MOSCOW
\nRussia gave holdout Ukrainian soldiers an ultimatum to lay down arms on Sunday in the pulverised southeastern port of Mariupol which Moscow said its forces nearly completely controlled in what would be its biggest capture of the nearly two-month war.
\nSeveral hours after the 0300 GMT deadline, there was no sign of compliance by Ukrainian fighters holed up in the smouldering Azovstal steelworks overlooking the Sea of Azov.
\nHaving failed to overcome Ukrainian resistance in the north, the Russian military has refocused its ground offensive on the eastern Donbas region while maintaining long-distance strikes elsewhere including the capital Kyiv.
\nRussia said its troops had cleared the urban area of Mariupol, the main port in Donbas. It has seen some of the fiercest fighting and worst civilian suffering since the Feb. 24 invasion, with bodies littering destroyed streets and thousands hunkered down in atrocious conditions underground
\nThe steelworks, one of Europe\u2019s biggest metallurgical plants with a maze of rail tracks and blast furnaces, has become a last stand for the outnumbered defenders.
\n\u201cThe Russian Armed Forces offer the militants of nationalist battalions and foreign mercenaries from 06:00 (Moscow time) on April 17, 2022, to stop any hostilities and lay down their arms,\u201d Russia\u2019s defence ministry said.
\n\u201cAll who lay down their arms are guaranteed that their lives will be spared,\u201d it said, offering the defending \u201cremnants\u201d a four-hour window to leave the plant without arms or ammunition.
\nThere was no immediate response from Kyiv to the ultimatum, though Ukraine\u2019s military said Russian air strikes on Mariupol continued along with assault operations near the port.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
MOSCOW Russia gave holdout Ukrainian soldiers an ultimatum to lay down arms on Sunday in the pulverised southeastern port of Mariupol which Moscow said its forces nearly completely controlled in what would be its biggest capture of the nearly two-month war. Several hours after the 0300 GMT deadline, there was no sign of compliance by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-255654","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n