Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that his troops had taken control of the port city of Mariupol after two months of siege, despite hundreds of Ukrainian soldiers still holding out inside a major steel mill.
“The end of Mariupol’s liberation work is a success,” Putin told Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu at a televised meeting.
After nearly two months of siege and bombing, the last Ukrainian troops are holed up in the massive Azovstal steelworks in this city on the Sea of ​​Azov, strategic in Moscow’s plan to unite the pro-Russian territories of the Donbas and the Crimean peninsula, already annexed in 2014. .
The ultimatums issued by Russia did not lead to the surrender of these soldiers. One of its commanders, Sviatoslav Palamar, asked Western countries for security “guarantees” to leave the complex where, according to Kiev, there are also around 1,000 civilians.
Ukraine does not say how many military personnel remain at the facility. The Russian Defense Ministry claims there are nearly 2,000.
Putin on Thursday ordered the siege of the factory, but without an attack, indicating that an offensive would cause many deaths.
“I consider that the proposed attack in the industrial zone is not appropriate. I order the cancellation”, said the Russian president.
“We need to think … about the lives of our soldiers and officers. There is no need to enter these catacombs and crawl underground through the industrial facilities. Block off the entire industrial area so that not even a fly can escape,” Putin said.
Putin has promised to save the lives of those who surrender.
I propose once again to all those who have not surrendered their weapons that they do so, the Russian side guarantees lives and that they will be treated with dignity,” he said.
In turn, Oleksi Arestovich, adviser to the Presidency of Ukraine, said that Russia decided to block the steel plant because it cannot take it by force.
“They physically cannot take Azovstal, they understood that, they suffered heavy losses there. Our defenders continue to hold on,” Arestovich said on Thursday.
“It can also be explained by the fact that they shifted part of their forces [de Mariupol] to the north in order to reinforce the troops trying to fulfill their main objective… to advance to the administrative limits of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.”
On Tuesday, the commander of the 36th Ukrainian Marine Brigade, the remaining force in Mariupol, said they would not surrender.
“We will continue to conduct and complete the military operations that are sent to us and we will not lay down our weapons,” Sergi Volina told the American newspaper The Washington Post.
He argued that his brigade could not repeat the mistake of other Ukrainian troops who believed in Moscow’s ceasefire guarantees. “Nobody believes the Russians,” he said.
Volina was sent to Mariupol at the beginning of the Russian invasion.
The pressure on the city in southeastern Ukraine is the symbol of a new phase of the war and makes up what Kiev already calls the Battle of the Donbass, in reference to Moscow’s offensive to seize the two provinces in the east of the country from which it has recognized independence. days before the start of the invasion.
Lack of water, food and electricity
Practically since the beginning of the conflict, on February 24, Mariupol has been one of the places where the Russian offensive is concentrated. Local authorities fear the death of more than 20,000 people in the city – due to the bombings, but also the lack of water, food and electricity.
The Russian army has controlled much of Mariupol for days and even allowed in some Western journalists who could see its devastated streets.
During the siege, civilian evacuations were rare and often dangerous. Even so, on Thursday, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Irina Vereshchuk said four buses with civilians had managed to leave the city and others were expected to leave during the day.
Ahead of them is a 200km journey to Zaporijia, dotted with several checkpoints in the middle of a region mired in fighting.
Since late March, when Russia withdrew its troops from the north and around Kiev, eastern and southern Ukraine has become the main scene of the war.
Russian forces “keep their artillery fire across the front line,” Ukrainian officials said Thursday morning.
Fighting is particularly intense around Izium (northeast), there is “incessant bombing” in Popasna and Rubizhne, in the Lugansk region (east), and new attacks in Mikolaiv (south), on the road to Odessa, which left one dead and two wounded, according to Governor Vitali Kim.
“The situation is getting more complicated by the hour,” Lugansk Governor Sergei Gaidai wrote on Telegram. “Get out safely (…) Get out!” he warned.
