Ukraine: Putin welcomes the capture of Mariupol but refuses to give the final assault on Azovstal
A resident of Mariupol walks past a building gutted by fighting, pushing a cart with a humanitarian aid package on it, April 19, 2022. © REUTERS / ALEXANDER ERMOCHENKO
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During a meeting with his Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the assault on the Azovstal steelworks to be “cancelled”, preferring to besiege the last Ukrainian soldiers from Mariupol who are entrenched there.
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The Russian president ruled on Thursday that his forces had "
successfully
" taken control of the city of Mariupol and ordered to besiege the last Ukrainian fighters entrenched in the Azovstal factory rather than to storm.
"
We must think (...) of the life and health of our soldiers and our officers
," said Vladimir Putin during a meeting with Mr. Shoigu broadcast on Russian television.
In this context, “
I consider the proposed assault on the industrial zone to be inappropriate.
I order to cancel
it,” he said.
The soldiers present in the factory refuse to surrender and the deputy commander of the Azov battalion, Sviatoslav Palamar, asks, via Telegram messaging, for “
guarantees
” of security from the “
civilized world
” to leave.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says around 1,000 civilians, "
women and children
" and "
hundreds of wounded
" are with the fighters in the building.
According to Mr. Choigou, there would remain 2,000 fighters in the steelworks.
He did not mention civilians.
For more than a month and a half, the port city of Mariupol has been at the heart of violent clashes.
A large part of the city is completely destroyed and a few hundred meters from the Azovstal factory, a pro-Russian separatist soldier testifies to this siege at the microphone of our special correspondent,
Anissa El Jabri.
I wish all the guys could go home.
Everyone is tired, everyone has psychological problems, from seeing horrible things every day.
Tomorrow is my birthday, but it won't be possible to celebrate it with my family at home.
Testimony of a pro-Russian separatist from Donetsk
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