Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered his soldiers to block, rather than storm, Mariupol’s Azovstal steel mill, which is the city’s last Ukrainian stronghold, according to latest report.
An earlier plan to raid the site, where approximately 2,000 Kyiv forces had taken refuge in underground tunnels and bunkers, was canceled by Vladimir Putin.
His orders came after Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu notified Putin that Moscow had seized control of the port city in southern Ukraine.
Since the beginning of the battle in February of this year, Russian troops have largely encircled the coastal city of Mariupol. Ukrainian forces, on the other hand, defended it for a long time.
Shoigu stated that some 2,000 Ukrainian forces were stationed at the massive steel factory, which has an 11-square-kilometer network of underground tunnels and bunkers. Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has stated that around 1,000 civilians are also trapped at the site.
Putin had previously termed Mariupol’s “liberation” as a “victory for Russian soldiers.”
According to the Associated Press, Russian forces are now aiming to capture Donbas, Ukraine’s eastern industrial heartland.
