Russian Defense Minister Sergei Choigu said on Thursday that Russian troops had taken control of Mariupol, Ukraine, despite admitting there was still resistance at the Azovstal steelworks. The industry, where around 2,000 Ukrainian soldiers are hiding, would be the target of an attack, but the action was canceled by the Russian president. Ukraine says Putin’s attempt to avoid a final confrontation with its forces in the city is an acknowledgment that Russia lacks the strength to defeat them.
“I consider the proposed attack to be inappropriate. I order it to be called off,” Vladimir Putin told Choigu in a televised meeting on Thursday. “Now, it is necessary to think even more, if possible, on the lives and health of our soldiers and officers. There is no need to delve further into these catacombs, and crawl underground in these facilities,” he added.
The president of Russia took the opportunity to demand the closure of the industrial area, “so that not a fly passes, either in or out”.
Ukrainian presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovych said Ukrainian defenders continued to resist. “They physically cannot take Azovstal, they understood that, they suffered huge losses there,” he said, in testimony reproduced by Reuters. Regarding Putin’s decision, a spokesman for the Ukrainian Defense Ministry said that it only shows his “schizophrenic tendencies”.
At the meeting with Putin, the Russian Defense Minister said that “The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation and the militias of the People’s Republic of Donetsk liberated Mariupol. The rest of the nationalist formations took refuge in the industrial area of the Azovstal factory.”
According to the minister, there were more than 8,100 Ukrainian guerrillas at the time of the siege of the port city, of which more than 4,000 were killed and 1,478 surrendered and became prisoners. Choigu admitted that at the steel mill there are 2,000 Ukrainian soldiers, and that it will take three to four days to “finish the job”.
humanitarian corridors
Ukraine’s government has demanded the opening of a humanitarian corridor from the Azovstal steelworks to evacuate about 1,000 civilians and 500 military personnel, according to figures presented by the country’s deputy prime minister, Iryna Vereshchuk. “All must be removed today”, demanded the member of the government. In addition, the deputy prime minister made an appeal, in a message posted on Telegram, “to world leaders and the international community, to focus their efforts on Azovstal now”.
The rest of Mariupol, which lies on the shores of the Sea of Azov, is practically destroyed by bombing by Moscow forces. The steel mill is the last stronghold of Ukrainian resistance, being an intensely fortified installation. In all, there are about 11 square kilometers, in the southeast of Mariupol, with tunnels and underground bunkers, which makes it difficult to take.
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