In the Donbas port city of Mariupol, besieged by Russian forces since late February, the remaining Ukrainian defenders warned that time was running out and asked to be evacuated to a third country, alongside the wounded and the civilians sheltering in the shrinking area under Ukrainian control . Russia has insisted on an unconditional surrender and kept pounding the Ukrainian forces — who are mostly holed up in the sprawling Azovstal steel plant — with artillery and airstrikes.
