Ukraine vowed Sunday to fight to the bitter end in Mariupol, following the expiration of a Russian ultimatum for surviving forces to surrender in the beleaguered Black Sea port city, where Moscow is seeking a significant strategic triumph.

"The city has not yet fallen," Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal declared hours after Moscow's request for fighters holed up and encircled in a massive fortress-like steelworks to surrender had passed.

"Our military forces, our men, remain. As a result, they will fight until the last end," he explained on ABC's "This Week."

Moscow's military priorities have switched to regaining control of the eastern Donbas region and establishing a land corridor to the already-annexed Crimea.

Russia's military ministry stated without presenting evidence that up to 400 mercenaries were inside the surrounded Azovstal steel factory and urged Ukrainian forces inside to "lay down their arms and surrender in order to save their lives."

Moscow asserts that Kyiv has directed nationalist Azov battalion troops to "shoot on the spot" anyone seeking to surrender.

'At a standstill.'

According to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, if Russian forces murder the last troops defending the city, the peace talks will be terminated.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has already stated that the negotiations had reached a "stalemate."

Ukraine, Shmyhal stated, desired a peaceful solution but would fight to the bitter end if necessary.

"We will not surrender," he stated emphatically.

While numerous significant cities are under siege, he stated that none have fallen — except Kherson in the south — and over 900 towns and cities have been liberated.

As Russia intensified its attacks on Ukraine's eastern flank, at least five people were killed and twenty injured in a series of strikes in its second city, Kharkiv, located just 21 kilometers (13 miles) from the Russian border.

Russian soldiers continued to shell the eastern Lugansk region, and two persons were killed in the town of Zolote, according to governor Sergiy Gaiday.

Additionally, two persons were killed, and four were wounded in attacks on the towns of Marinka and Novopol, west of Donetsk, regional governor Pavlo Kyrylenko announced via Telegram, and an airstrike damaged an armaments factory in Kyiv.

Maksym Khaustov, the chief of the Kharkiv region's health department, verified the deaths in the area following a series of strikes that, according to AFP journalists on the scene, caused flames throughout the city and tore roofs off buildings.

"The entire house rumbled and trembled," Svitlana Pelelygina, 71, told AFP as she examined her demolished flat. "Everything began to burn here."

"I contacted the fire department. 'We are on our way,' they stated, 'but we were also shelled.'"

‘Inhuman’

Iryna Vereshchuk, Ukraine's Deputy Prime Minister, pleaded with Russian forces to allow civilians to evacuate besieged Mariupol.

"Once again, we demand the establishment of a humanitarian corridor for the evacuation of civilians from Mariupol, particularly women and children," Vereshchuk stated.

Zelensky, describing the situation as "inhuman," pleaded with the West to supply heavy weaponry quickly.

Since Russian troops invaded the former Soviet state on February 24, Mariupol has become a symbol of Ukraine's surprisingly powerful resistance.

According to the United Nations World Food Program, more than 100,000 citizens are on the edge of hunger due to a lack of water and heating.

According to Ukrainian officials, the city is on the verge of a humanitarian disaster.

According to Minister of Digital Transformation Mykhailo Fedorov, they accumulated proof of alleged Russian atrocities there. "We will turn over everything to The Hague. There will be no such thing as impunity."

The mayor of Bucha, a town near Kyiv where the discovery of dead people triggered international criticism and war crimes claims, stated that Russian troops raped men, women, and children in the town.

Ukrainian officials have urged residents of eastern Donbas to flee west to avoid a Russian offensive aimed at capturing the region's constituent republics of Donetsk and Lugansk.

"Russian troops are currently preparing for an assault campaign in our country's east. In an evening statement, they intend to obliterate and annihilate Donbas," Zelensky stated.

Vereshchuk, Ukraine's Deputy Prime Minister, said humanitarian corridors allowing civilians to leave would not open on Sunday due to an inability to agree with Russian forces.

However, Lugansk governor Gaiday stated that evacuations had been conducted. "We took out several dozen people anyway, at our own peril and risk, but it's already dangerous," he told Ukrainian media.

'Easter of conflict'

"May there be peace for war-torn Ukraine, which has been so severely tested by the violence and destruction of the senseless and barbaric war into which it has been dragged," Pope Francis stated during Easter Sunday Mass at the Vatican.

Zelensky stated that he offered his French counterpart to visit Ukraine to personally witness proof that Russian soldiers committed "genocide," a phrase avoided by President Emmanuel Macron.

"I spoke with him yesterday," Zelensky told CNN in a Friday interview.

"I just explained to him that I want him to understand that this is not war, but genocide. I invited him to come whenever he had the chance. He'll come and see for himself, and I'm confident he'll understand," Zelensky stated.

'Unpredictable outcomes'

Russia warned the US this week that sending its "most sensitive" weapons systems to Ukraine, as Zelensky has requested, would have "unpredictable consequences."

On Saturday, Russia's defense ministry said that it shot down a Ukrainian cargo jet in the Odesa region carrying Western-supplied weapons.

Russian missiles destroyed ammunition, gasoline, and lubricant stockpiles in eastern Ukraine and 44 Ukrainian military structures, including command centers, spokesman Igor Konashenkov said Sunday.

He stated that Russian air defense systems shot down two Ukrainian MiG-29 planes in the Kharkiv region and a drone near Pavlograd.