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Mariupol can fall within ‘hours’

Says Ukrainian official as warring parties agree humanitarian corridor
AFP, Zaporizhzhia
After nearly two months under siege, the southern city of Mariupol could fall into Russian hands within “hours”, a Ukrainian official said, as the two sides yesterday agreed to a humanitarian corridor to allow civilians to flee the devastated port city.
As fighting raged in the country’s 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.
“In Kyiv today. In the heart of a free and democratic Europe,” he wrote on social media.
Michel’s 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.
Hours ahead of Michel’s 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.
The Pentagon declined to specify the number of aircraft and their origin.
The 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 and killed.
Control 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.
In the latest ultimatum issued in its battle to capture Mariupol, Moscow made another call for the city’s 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.
As the deadline approached, a commander in the besieged Azovstal steel plant issued a desperate plea for help, saying his marines were “maybe facing our last days, if not hours”.
“The enemy is outnumbering us 10 to one,” Serhiy Volyna from the 36th Separate Marine Brigade said.
“We 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.”
Thousands of troops and civilians remain holed up in the plant.
An adviser to the mayor of Mariupol described a “horrible situation” in the encircled complex and reported that up to 2,000 people -- mostly women and children -- are without “normal” supplies of drinking water, food and fresh air.
Offering some respite, Kyiv early yesterday said it had agreed with Russian forces to open a safe route for civilians to flee the devastated city.
“We have managed to get a preliminary agreement on a humanitarian corridor for women, children and elderly persons,” Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk wrote on Telegram.
Elsewhere on the frontlines, Ukraine’s 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.
Kyiv also claimed enemy losses in a Ukrainian counter-attack near the town of Marinka in Donetsk.
The governor of the eastern Lugansk region, Sergiy Gaiday, said Ukrainian forces were holding their ground in the face of heavy fighting.
Russian forces, meanwhile, yesterday said its forces had launched 73 airstrikes across Ukraine, hitting dozens of locations where troops were concentrated.
In eastern Ukraine’s Kramatorsk, a large city in the Donetsk region, residents were already braced for the worst.
“It’s going to be a mess,” said Alexander, 53. “There’s nothing good to expect.”
President Vladimir Putin has said he launched the so-called military operation in Ukraine in February to save Russian speakers in the country from a “genocide” carried out by a “neo-Nazi” regime.
“We 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.”