Ukraine says Russia wants to ‘destroy’ Donbas as Mariupol prepares final defence

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

Moscow is pushing for a major victory in the southern city 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 yesterday that called on the remaining fighters inside the encircled Azovstal steel plant to lay down their arms and surrender.

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

“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,” Zelenskyy said in an evening statement.

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’s “This Week”.

“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 recaptured. – AFP, April 18, 2022