Mariupol is on brink as Russian assaults mount

DESPERATE EFFORTS TO OPEN EVACUATION ROUTE FROM BESIEGED CITY

RUSSIAN forces yesterday tightened the noose around Ukrainian defenders holed up at a Mariupol steel plant amid desperate new efforts to open an evacuation corridor for trapped civilians in the ruined city, a key battleground in Moscow's drive to seize the country's industrial east.

As the city came under punishing new attacks, the Kremlin said it had submitted a draft of its demands for ending the fighting.

Ukraine's military said Moscow continued to mount attacks across the east, probing for weak points in the Ukrainian defensive lines. Russia said it launched hundreds of missile and air attacks on Ukrainian targets, including concentrations of troops and vehicles.

The Kremlin's stated goal is to capture the Donbas, the mostly Russian-speaking eastern region that is home to coal mines, metal plants, and heavy equipment factories vital to Ukraine's economy. Claiming it would give Russia's President Vladimir Putin a badly needed victory, two months into the war.