We only have hours left, warns Mariupol commander

Russian forces are believed to have bludgeoned their way into the strategic city of Mariupol while its defenders and civilians took refuge in a vast steel plant

Ukrainian forces holding out in the besieged city of Mariupol warned they are facing their last days, “if not hours”, on Wednesday as a Russian ultimatum to surrender or die expired.

“The enemy is outnumbering us 10-to-one,” said Serhiy Volyna of the 36th Separate Marine Brigade, whose soldiers have been defending the Azovstal Iron and Steel Works – hemmed in by Russian invaders unleashing relentless artillery and rocket barrages.

“We appeal and plead to all world leaders to help us,” Volyna said in a video posted to Facebook. “We ask them to use the procedure of extraction and take us to the territory of a third-party state.”

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President Putin’s forces are believed to have bludgeoned their way into the strategic city while its defenders and civilians took refuge in the vast plant – a labyrinthine plot made up of twisting underground tunnels.

It came as the UN High Commissioner for Refugees said the total number of refugees from the war had passed 5.01 million.

With a population of about 44 million, this means that more than 10 per cent of the entire Ukrainian population has left the country in just eight weeks.

Smoke rises above Azovstal steelworks, in Mariupol, Ukraine (via Reuters)

In Mariupol, Volyna said the Russians had the “advantage in the air, in artillery, in their forces on land, in equipment, and in tanks”.

“We are only defending one object – the Azovstal plant – where in addition to military personnel, there are also civilians who have fallen victim to this war.”

After an earlier announcement that Ukraine and Russia had come to preliminary agreement on establishing a safe corridor out of the city, reports emerged that Russia had bombed an “improvised hospital” on the plant sheltering up to 300 people.

A handout from the Russian Defence Ministry shows smoke rising from the Azovstal steel plant (EPA)

The hospital was hit while Russian forces dropped “heavy bombs” on the Azovstal plant, the deputy commander of the Azov regiment claimed, where wounded troops civilians and children were taking cover, according to Serhiy Taruta, the former governor of the Donetsk region.

It follows reports on Tuesday that Russia had started to use so-called “bunker-busting” bombs to try to shift Ukrainian fighters out of the plant.

Putin’s forces have been attempting to take full control of Mariupol since Ukraine was first invaded on 24 February. The city is considered a strategic hotspot by Russia as its capture would allow troops to fully link up the territory held by pro-Russian separatists in the east with the Crimea region that Moscow annexed in 2014.

Despite Russia’s near-constant and exhaustive attacks on the city, not a single Ukrainian soldier had laid down their weapons after an ultimatum to surrender lapsed on Tuesday, Russia’s defence ministry said.

A view shows graves of civilians killed during the Ukraine-Russia conflict in the southern port city of Mariupol (Reuters)

In his nightly address on Wednesday, president Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia is throwing “everyone and everything” that is capable of fighting at Ukraine.

He added that despite Moscow’s claim that they are only hitting military sites, they continue to target residential areas, killing civilians.

“They have driven almost everyone and everything that is capable of fighting us against Ukraine,” he said. “The Russian army in this war is writing itself into world history forever as the most barbaric and inhuman army in the world.”

Local resident Tamara, 71, cries in front of an apartment building destroyed during the Ukraine-Russia conflict in the southern port city of Mariupol (Reuters)

Russia has denied using banned weapons or targeting civilians and says, without evidence, that signs of atrocities were staged.

Meanwhile, the US president Joe Biden is expected to announce a wave of fresh sanctions against Russia and a new military aid package in the coming days, sources told Reuters.

The battle for the Donbas region, which includes the provinces of Luhansk and Donetsk, could be decisive as Russia searches for a victory to justify the invasion. Putin says Ukraine mistreated Russian-speakers in the Donbas, an accusation Kyiv dismisses as false.

A woman holds a child next to Russian soldiers in a street of Mariupol (AFP via Getty Images)

Ukrainian presidential advisor Oleksiy Arestovych said Russia was focusing on advancing towards the strategically important Donbas city of Sloviansk, but “so far they are not succeeding”. Targeting that area from several directions is part of an apparent effort to surround Ukrainian forces in the east.

Ukraine’s Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov tweeted that Russia’s “military capacity has been significantly diminished” since the start of the war.

Within a day of launching the Donbas offensive, Russian forces captured Kreminna, a frontline town of 18,000 people. Ukraine’s general staff said Russian forces had attempted an offensive near Kharkiv, the country’s second biggest city, close to Russia’s supply lines to Donbas.

This map shows the extent of the Russian invasion of Ukraine (Press Association Images)

The UNHCR said that more than seven million people have been displaced within Ukraine, while a further 13 million are believed to be trapped in the country’s worst-affected areas.

“We’ve seen about a quarter of Ukraine’s population, more than 12 million people in total, have been forced to flee their homes, so this is a staggering amount of people,” UNHCR spokesperson Shabia Mantoo told The Associated Press.

“They have left behind their homes and families,” UNHCR head Filippo Grandi said on Twitter. “...Every new attack shatters their hopes. Only an end to the war can pave the way for rebuilding their lives.”

Reuters and Associated Press contributed to this report