Ukrainian prime minister says forces in Mariupol have not surrendered

Remaining Ukrainian forces in the southern port of Mariupol are still fighting and continue to defy a Russian demand that they surrender, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said on Sunday.

"The city still has not fallen," Shmyhal told ABC's "This Week" program, adding that Ukrainian soldiers continue to control some parts of the city.

Shmyhal said that he will attend the International Monetary Fund and World Bank meetings in Washington this week and will seek more financial assistance for Ukraine.

Russia gave holdout Ukrainian soldiers an ultimatum on Sunday to lay down arms 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.

Having failed to overcome Ukrainian resistance in the north since President Vladimir Putin's Feb. 24 invasion, the Russian military has refocused on the eastern Donbas region where Mariupol is the main port.

The Russian Defence Ministry said its troops had cleared the urban area of Mariupol.

"The 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," the defence ministry said in a statement. "All who lay down their arms are guaranteed that their lives
will be spared," it said, offering the defending "remnants" a four-hour window to leave the plant without arms or ammunition.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy accused Russia on Saturday of "deliberately trying to destroy everyone" in Mariupol and said his government was in touch with the defenders. 

Elsewhere around Ukraine, there were reports of more Russian long-range strikes on Sunday.

Local media reported an explosion in the capital Kyiv, though deputy mayor Mykola Povoroznyk said air defence systems had thwarted Russian attacks. The mayor of Brovary city, close to Kyiv, said a missile attack had damaged infrastructure.

And Russia said it had destroyed an ammunition factory near the capital, according to the RIA news agency.

(Reuters)