Russian President Vladimir Putin has canceled a plan to storm a steel plant in Mariupol where the Ukrainian city’s remaining defense forces have been holed up in a last stand.
In a meeting televised by Russian state media, Putin instead ordered Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu on Thursday to seal off the Azovstal steel plant “so that not even a fly comes through.” The Russian president also congratulated Shoigu on “completing the military task of liberating Mariupol.”
“I believe the proposed storming of the industrial zone is no longer necessary,” Putin told Shoigu during the meeting. “There is no need to climb into the catacombs. It is necessary to block the industrial zone in Azovstal so that not even a fly comes through.”
Putin said the Ukrainian fighters sheltering underneath the facility who choose to surrender would be treated in accordance with international conventions.
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At the start of the meeting, Shoigu told Putin the facility was “securely blocked” and that the rest of Mariupol was under Russian control — a claim that could not be independently verified.
More than 2,000 Ukrainian troops remained trapped in the Azovstal facility, according to the Russian defense minister, and it would take three to four days to clear the steel plant.
Ukrainian officials claim the steel plant has been battered by Russian bombs and artillery for days and that it is sheltering at least 1,000 civilians as well as the remaining defenders of the city.
In a video statement on Tuesday, the leader of the commander of the Ukrainian forces trapped in Azovstal called on President Joe Biden and other world leaders to arrange for their extraction to a third-party territory.
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Maj. Serhiy Volyna of Ukraine’s 36th Separate Marine Brigade said his troops will not lay down arms and surrender to Russia despite being surrounded and that there are hundreds inside the facility suffering from injuries. He said his troops do not trust Russian forces with their safety as prisoners.
