Russia says it controls Mariupol, but Ukrainian troops hold out in steel plant
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4 min read . Updated: 21 Apr 2022, 05:25 PM IST President Vladimir Putin orders Russian troops to block every entry point into the plant
KYIV (UKRAINE) : Russia said Thursday it had taken control of Mariupol, presenting it as one of its first victories in the conflict after weeks of setbacks, though Ukrainian forces were still blockaded inside a vast steel plant in the city and said they were continuing to launch attacks on Russian positions.
Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said in a meeting at the Kremlin with President Vladimir Putin that Russian troops were in control of the strategic port city and that the Azovstal plant in the south where Ukrainian forces were holed up had been blocked off.
A spokesman for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that almost all of Mariupol was under Russian control, but a fight for the plant continued.
The statement from Mr. Shoigu came a day after Russia dismissed a United Nations-backed four-day cease-fire that would have come into effect on Thursday.
Russia has tightened its grip on Mariupol since the first weeks of the invasion, pushing out pockets of resistance in residential areas. In recent weeks, it has focused on the remaining Ukrainian troops still fighting from the steel plant. There were conflicting reports around how many Ukrainian troops remained at the plant, with Russia saying some 2,000 were there.
In a nod to the heavy losses Russian armed forces sustained in the first weeks of the conflict, Mr. Putin dismissed a suggestion by Mr. Shoigu to storm the plant, saying it would unnecessarily endanger the lives of Russian soldiers.
“This is one of those times when we should think…about safeguarding the life and health of our soldiers and officers," he said. “Block this industrial zone so that not even a fly can enter."
Mr. Putin appealed to Ukrainian soldiers at the plant to lay down their weapons and said they would be dealt with according to international law.
While Russian troops won’t be storming the plant, an operation that could take three to four days, they will still likely be engaging with Ukrainian troops who continue to fire on Russian positions, Mr. Shoigu said.
Ukraine’s Azov regiment said Thursday that “despite the extremely difficult situation," it had managed to destroy three Russian tanks and two armored personnel carriers in the past two days.
On Wednesday, Major Serhiy Volyna, commander of the 36th Marine Brigade defending the steel plant, said in a video recording that time was running out for his troops and they had only hours or days left to live.
“The enemy forces exceed ours 10-fold," he said, dressed in fatigues and a head cover, his beard long and scraggly. “They dominate the skies, have the upper hand in artillery, in terms of groups operating on land, as well as in military equipment and tanks."
An effective blockade of the steel plant would free up Russian troops that have been fighting there for weeks, giving Moscow latitude to focus on taking other parts of southern Ukraine, where its troops have made the most territorial gains. A capture of the city would also secure a land bridge between Russian-controlled areas and Crimea, which Moscow annexed from Ukraine in 2014.
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Elsewhere in Ukraine, the Russian Defense Ministry said it had hit more than 1,000 military objects across the country overnight, including 58 command posts and 162 artillery positions.
Weeks after Russian troops pulled out of the areas around Kyiv, following a disastrous assault on the capital, Mr. Zelensky said authorities were working to restore order but warned that the situation still remained dire as Moscow was expected to make a more concerted push for land in the country’s east.
“The situation in the east and south of our country remains as severe as possible," Mr. Zelensky said in an address late Wednesday. “The occupiers do not give up trying to gain at least some victory for themselves through a new large-scale offensive."
Russia’s deputy envoy to the U.N., Dmitry Polyansky, dismissed a cease-fire plan put forward by U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres, saying it looked like an attempt to give Ukrainian forces a chance to rearm and regroup.
“I won’t hide the fact that the calls to a truce and cease-fire sound very duplicitous and low," said Mr. Polyansky, speaking at the U.N.
Ukraine is awaiting details of a new $800 million arms package put together by the Biden administration. Earlier aid packages included heavy artillery: 18 howitzer guns. Unlike Soviet-model artillery pieces in the Ukrainian arsenal, those guns use 155 mm ammunition, which is much more readily available in the West.
The Ukrainian general staff said Russian forces were continuing to block and shell the northern city of Kharkiv, which lies near the Russian border. Russian forces together with their proxies from eastern Ukraine had pushed westward to the edge of Kharkiv province, Russian state news agency RIA reported.
The general staff also said that Russian troops were forcing Ukrainian men in the occupied province of Kherson to mobilize on the side of the Russians and had stopped Ukrainian humanitarian aid from reaching the region.