RUSSIAN forces piled pressure on a stubborn pocket of resistance in Mariupol today amid renewed hopes that thousands of civilians will be evacuated from the shattered port city.

In addition to pounding the remaining Ukrainian troops in Mariupol, Russia has intensified its attacks in the Donbass region, where coal mines, metal plants and factories vital to the country’s economy are located.

The port on the Sea of Azov has been the scene of some of the most dramatic suffering of the conflict, which has pushed more than five million people to flee the country, according to the United Nations, and displaced millions more.

Against that devastating backdrop, Russia said today that it has presented Ukraine with a draft document outlining its demands as part of talks aimed at ending the conflict — days after Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the negotiations were at a “dead end.”

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told a conference call with reporters that “the ball is in [the Ukrainians’] court. We’re waiting for a response.” It was not clear when the Russian document was sent or if it offered anything new to the Kiev government, which presented its own demands last month.

Ukrainian troops said on Tuesday that the Russian military dropped heavy bombs to flatten what was left of a sprawling steel plant — believed to be the last holdout of troops defending Mariupol — and hit a makeshift hospital where hundreds of people were staying. The reports could not be independently confirmed.

The General Staff of Kiev’s military said in a statement that taking control of the Azovstal steel mill and thus fully capturing Mariupol remains a top Russian priority. But it added that Moscow’s forces were continuing to mount offensives across the east.

Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said that there was a “preliminary” agreement to open a humanitarian corridor for women, children and the elderly to leave Mariupol and head west to the Ukraine-controlled city of Zaporizhzhia this afternoon.

Mariupol Mayor Vadym Boychenko urged residents to leave the city, though previous such agreements have fallen apart, with Russians preventing buses meant to pick up evacuees from entering the city. Escape routes have been shelled, with Ukraine saying Russian forces are doing this and Russia blaming the Mariupol-based neonazi Azov Battalion.

“Do not be frightened and evacuate to Zaporizhzhia, where you can receive all the help you need — food, medicine, essentials — and the main thing is that you will be in safety,” he wrote in a statement issued by the city council.

Mr Boychenko asked people who had already left Mariupol to contact relatives still in the city and urge them to evacuate, saying that buses would be provided and that one pickup point would be near the Azovstal steel mill.

A Ukrainian police official has said that civilians, including children, are sheltering there among the city’s last known defenders.

Many previous evacuation efforts relied on civilians using private cars after efforts to bring in buses failed. But with fuel supplies and the number of cars in the city dwindling, that is becoming increasingly difficult.

There was no immediate confirmation of the evacuation from the Russian side, which issued a new ultimatum to the Ukrainian defenders to surrender today. The Ukrainians have ignored previous demands to leave the sprawling steel plant’s warren of tunnels and bunkers.

The Russian Defence Ministry said that those who surrender will be allowed to live and given medical treatment.