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.
Minsk demands that Russian military leave Crimea and Donbas.
Crimea is recognized as Ukraine by everybody except a few rogue statees.
No, it isn’t. Who cares about recognition when Crimea wants to be a part of Russia?
“Who cares about recognition when Crimea wants to be a part of Russia?”
Crimea is Ukraine. This is what makes Russia reduced from power to rogue state.
...and who cares Ukraine does not want to be Russian.
Why won’t the US cede Texas if so?
Same broken record templates from your Troll Farm.
Come and get it. Btw, you only have Crimea as we allow you to have it temporarily. We can destroy your Black Sea Fleet in a few days.
Stunning losses for the Russians
They are surrounded from the center....like Indians around the wagon train they are
And we know how that usually went
Dead Italians with feather headdresses shot from horseback by crack pioneer shots
Russia is defeated
Hope that clears things up for you.
Putin’s got the plan.
Possess a bombed out Ukraine.
Sell Russia’s natural resources to the ChiComs at 30% off.
Brilliant strategy.
Concurring bump...the testimony of Greek civilians fleeing Mariupol is especially compelling.
Greek in Mariupol: “The fascist Ukrainians would kill me, they don’t let us leave the city”
p.s. watch how fast the NATO twats post their lol responses to this comment.
Fake Viking and MacTruck you guys are on the Russian Troll farm list circulating on FR.
Congrats.
I’ll ask an obvious question
What news sources do you think are honest ?
I have an answer
None
The west has the worst propaganda going on now I’ve ever seen or even imagined
And big tech is censoring the snot out of anything else contrary to their narrative
One source I heard who is a pro Zelensky reporter for Faux....Harrigan
He stated two weeks ago that the Ukraine army is flattened amd reduced to sporadic rare hits on isolated Russians
And the target cities are encircled
That’s one source I’d probably trust
All the stories from the west....the gut wrenching...is often a lie
It’s tragic but that is war
That’s like a woman who was telling that the Ukrainian troops attacked you, but the media translated that the troops were Russians. Goebbels sort of propaganda, and happening on FR as well.
So, telling truth, supported by evidence is making a Russian troll. LOL. What troll are you?
Even at 30% off it is an improvement over Western trade, where it takes years to certify a ready pipeline.
Although I have no idea where your evaluation of the discount comes from.
Meanwhile Biden is kissing Iranian and Venezuelan asses to replace lost energy. That’s a great victory for foreign policy...or not.
You are nobody to decide for other people how to live their lives half a world away, Junior. Your empty threats are just as laughable. If you care for Ukraine so much you are free to enlist in their foreign legion. They won’t repatriate your corpse though.
“And I don’t care about a conflict half way around the world that doesn’t involve us.”
If the chowder heads currently running our country had stayed out of it I wouldn’t care either. But we are involved.
Maybe you missed that.
L
RE: What news sources do you think are honest ? I have an answer None
If that is your answer then the obvious attitude should not be to give credence to every accusations being thrown out there.
If you notice my responses, I never said that accusations against Ukranian troops using women and children as shields are untrue. I ASKED FOR SOURCES. PERIOD.
Whether they are believable or not, I can use my personal judgment.
So far, all sources presented to me are dubious in my judgment.
We can get uninvolved immediately. I sure didn’t miss that.
Did I strike a nerve Russian ?
Your fellow Russians want to die in Ukraine, go for it.
While you troll from the Russian troll farm, real men go fight.
Trust, but verify...Russians that die can be trusted.
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