Putin has ordered a halt to the offensive against the plant, one of the few remaining resistance points in Mariupol, to “save the lives of Russian soldiers.”
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Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Thursday that the country’s armed forces have taken control of the Ukrainian city of Mariupol.
“The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation and the militias of the Donetsk People’s Republic have liberated Mariupol, the remnants of the nationalist formations have taken refuge in the industrial zone of the Azovstal plant,” Shoigu said in a meeting with the Russian president. , Vladimir Putin.
Cancel the order to assault the Azovstal plant
The Russian president ordered this Thursday to suspend the offensive at the Azovstal steel mill, one of the few remaining points of resistance in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol (southeast), surrounded and attacked by Russian forces and Ukrainian separatists for several weeks.
“I consider the order to break into the industrial zone inappropriate and I order that it be cancelled,” he said during a meeting with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, before arguing that it is necessary to think about “saving the lives and health of the soldiers and officers,” the Russian news agency Interfax reported.
Thus, he has stated that “there is no need to enter these catacombs and go underground in industrial facilities”, while offering the Ukrainian forces to “hand over their weapons”.
“Russia guarantees his life and decent treatment, in line with international law,” he stressed, before stressing that the area will remain blocked so that these forces cannot escape from the place.
For its part, the Government of Ukraine has demanded the opening of a humanitarian corridor from the Azovstal steel plant to evacuate the 1,000 civilians and 500 soldiers who are enduring the Russian siege.
Russia controls 80% of the territory of Lugansk
The governor of the Ukrainian region of Lugansk, Sergii Haidai, has assured in an interview with the American chain CNN that about 80% of the territory of Lugansk is under Russian control, as he has acknowledged in his Telegram profile.
Mass grave of 30 meters near Mariúpol
The mayor of Mariupol, Vadym Boychenko, has reported the discovery of a new mass grave about 30 meters long dug by Russian troops about 20 kilometers from the city, near the town of Manhush.
In statements to television, collected by the Interfax Ukraina agency, Boychenko points out that there is information that “all these crimes that occurred in the city of Mariupol and that have signs of war crimes, of genocide” are being hidden by Russian troops in graves common.
He assures that the occupiers are carrying out a “cleansing” in the city among the municipal officials and workers who have remained in Mariupol.
“They are being transferred to some place. We believe that behind bars. There they are interrogated, tortured, and others,” he says.
Source: Eitb
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