Ukrainian officials say their forces in the besieged city of Mariupol will not adhere to Russian demands to surrender. They are also calling for more help from Western allies. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi has more.
Easter Sunday at the Vatican. On what should be Christianity’s most joyful day, Pope Francis instead expressed painful solidarity with the people of Ukraine.
Pope Francis:
“I hold in my heart all the many Ukrainian victims, the millions of refugees and internally displaced persons, the divided families, the elderly left to themselves, the lives broken and the cities razed to the ground. I see the faces of the orphaned children fleeing from the war.”
Pope Francis continued by saying the victims of Russia’s unprovoked war on Ukraine share in the suffering of those around the world dying of hunger or lack of medical care.
Meanwhile, fighting continues in the besieged Ukrainian port city of Mariupol. Russian forces have reduced much of it to rubble after weeks of bombardment. Ukrainian officials say as many as 20-thousand civilians died in Mariupol, alone. The capture of Mariupol would give Russian forces a strategic victory to fully link with troops in the Donbas region.
Denys Shmyhal, Prime Minister of Ukraine
“Civilians, which are suffering for more than 40 days, of this humanitarian crisis in this besieged city, and they have no water, no food, no heat, no electricity. And we ask all of our partners to support and help to stop this humanitarian catastrophe in Mariupol.”
The devastation in cities like Mariupol underscores the challenges of delivering humanitarian aid to an active war zone.
David Beasley, WFP Executive Director
“We’re reaching millions of people – us and all the partners in the international community – here, inside Ukraine. But there are places that we can’t reach like in Mariupol and other places where Russian forces have besieged the city and are not allowing us the access we need. If we get the access, if we de-conflict these access points, we can reach every single person that is suffering and struggling for food.”
The Russian Defense Ministry – labeling Ukrainian fighters in Mariupol as mercenaries from Europe and Canada – says most of the resistance is either dead or fleeing the country.
A representative said remaining fighters, believed to be cornered in a steel mill there, were given the option to lay down their arms and surrender, an offer the fighters refused.
Russia has recently ramped-up attacks on Ukrainian military targets as likely retaliation for the sinking of Russia’s flagship of the Black Sea fleet, the Moskva, seen here in archival footage. Russia claimed a fire onboard caused the ship’s sinking, but the U.S. backs Ukraine’s claim for credit of sending the guided-missile cruiser to the sea floor. Ukraine’s leader asked for U.S. President Joe Biden to visit the embattled nation.
Originally published at - voanews.com/a/ukraine-refuses-to-surrender-besieged-mariupol-to-russian-forces/6533239.html
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