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.”