile strike and artillery fire launched by invading soldiers. Ukraine’s Air Force Command said in a Telegram post that its air defences have downed more Russian combat helicopters.

“Accordingly, in the last 24 hours, apart from a KA-52 helicopter, we downed two Mi-24 attack helicopters, one plane and one Orlan-10 unmanned aerial vehicle,” the statement said.

In his Sunday address, Zelenskyy asked the world to “respond” as he accused Russian troops in southern Ukraine of carrying out torture, violence and kidnappings. 

“Torture chambers are built there,” Zelenskyy said in an evening address to the nation. “They abduct representatives of local governments and anyone deemed visible to local communities,” he added. The humanitarian aid has been stolen, he accused. 

Russian soldiers give surrender order; Ukraine army refuses to lay down arms

As the Ukraine military forces struggled to hold out in the besieged port city of Mariupol during the final defence, Russian forces demanded that they surrender and lay down weapons to be spared alive. Ukraine forces, though, have defied the Russian deadline and troops have been refusing to surrender in the devastated port city still hoping to change the outcome of the war.

Ukrainian soldiers have been bunkered in the Azovstal steel plant, and they have been offered a chance to lay down their arms, the Russian Defense Ministry said in a press call on Sunday. Ukrainian soldiers "appear to have rejected the offer," said Russia’s military, warning that troops who refused to surrender “will be destroyed.”

"The city still has not fallen," Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said in televised interview. "There's still our military forces, our soldiers. So they will fight to the end," he told ABC's "This Week". "We will not surrender," he added.

Acknowledging that the Russian troops have dangerously outnumbered the Ukrainian soldiers in the strategic coastal city, Zelesnkyy said that the situation was grim and that the Russian force outnumbered Ukraine's troops 6 to 1. Battle “remains as severe as possible," he said in a nightly address. Zelesnkyy in his earlier address had threatened Russia of "walking away" from ongoing peace talks with Russia if it destroyed the military in Mariupol.

The Ukrainian forces have been defending the now brutally tattered city's sovereignty for over two months, but it now appears on the verge of being lost to the invading Army. Mariupol had plummeted with heavy artillery, rockets and missiles - and over 90% of the city has been completely destroyed. The civilians and soldiers alike have run out of electricity, heating, water, food and essential medical supplies in the worst humanitarian and war catastrophe.