Russia begins ‘battle for Donbas,’ gives Mariupol holdouts new deadline to surrender

The Russian forces pummeling Mariupol have given Ukrainian fighters holding out at a steel plant yet another deadline for surrender, the latest development in one of the war’s fiercest battlegrounds.

If Ukraine’s troops cease fighting at 2 p.m. local time on Wednesday, they will be “guaranteed life, safety and medical treatment,” Col. Gen. Mikhail Mizintsev, head of the Russian National Defense Control Center, said on Tuesday, according to Russia’s state media.

Mizintsev, who has been dubbed “the butcher of Mariupol,” added that Ukrainian soldiers’ “end will be bitter in case of their refusal.”

It’s the second such deadline that Moscow has issued the Mariupol fighters in as many days. On Tuesday, they let the window pass, apparently refusing. That day, the Ukrainians’ commander in Mariupol told The Post that they will not surrender and will continue “to conduct combat operations and to complete our military tasks as long as we receive them.”

Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, said Tuesday that Russia was shelling the facility with “powerful anti-bunker bombs.” Hundreds of civilians are said to be sheltering there.

Moscow has for weeks sought to capture Mariupol, seeking both a military victory and a land bridge between the Russian-controlled territory of Crimea and the Donbas region in the east, where Russia is now focusing its offensive.

Archie Dolina contributed to this report.

Luhansk region: This area, part of Donbas, is one of the primary targets of Russia’s eastern offensive. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov declared Tuesday that the Kremlin would pursue “the complete liberation” of the Luhansk and the neighboring Donetsk regions, hours after Zelensky said Russia had begun its expected ground offensive there. The city of Kreminna was already “under the control” of Russian troops, Luhansk regional governor Serhiy Haidai said Tuesday.

Mariupol: Russia’s Defense Ministry gave Ukrainian forces until midday Tuesday local time to surrender this southern port city, but the deadline passed. Troops and local leaders allege as many as 1,000 civilians are taking cover in a sprawling metallurgical plant that has proved to be Ukraine’s last redoubt in Mariupol. Russian officials and media are gathering in and near the city, U.S.-based think tank the Institute for the Study of War said, likely preparing to declare victory in the coming days whether or not fighting continues.

Kherson region: While the port city of Kherson has not been a primary site of fighting for about three weeks, the two sides are still exchanging fire in towns and villages elsewhere in the region. The city of Kherson remains under Russian control.

Lviv: Russian airstrikes hit this city Monday, prompting the State Department to call the attacks part of the Kremlin’s “campaign of terror.” Ukrainian officials said seven people were killed and at least 11 were injured in the attack on this far-western city, which had been mostly unaffected by the fighting.

Kharkiv region: Ukrainian forces have launched several successful counterattacks around Kharkiv in the country’s northeast, strategists say, while Russia is building forces near Izyum, raising concerns this gateway city to the Donbas region will suffer a similar fate to Bucha — where hundreds of civilians were killed and buried in mass graves or left in the streets.

Kyiv region: Ukrainian investigators have examined 269 bodies since the battleground town of Irpin on Kyiv’s outskirts was taken back from Russian forces in late March, Reuters reported, citing a police official. Dozens of new graves have been dug in a cemetery on the town’s outskirts.

Lateshia Beachum, Hannah Knowles, Isabelle Khurshudyan and Annabelle Timsit contributed to this report.

As Russia embarks on attacking the eastern parts of Ukraine, Russian forces are still being met with formidable Ukrainians who are staving off the attack, according to the British Defense Ministry.

“Russian shelling and airstrikes on the Donbas line of control continue to increase, with the Ukrainians repelling numerous attempted advances by Russian forces,” the ministry said Tuesday.

The ministry also said Russia’s advancement into Ukraine continues to be impacted by environmental, logistical and technical challenges that have caused them to fumble their campaign.

“Russia’s inability to stamp out resistance in Mariupol and their indiscriminate attacks, which have harmed the resident civilian populace, are indicative of their continued failure to achieve their aims as quickly as they would like,” according to the ministry.

Ukraine has received an influx of fighter aircraft and related parts from other nations to help fuel its efforts to fight off the Russian invasion, the Pentagon’s top spokesman told reporters Tuesday.

“They have received additional platforms and parts to be able to increase their fleet size,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said. “‘Platform’ is an airplane in this case. They have received additional aircraft and aircraft parts to help them, you know, get more aircraft in the air.”

It is unclear precisely what form of aircraft has been provided to Kyiv.

Last week, the United States announced a military assistance package that included 11 Mi-17 attack helicopters, Soviet-origin aircraft familiar to Ukrainian pilots.

Before that, Poland had tried to spearhead a multiparty arrangement to send MiG-29 warplanes to Kyiv — a move the United States declined to support, though frequently noting that other countries were free to make their own decisions regarding what assistance they sent to Ukraine.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has frequently implored NATO and its member nations to send fighter planes to help his forces strike Russian targets.

Kirby would not say on Tuesday which countries have been sending aircraft and component parts to Ukraine. He also declined to detail which fighter aircraft had been supplied to Ukraine or describe the now-augmented size of Ukraine’s fleet. He noted only that Ukraine now has “more operable fighter aircraft than they had two weeks ago.”

Moldova has reached its capacity to host refugees in homestays but will continue to accept those fleeing the war in neighboring Ukraine, even if that requires constructing “tent cities,” the country’s foreign minister said during a visit to Washington on Tuesday.

More than 400,000 people have fled from Ukraine to Moldova since the Russian invasion began, though many have continued on to other European countries. Around 100,000 have elected to remain in Moldova, Foreign Minister Nicu Popescu said at a roundtable discussion hosted by the German Marshall Fund in Washington.

Moldova, a small country nestled between Ukraine and Romania, is among the poorest nations in Europe and has a population of less than 3 million.

Popescu noted that half of the Ukrainians who have arrived in Moldova are minors. This means the refugee influx is “affecting everything in Moldova,” he said. “Electricity use, water use, cooling, how much painting you will need to renovate the classrooms for children.”

More than 90 percent of the refugees are being hosted in private homes, with a “limited number” in refugee centers, Popescu said.

If a fresh wave of refugees crosses the border, Moldova will have to house them in refugee centers. And if more than 20,000 arrive, in “tent cities,” Popescu said.

The roundtable discussion followed meetings in Washington between Popescu and top State Department officials on bilateral cooperation and U.S. aid to Moldova. The United States has pledged more than $30 million to support Moldova’s humanitarian response since the war began.

MUKACHEVO, Ukraine — The commander of Ukrainian forces’ last stronghold in the southern port city of Mariupol, surrounded by Russians and subjected to a constant barrage of fire, said Tuesday that his soldiers will not surrender.

In his most extensive comments to Western media, Major Serhiy Volyna of the 36th Separate Marine Brigade, whose forces have been holding out in the Azovstal Iron and Steel Works against a Russian force that vastly outnumbers them, told The Washington Post that his soldiers would continue “to conduct combat operations and to complete our military tasks as long as we receive them.”

“We will not lay down our weapons,” Volyna said.

Volyna, who has fought in Mariupol since the start of the Russian invasion, gave a rare glimpse into the lives of the soldiers and hundreds of civilians, including women and children, sheltering inside the steel plant that has caught the world’s attention as the fall of the city looms.

These photos show scenes after an explosion hit a factory in Kramatorsk, Ukraine, on Tuesday, killing at least one person and wounding three, according to the Associated Press.