A Ukrainian ambassador on Wednesday said Putin's troops continue "shooting at civilians" during their fresh offensive in eastern Ukraine. Olekseii Makeiev told LBC "nobody is safe in my country" amid the war. He also accused the Kremlin of committing war crimes.
Russia launched a war on Ukraine on February 24. However, according to the latest updates, Russia has given Mariupol a fresh ultimatum to surrender at 2 pm today. In a statement issued early on Wednesday morning, the Russian defence ministry said its forces opened a humanitarian corridor from the Azovstal plant “for the withdrawal of Ukrainian servicemen” to “voluntarily lay down their arms” as well as to evacuate civilians. A commander for the Ukrainian marines fighting in Mariupol said his forces were “maybe facing our last days, if not hours” and appealed for extraction in a video message published to his Facebook account early on Wednesday morning. Meanwhile, Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, said the intensity of fire by Russian troops towards Kharkiv, the Donbas, and Dnipro has “increased significantly”, one day after the Kremlin launched its long-anticipated offensive in eastern Ukraine.