For weeks, Russian troops have surrounded Mariupol. Now the Russian defense minister is reporting that the city has been taken. But in a steel mill, fighters and civilians are still holding out.
According to Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu, the Russian military has taken control of the embattled port city of Mariupol in southeastern Ukraine. This was announced by Shoigu on Thursday at a meeting with Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin that was broadcast on state television.
“The remaining Ukrainian combat units entrenched themselves in the industrial area of the Azovstal factory,” Shoigu said.
President Putin ordered not to storm the steelworks. A corresponding order should be withdrawn. The fighters in the catacombs should lay down their weapons. “The Russian side guarantees their lives,” Putin said. He spoke of a success and the “liberation of Mariupol” and ordered the military involved to be decorated. “They are all heroes,” Putin said.
According to Shoigu, the Ukrainian units are completely blocked. The minister said the factory would also be captured in three to four days. There are also foreign mercenaries there. No one left the plant via the humanitarian corridors offered, the minister said. Earlier, the Ukrainian side proposed negotiations on the fate of the fighters and the rescue of civilians who had taken refuge in the plant.
Shoigu also announced that the city was heavily mined. “All important objects of the city infrastructure, including the seaport and the fairway, were not only mined, but also blocked by floating cranes,” he said. As a result, many foreign ships were prevented from exiting.
The Ukrainian government demanded a humanitarian corridor from Russia for the surrounded steel works. “There are about 1,000 civilians and 500 wounded soldiers there right now. They must all be taken out of Azovstal today!” Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk wrote on the Telegram news channel.
She called on “the world” to focus all efforts on the steelworks now. “This is now the key point and the key moment for humanitarian efforts,” said Vereshchuk.
Mariupol was encircled by Russian troops shortly after the start of the war of aggression against Ukraine ordered by Putin on February 24. The city was largely destroyed in the fighting.
Source: Stern
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