Posted on 03/20/2022 9:55:05 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
On Sunday, the Russian Defense Ministry issued an ultimatum to the Ukrainian garrison defending Mariupol.
“Lay down your arms,” Colonel-General Mikhail Mizintsev, the director of the Russian National Center for Defense Management, said in a briefing distributed by the defence ministry.
“A terrible humanitarian catastrophe has developed,” Mizintsev said. “All who lay down their arms are guaranteed safe passage out of Mariupol.”
The deadline is 5 a.m. Monday, Moscow time, or 10 p.m. Sunday Eastern Daylight Time.
With about two hours remaining to the deadline, the defenders of Mariupol rejected the demand. This sets the stage for the largest siege of a city since World War II.
⚡️Ukraine rejects Russia's demand to surrender Mariupol.
Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk responded to Russia by stating that surrender is not an option. The letter from Russia’s Defense Ministry said it would only establish a humanitarian corridor if Mariupol surrenders.
— The Kyiv Independent (@KyivIndependent) March 20, 2022
Mariupol has been surrounded since at least March 2.
Thread on the current status of the war. There are 4 areas/cities to watch over the next 1-2 weeks:
-Mikolaiv
-Mariupol
-Joint Forces Operation area
-Kyiv
Russian forces are having some successes pushing against JFO but less against Kyiv and Mikolaiv.
(map from @TheStudyofWar) pic.twitter.com/WPCD0Tls3S— Rob Lee (@RALee85) March 18, 2022
The defense of Mariupol has seen Russia revert to type. Despite a few hundred thousand civilians being in the city, the Russians have relied upon indiscriminate bombing and shelling, including the “evacuation routes” ostensibly guaranteed by the Russians to be safe to civilians leaving the city.
Nothing says more about the crass brutality of Putin's war in Ukraine than this satellite image of the bombed remains of Mariupol Drama Theatre. Shelter for victims of his war, "CHILDREN" written outside so clearly that it's visible from space, and still it was bombed.
pic.twitter.com/c20fwa2guH— Eliot Higgins (@EliotHiggins) March 19, 2022
The view from #Mariupol today. Numerous structures – including many residential homes – continue to burn.
— The Intel Crab 🇺🇦 (@IntelCrab) March 20, 2022
AP images of a pregnant woman being rushed to an ambulance after Russia bombed a maternity hospital in Mariupol where she was meant to give birth shocked the world. @AP has learned that the woman and her baby have died.
https://t.co/yZPZwgbLz8— The Associated Press (@AP) March 14, 2022
Over the past week, a more ominous turn of events has occurred. Russian soldiers, presumably part of Rosgvardiya, or the National Guard of Russia (see Top General in Putin’s Personal Army Is Arrested by FSB for details on the National Guard) have been rounding up citizens in Mariupol and deporting them to Russia,
“Over the past week, several thousand Mariupol residents have been taken to Russian territory,” the city said in a statement. “The occupiers illegally took people from the Livoberezhny district and from the shelter in the sports club building, where more than a thousand people (mostly women and children) were hiding from the constant bombing.”Captured Mariupol residents were taken to camps where Russian forces checked their phones and documents, then redirected some of the residents to remote cities in Russia, the statement said, adding that the “fate of the others is unknown.”“What the occupiers are doing today is familiar to the older generation, who saw the horrific events of World War II, when the Nazis forcibly captured people,” Mariupol Mayor Vadym Boichenko said in the statement. “It is hard to imagine that in the 21st century people can be forcibly taken to another country.”
Given the past behavior of the Russian Army and the statements made by its leadership, there is no incentive for anyone to trust the Russians’ guarantee of safe passage. At best, the defenders can hope to end up in some gulag above the Arctic Circle; at worst, they will be executed after a summary court-martial.
Russia has given Ukraine until 5am to surrender Mariupol, after which it says it'll let the 130,000 remaining civilians leave.
The language it uses for Kyiv's forces – "nationalists," "foreign mercenaries," "bandits" – leaves little doubt about what Russia has in store for them.
— max seddon (@maxseddon) March 20, 2022
A chilling new threat. Russia's Defense Ministry says Ukraine has until 5am on March 21 to surrender the besieged city of Mariupol, adding it'll let residents and troops who lay down arms leave. Anyone left behind "with the bandits" will "face a military tribunal." via RIA
— Christopher Miller (@ChristopherJM) March 20, 2022
“After a complete cleansing of Mariupol” https://t.co/qdDC9nValH
— OSINTtechnical (@Osinttechnical) March 21, 2022
This seems to bring us to this part of the battle for the Alamo.
