“However, the city does not give up. It will remain Ukrainian as long as its brave defenders resist, until the last bullet,” the text continues.
Until now, the Azov regiment has ignored successive ultimatums from the Russian military command to surrender and lay down its arms, the last of which was issued on Wednesday.
The mayor of Mariupol, Vadym Boishenko, for his part urged the civilians who are still in the city to use the evacuation corridor agreed for it and for which, according to local authorities, some 6,000 inhabitants are to be saved.
“Don’t be afraid, go to Zaporizhia, there you will be safe,” said the mayor, through his Telegram account, after this morning the kyiv government announced an agreement to open a humanitarian corridor in the midst of the situation of city emergency.
The objective of this corridor is to evacuate mainly women, children and the elderly and their first destination would be Zaporizhia, where, the mayor recalled, “they will be able to reunite with their relatives.”
The opening of the humanitarian corridor was announced this morning by the Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine, Iryna Vereshchuk, after none had been established in the last three days due to the lack of security guarantees for these operations, according to kyiv.
Russia on Wednesday gave a new ultimatum to the Ukrainian forces resisting at the Azovstal metallurgical plant in Mariupol to lay down their arms.