On Thursday, Russia announced that its forces had taken control of the coastal city of Mariupol in southeastern Ukraine, with the exception of the Azovestal Metallurgy plant, and Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered plans to storm the facilities to be canceled and content to besiege it continuously.
The announcement comes as fighting intensifies in eastern Ukraine, as Russian troops continue their advance into the Donbass and bombard the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, and Washington prepares to announce a new military aid package for the Ukrainian army.
And Interfax reported that Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu told Putin that Russian forces had taken control of Mariupol and that “the situation in the city is calm, the return of civilians is allowed”, noting that “there are still Ukrainian fighters at the plant” Azovstal in Mariupol,” the Russian News agency said in a statement.
The Russian defense minister indicated that “1,478 Ukrainian fighters have surrendered to Russian forces, and another 2,000 have taken refuge in a factory.”
Putin: “Don’t miss the fly”
For his part, Russian President Putin congratulated his defense minister on the success of the military operation in Mariupel and ordered plans to storm the industrial zone to be canceled and instead to continue its safe siege.
“The completion of the work to liberate Mariupol is a success,” Putin told Shoigu, saying that the assault on the Azovstal site was “unreasonable” and that it was necessary to cordon “the area so that not a single fly could pass.”
“Russia guarantees the absence of aggression and respect for the Ukrainian military leaving the Azovstal facility,” Putin added.
Russia’s takeover of the city of Mariupol would be a major victory for Moscow, as it would allow it to consolidate its gains in the coastal region overlooking the Sea of Azov, linking the Donbas region, part of which is controlled by its supporters, with Crimea, which Moscow annexed in 2014.
In Kharkiv, the mayor of the Ukrainian city, Igor Terekov, said the country’s second-largest city was under heavy shelling. “Huge explosions… The Russian Federation is bombing the city furiously,” he added in a televised address.
He added that there are still about a million people inside Kharkiv, which is located in the northeast of the country, and about 30% of the population, mostly women, children and the elderly, have left.
Security Guarantees
Meanwhile, hundreds of civilians suffering from food and water shortages are holed up at the Azovstal steel plant along with the 36th Ukrainian army battalion and the Azov battalion, the last two combat units in Mariupol, according to Kiev authorities.
Earlier Thursday, Azov Battalion Deputy Commander Svyatoslav Palamar called on the “civilized world” to provide “security guarantees”, stressing that the two battalions do not accept “the terms of the Russian Federation to transfer weapons and capture our defenders.”
He continued: “The situation is complicated and critical” inside this huge complex, which has become the last pocket of resistance in the port located at the southern tip of Donbass, about which Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that “about 1,000 civilians, women, children and hundreds of wounded.”
The civilians stranded inside the factory, whose numbers cannot be independently confirmed, are “terrified by constant shelling,” Ballamer said, calling for a ceasefire, Ballamer said.