The key question is if the Russian Army can make the threat stick. Trying to bluster defenders into surrender with death threats isn’t generally a smart way to go. There is nothing yet in the war in Ukraine that indicates that the Russians have the skill, motivation, or ability to deliver on the threat. When they fail through conventional means, I think we can expect to see the Russians to escalate to chemical weapons for the terror effect and because they have taken the measure of the mewling old wretch in the White House.
From what I have read, the Zelenskyites are keeping “innocent bystanders” from leaving the area, preferring to keep them from leaving the area. It makes a lot better story if more civilians are killed, plus they make real nice shields.
THIS is where the “Gulf of Tonkin” incident will happen that will propel the US into WW 3. Then God in Heaven help us all.
Can you believe it will be just over a stupid useless piece of land that can’t matter to Joe or Jane sixpack here in the homeland? Just like WW 1, which led directly to WW2, Korea, Vietnam and on and on and on.
Stalingrad: The sequel!
RE: From what I have read, the Zelenskyites are keeping “innocent bystanders” from leaving the area,
WHO is reporting this? Is this source trustworthy?
It was reported with videos of the Ukrainian troops shooting refugees since day one. Now the “defense” is cracked and tens of thousands are able to flee and they all tell the same story.
RE: It was reported with videos of the Ukrainian troops shooting refugees since day one
1. Reported by who?
2. Can you show us a link to the videos?
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/4gHtX0i4tIc
Azov Battalion is shooting people trying to flee the city, as reported by a motorist who managed to escape. It is from late February when the Russian and LDNR forces were far away and many doubted if it is true.
However, the video depicting the aftermath was uploaded a day later, with the same vehicle and dead people inside and around, later pulled by YT, just like the English version of the above video.
Now there are hundreds of interviews of the refugees escaped from the city, telling the same story who said that their military abused them, holding hostages and taking positions in their homes. YT censors their testimonies but you can find them on Telegram.
https://t.me/boris_rozhin/34175
Any sources from news stations that broadcast in and translate to English?
I’m not a Azof fan, but extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof.
You just pointed to one YouTube video that is - for me at least - censored, and another on telegraph that is all in a foreign language.
No Western media reports any of it, or heavily distorts it. I’ve even seen instances of false translation to English, where the woman was saying they were targeted by the Ukrainian troops, but they translated Russian. It resulted in numerous comments pointing it out, then the video was pulled.
Western media breaking news of Trump Russian collusions. Lmao Reliable sources
“Can you show us a link to the videos?”
Sure, as soon as you can get the ghost I mean coward of kieve to come forward. Never mind we all know he was a character in a video game.
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis called the Russians liars and condemned them for shelling and killing 10 Greek civilians. He also said Greece would send Ukraine weapons.
“Orthodox bombs killed Orthodox expatriates,” said a spokesman for the Greek Foreign Ministry. “Remember this thing.”
“And what the Russian embassy said is fake news,” he said, adding: “We have evidence.”
Ten ethnic Greeks were killed in the Mariupol area of eastern Ukraine yesterday, specifically in Sartana and Buhas.
Although Moscow claims they were killed by the Ukrainian neo-Nazi Azov Battalion that operates in the area and killed an ethnic Greek as recently as two weeks ago for speaking Russian, Athens denied this allegation by saying it has evidence – that it is yet to present
https://greekcitytimes.com/2022/02/27/greece-defence-equipment-ukraine/
The Russian forces seek to shift blame onto the defenders for the atrocities and war crimes that they have committed, and are planning to conduct.
Remember Mariupol!
Who cares what he says? He probably listens to the same media you do.
“ A terrible humanitarian catastrophe has developed,” Mizintsev said.”
I bet if you guys stopped bombing and shelling them and then turn around and go home things would get better.
See, there was no “humanitarian catastrophe” until you Russians started blowing things up. So maybe one has something to do with the other.
L
“and they all tell the same story.”
If the Russians hadn’t started shooting missiles and artillery at the city none of this would have happened.
L
Probably so, but then the cities that were smarter are now having gas at the pump and utilities for Russian prices, the debts of their residents to Ukrainian banks and micro credits are written off, taxes reduced to zero, and the businesses allowed tariff-free access to the Russian market.
What not to like?
No. I can’t believe this will start WW3.
To my mind none of the sources are trustworthy.
Anyone else wondering why the Pentagon isn’t giving daily public briefings on what’s going on in Ukraine, complete with battle damage assessments, analysis.
Do they not want to get caught lying to the public...?
There is the small issue of Russia illegally and without any military provocation invading a sovereign country and bombing their cities.
So there’s that.
L
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