The only thing that would come under Ukrainian rule would be the Azovstal metallurgical plant.
Courtesy | The city has been one of the most attacked since the beginning of the invasion
Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his forces on Thursday not to storm the last Ukrainian holdout in the besieged city of Mariupol, but to blockade it “so that not even a fly gets through.”
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu told Putin on Thursday that the rest of the city beyond the huge Azovstal metallurgical plant, where the last of kyiv’s forces are entrenched, has been “liberated,” the term used by the Russian authorities for the areas of Ukraine they have taken.
The president praised the operation calling it a “success.”
Leaving the plant in Ukrainian hands deprives the Russians of the possibility of declaring total victory at Mariupol. The taking of the city has both strategic and symbolic importance.
The extent of the suffering in the city has made it a focus of global interest. Furthermore, its fall would deprive Ukraine of a vital port, complete a land connection between Russia and the Crimean Peninsula, and free up troops to mobilize elsewhere in Donbas.
Shoigu said the steel plant was “securely locked down.”
The statements by Putin and Shoigu seemed intended to reflect a change in strategy in Mariupol, where until now the Russians had been determined to take every inch of the city. But it was not clear what that would mean in practice.
The Ukrainian authorities did not comment on the messages from Moscow, although they had previously announced that four buses with civilians had managed to escape from the city after several unsuccessful attempts.
Thousands of people remained in the city, largely reduced to rubble after nearly two months of siege. Some 20,000 people are feared to have died in that period.
Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said another attempt to evacuate civilians from Mariupol would be made on Thursday, though it was unclear how the Russian authorities’ statements would affect those plans.
Russian demands
Meanwhile, the Kremlin said it had drafted its demands to end the war and the West was rushing to supply Ukraine with more powerful weapons to deal with Russia’s new offensive to seize the country’s industrial east.
In a statement on Thursday, the British Ministry of Defense said that Russia probably wants to show significant successes before its Victory Day celebrations on May 9. “This could affect how quickly and forcefully they intend to operate up to that date.”
Police in the kyiv region said Thursday that two mass graves containing nine bodies had been found in the town of Borodianka, northwest of the Ukrainian capital.
According to Andriy Nebytov, head of the regional police, among the “civilians killed by the Russian occupiers” were two women and a teenager. The graves were discovered on Wednesday.
“I want to emphasize that these people are civilians. The Russian army deliberately shot civilians who did not put up any resistance and did not pose any threat,” Nebytov said, adding that some of the victims appeared to have been tortured.
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