Russia Ukraine War top developments: Russia offers Mariupol fighters to surrender, strikes military plant on Kyiv outskirts

Russian forces launched fresh missile strikes on Kyiv and intensified shelling in Kharkiv, targeting many buildings, including a military plant on the outskirts of the Ukrainian capital. Meanwhile, the Russian military has told Ukrainian troops in Mariupol that if they lay down their weapons they will be “guaranteed to keep their lives”.
Here are some of the top developments:
🔴 The Russian military says it has struck a military plant on the outskirts of Kyiv with missiles. Russian Defence Minry spokesman Major General Igor Konashenkov said other air raids also destroyed Ukrainian air defence radars near Sievierodonetsk in the east and several ammunition depots elsewhere.
🔴 The Russian military has told Ukrainian troops in the besieged port of Mariupol that if they lay down their weapons they will be “guaranteed to keep their lives”. The giant Azovstal steel mill that covers an area of more than 11 square kilometres (over 4.2 square miles) is the last major section of Mariupol still under Ukrainian control. Russia’s Defence Minry asked Ukrainian forces in the city to lay down their arms starting at 6 a.m. Moscow time (0300 GMT) on Sunday to save their lives. It would be the first major city to have fallen to Russian forces since the February 24 invasion.
🔴 The Ukrainian president’s office reported missile strikes and shelling over the past 24 hours in eight regions across the country. The governor of the Lviv region in western Ukraine, which has been only sporadically touched the war’s violence, reported airstrikes on the region Russian Su-35 aircraft that took off from neighbouring Belarus. In Kharkiv in the northeast, Mayor Ihor Terekhov said three people were killed and 34 wounded on Saturday. One explosion believed to have been caused a missile sent rescue workers scrambling near an outdoor market. They said one person was killed and at least 18 wounded.
🔴 Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy estimated that 2,500 to 3,000 Ukrainian troops have died in the war, and about 10,000 have been wounded. The office of Ukraine’s prosecutor general said on Saturday that at least 200 children have also been killed, and more than 360 wounded. Russian forces also have taken captive some 700 Ukrainian troops and more than 1,000 civilians, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Miner Iryna Vereshchuk said on Saturday. Ukraine holds about the same number of Russian troops as prisoners and intends to arrange a swap but is demanding the release of civilians “without any conditions,” she said.
🔴 In the towns and villages just outside Kyiv, authorities have reported finding the bodies of more than 900 civilians, most shot dead, since Russian troops retreated two weeks ago. Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko advised residents who fled the city earlier in the war not to return. “We’re not ruling out further strikes on the capital,” he said. “If you have the opportunity to stay a little bit longer in the cities where it’s safer, do it.” The mayor said Saturday’s strike killed one person and wounded several. It was not immediately clear from the ground what was hit in the strike on Kyiv’s Darnytskyi drict.
🔴 A Russian general whose troops have been besieging the Ukrainian port of Mariupol was buried in St. Petersburg after dying in battle, said St Petersburg Governor Alexander Beglov. Maj. Gen. Vladimir Frolov was deputy commander of the 8th Army, which Russian media identified as being among the forces battering Mariupol for weeks. Beglov released a statement saying Frolov “died a heroic death in battle” without saying where or when he was killed.
🔴 The mother and grandmother of a 15-year-old Ukrainian boy could not hold back their tears. Artem Shevchenko was killed shelling in Kharkiv, a partially blockaded northeastern city where Russian shelling has increased in recent days. “Please open your eyes, my bunny. Please,” Nina Shevchenko pleaded, captured in a moving Associated Press video in which she mourns her son. The boy’s grandmother arrived as people came to take his body away. “Let me see him! My ba. My golden sunshine!” the grandmother cried.
With inputs from agencies