The Pentagon says that Ukraine had recently received fighter planes and spare parts to bolster its air force
\n ZAPORIZHZHIA
\nAfter nearly two months under siege, the southern city of Mariupol could fall into Russian hands within \u201chours\u201d, a Ukrainian official said, as the two sides agreed on Wednesday to a humanitarian corridor to allow civilians to flee the devastated port city.
\nAs fighting raged in the country\u2019s east and south, the president of the European Council Charles Michel arrived in Kyiv, in the latest sign of strengthening ties between Ukraine and the EU.
\n\u201cIn Kyiv today. In the heart of a free and democratic Europe,\u201d he wrote on social media.
\nMichel\u2019s visit comes as the West continues to pour weapons into Ukraine amid a renewed Russian push into the eastern Donbas region where a new offensive launched this week has led to an uptick in fighting.
\nHours ahead of Michel\u2019s arrival, the Pentagon said that Ukraine had recently received fighter planes and spare parts to bolster its air force, following repeated calls from Kyiv for heavier weapons.
\nThe Pentagon declined to specify the number of aircraft and their origin.
\nThe announcement came as the battle for Mariupol appeared to be nearing a crucial peak, after months of devastating fighting that has seen untold numbers of civilians trapped.
\nControl of Mariupol and the separatist-controlled Donbas region in the east would allow Moscow to create a southern corridor to the Crimean peninsula that it annexed in 2014, depriving Ukraine of much of its coastline.
\nIn the latest ultimatum issued in its battle to capture Mariupol, Moscow made another call for the city\u2019s defenders to surrender on Wednesday by 2:00 pm Moscow time (1100 GMT) and announced the opening of a humanitarian corridor for any Ukrainian troops who agreed to lay down their arms.
\nAs the deadline approached, a commander in the besieged Azovstal steel plant issued a desperate plea for help, saying his marines were \u201cmaybe facing our last days, if not hours\u201d.
\n\u201cThe enemy is outnumbering us 10 to one,\u201d Serhiy Volyna from the 36th Separate Marine Brigade said.
\n\u201cWe appeal and plead to all world leaders to help us. We ask them to use the procedure of extraction and take us to the territory of a third-party state.\u201d
\nThousands of troops and civilians remain holed up in the plant.
\nAn adviser to the mayor of Mariupol described a \u201chorrible situation\u201d in the encircled complex and reported that up to 2,000 people — mostly women and children — are without \u201cnormal\u201d supplies of drinking water, food and fresh air.
\nDuring an interview broadcast on CNN Tuesday, Pavlo Kyrylenko — who oversees the Donetsk region\u2019s military administration — insisted Mariupol remained contested.
\n\u201cThe Ukrainian flag is flying over the city,\u201d he said.
\n\u201cThere are certain districts where street fighting is continuing. I can\u2019t say the Russians are controlling them.\u201d
\nOffering some respite, Kyiv said early Wednesday it had agreed with Russian forces to open a safe route for civilians to flee the devastated city.
\n\u201cWe have managed to get a preliminary agreement on a humanitarian corridor for women, children and elderly persons,\u201d Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk wrote on Telegram.
\n\u2018We are bombed everywhere\u2019
\nElsewhere on the frontlines, Ukraine\u2019s defence ministry reported its troops had beaten back a Russian attack in the city of Izium, south of the partly blockaded second city of Kharkiv in the east.
\nKyiv also claimed enemy losses in a Ukrainian counter-attack near the town of Marinka in Donetsk.
\nThe governor of the eastern Lugansk region, Sergiy Gaiday, said Ukrainian forces were holding their ground in the face of heavy fighting.
\nRussian forces, meanwhile, on Wednesday said its forces had launched 73 airstrikes across Ukraine, hitting dozens of locations where troops were concentrated.
\nFurther from the frontlines, residents were still reeling near the capital Kyiv weeks after Russian forces withdrew from the area.
\nAt a morgue in Bucha, families carefully searched body bags and examined cadavers looking for missing loved ones.
\nIn the car park of the small communal morgue, the body bags arrived in carts or were piled up in trailers, vans and non-refrigerated trucks.
\nFour hundred bodies have been discovered since the Russians withdrew on March 31, local police chief Vitaly Lobas told AFP. Around a quarter of them are still unidentified.
\n\u201cThe majority died violent deaths\u201d and were shot, Lobas said, declining to provide a concrete figure at this stage.
\n\u2018War crime\u2019
\nPresident Vladimir Putin has said he launched the so-called military operation in Ukraine in February to save Russian speakers in the country from a \u201cgenocide\u201d carried out by a \u201cneo-Nazi\u201d regime.
\nBut his forces have faced allegations of war crimes — most recently from the EU\u2019s Michel during his visit to Kyiv on Wednesday where he toured the devastated nearby town of Borodianka.
\n\u201cIn Borodianka. Like Bucha and too many other towns in Ukraine. History will not forget the war crimes that have been committed here,\u201d Michel wrote on Twitter.
\n\u201cThere can be no peace without justice,\u201d he added.
\nUkrainian authorities have said that over 1,200 bodies have been found in the Kyiv region so far.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Pentagon says that Ukraine had recently received fighter planes and spare parts to bolster its air force ZAPORIZHZHIA After nearly two months under siege, the southern city of Mariupol could fall into Russian hands within \u201chours\u201d, a Ukrainian official said, as the two sides agreed on Wednesday to a humanitarian corridor to allow civilians […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":256404,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[6150,338,456],"class_list":{"0":"post-256392","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-besieged-mariupol","9":"tag-russia","10":"tag-ukraine"},"yoast_head":"\n