Russia wants to ‘destroy’ Donbas: Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky

The UN World Food Program says that more than 100,000 civilians in Mariupol are on the verge of famine.

An armoured column of pro-Russian separatist troops on the move near Mariupol on Sunday. Picture: Reuters

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russia of wanting to “destroy” the entire eastern region of Donbas, as the last ­remaining forces in the strategic port of Mariupol prepared on Monday for a final defence.

Five “powerful” Russian missile strikes hit Lviv early on Monday, in a rare attack on a western city that has so far been spared much of the fighting. And Russian forces continued to shell the eastern ­Luhansk region.

Moscow is pushing for a major victory in the southern city of ­Mariupol as it works to wrest control of Donbas and forge a land corridor to ­already-annexed Crimea.

But Ukraine has pledged to fight on and defend the city, defying a Russian ultimatum on Sunday that called on the remaining fighters inside the encircled Azovstal steel plant to lay down their arms and surrender.

Authorities have urged people in Donbas to move west to escape a large-scale Russian offensive to capture its composite regions of Donetsk and Luhansk.

“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 Donbas,” Mr Zelensky said on Sunday night.

Mariupol has become a symbol of Ukraine’s unexpectedly fierce resistance since Russian troops ­invaded the former Soviet state on February 24. “The city still has not fallen,” Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said. “There’s still our military forces, our soldiers. So they will fight to the end,” he told ABC. “We will not surrender.”

While several large cities were under siege, he said, not one – with the exception of Kherson in the south – had fallen, and more than 900 towns and cities had been re-captured.

The Russian defence ministry said that Ukrainian forces holding out at the steel plant had “forbade negotiations about surrendering” citing an intercepted radio transmission. “In case of further resistance, all of them will be eliminated,” it said. The ministry called on Ukrainian forces inside to “lay down their arms in order to save their lives”.

Moscow also said Kyiv had ­ordered fighters of the nationalist Azov battalion to “shoot on the spot” anyone who wanted to surrender.

The Moskva ablaze after being hit by Ukrainian missiles last week

Luhansk governor Sergiy Gaiday said the coming week would be “difficult”. “It may be the last time we have a chance to save you,” he wrote on Facebook.

Two people also died and four were wounded in attacks on the towns of Marinka and Novopol, west of Donetsk – regional governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said on Telegram – and an airstrike hit an armaments factory in the capital Kyiv. The strike came a day after a similar attack on a plant that produced Neptune missiles – the type which, according to Kyiv and Washington, sank Russia’s Black Sea flagship Moskva on Thursday.

Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk has urged Russian forces to let people flee ­besieged Mariupol, saying that ­humanitarian corridors allowing civilians to escape would not open on Sunday after failing to agree to terms with Moscow forces.

But Mr Gaiday said he had proceeded with evacuations. “At our own peril and risk, we took out several dozen people anyway, but it’s already dangerous,” he said.

The UN World Food Program says that more than 100,000 civilians in Mariupol are on the verge of famine and lack water and heating. And Ukraine’s Minister of Digital Transformation, Mykhailo Fedorov, said the city was on “the verge of a humanitarian catastrophe”, saying they were compiling evidence of alleged Russian atrocities there.

Mr Zelensky said he had invited his French counterpart to visit Ukraine to see for himself evidence that Russian forces have committed “genocide” – a term President Emmanuel Macron has avoided. “I talked to him yesterday,” Mr Zelensky told CNN. “I just told him I want him to understand that this is not war, but nothing other than genocide. I invited him to come when he will have the opportunity. He’ll come and see, and I’m sure he will understand.”

Mr Zelensky, describing the situation in Mariupol as “inhuman”, has called on the West to immediately provide heavy weapons. But Russia has warned the US last week of “unpredictable consequences” if it sent its “most sensitive” weapons systems to Ukraine.

Its defence ministry claimed on Saturday to have shot down a Ukrainian transport plane in the Odesa region, carrying weapons supplied by Western nations. Spokesman Igor Konashenkov said Russian missiles had ­destroyed ammunition, fuel and lubricant depots in eastern Ukraine and 44 Ukrainian military facilities, including command posts. Russian air defence systems shot down two Ukrainian MiG-29 aircraft in the Kharkiv region and a drone near the city of Pavlograd.

AFP