Russia offers to surrender to Ukrainian forces

The remaining nationalist battalion militants and foreign mercenaries in Mariupol will be spared if they lay down arms Moscow.

Russia offered to surrender to the remaining Ukrainian forces holed up at the Azovstal steel plant in the Black Sea port city of Mariupol on Tuesday.

The Defense Ministry directed all those present at Azovstal to leave the facility between 14: 00 and 16: 00 Moscow time without any arms or ammunition on them.

Russian Armed Forces offer militants of nationalist battalions and foreign mercenaries to stop hostilities and lay down their arms starting on April 12, 2022, considering the catastrophic situation at the Azovstal metallurgical plant, the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement.

The ministry said that all who lay down their weapons are guaranteed the preservation of life.

The wording of the statement repeated almost word for word a similar offer made to the Ukrainian forces on Sunday, which they ended up rejecting. It has been reported that the Kiev authorities strictly forbid their troops from surrendering to Russians.

Under the new proposal, the commanders of the Azov battalion were ordered to establish uninterrupted radio contact with the Russian side, cease all hostilities and raise white flags along the perimeter of the steel plant.

Moscow has called on the Ukrainian leadership to give the order to its fighters to stop their senseless resistance and surrender. The ministry said that because of the fact that they are not going to receive such orders and commands from the Kiev authorities, we call for the holdout Ukrainian forces to make a decision on their own and lay down their arms.

Mariupol has been the scene of the heaviest fighting between Russia and Ukraine. The city is now almost entirely controlled by Russian forces, with Azovstal remaining the last pocket of resistance. The Defense Ministry had said earlier that those in the steel plant, with its massive network of underground tunnels, had been running short on water and food, based on intercepted communications.

According to Moscow's estimates, Ukraine's losses in Mariupol have reached some 4,000 combatants, including foreign mercenaries and nationalist fighters of the notorious Azov and Aidar regiments.

Russia attacked the neighboring state in late February, after Ukraine failed to implement the terms of the Minsk agreements, first signed in 2014, and Moscow s eventual recognition of the Donbass republics of Donetsk and Lugansk. The German and French brokered protocols were designed to give the breakaway regions special status within the Ukrainian state.

The Kremlin has demanded that Ukraine officially declare itself a neutral country that will never join the US-led NATO military bloc. Kiev insists that the Russian offensive was unprovoked and has denied that it was planning to retake the two republics by force.