Ukrainian soldiers in Mariupol will fight to the bitter end, the country’s Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal has said. 

Last week Russia urged troops in the besieged port city to surrender by Easter Monday but, as Mr Shmyhal explained to the US channel ABC, the deadline was one Ukrainians were always going to ignore: 

"The city still has not fallen," Mr Shmyhal said defiantly. 

"There is still our military forces, our soldiers, so they will fight until the end. 

“And as for now, they still are in Mariupol."

Mariupol is a strategically key coastal city and if it were to fall Russia would control a vast land corridor between the Donbas and Crimea. 

It would also curtail much of Ukraine’s access to the Black Sea - something that would have a devastating impact on her ability to trade with the outside world. 

As a consequence, Russia has been shelling the city relentlessly and last week the local mayor said some 10,000 civilians had died - a toll that he believes could soon double as the bombardment continues. 

Destroyed buildings in Mariupol as Russia's invasion of Ukraine continues, 12-03-2022. Image: State Emergency Service of Ukraine/UPI Credit: UPI/Alamy Live News

Most of the Ukrainian soldiers in the city are based in the city’s sprawling steel plant and journalist Olga Tokariuk told The Pat Kenny Show that many locals are sheltering there as well. 

“Currently in the basement, in the bomb shelters below the premises of the steel mill… there are about 1,000 civilians along with several dozen or hundreds… of Ukrainian soldiers,” she explained. 

“There are children, there are elderly people.

“These civilians chose to stay there close to the soldiers because they are afraid of going out. 

“They are afraid of the reprisals of the Russian military.” 

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Battle for the Donbas

Meanwhile, President Zelenskyy announced on Monday night that the Russian forces had “begun the battle for Donbas, for which they have been preparing for a long time.”

“No matter how many Russian troops are driven there, we will fight. We will defend ourselves. We will do it every day,” he added. 

In February Putin announced as a pretext to the invasion of Ukraine that the Donbas - comprising of the regions of Donetsk and Luhansk - were independent republics and in need of liberation from Kyiv. 

The area is mostly Russian speaking and since 2014 Moscow has supported separatist rebels in their attacks on the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

Main image: Residents seen on the street after emerging from bomb shelters, civilians gather their belongings and supplies in the embattled city of Mariupol. Picture by: SOPA Images Limited/Alamy Live News