On Thursday, President Vladimir Putin declared victory in the Ukraine war’s biggest battle, calling Mariupol’s port ‘liberated’ after nearly two months of siege, despite the presence of hundreds of defenders within a massive steel plant.
Putin said there was no need for a decisive showdown with the last defenders who were walled in after surviving nearly two months of Russia’s siege in a televised discussion with his defence minister inside the Kremlin.
In a televised meeting at the Kremlin, he informed Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, ‘I consider the proposed siege of the industrial zone unnecessary. I give you permission to cancel it.’
‘There’s no need to crawl underground through these industrial buildings and get into these tombs,’ he remarked. ‘Block off this industrial zone so not even a fly can get in.’
2,000 Ukrainian fighters, according to Shoigu, were still inside the plant. Putin urged them to surrender and put down their weapons, promising that Russia will treat them with respect.
When asked about Russia’s choice to blockade the steel plant rather than storm it, a spokesperson for Ukraine’s defence ministry said the move demonstrated Putin’s ‘schizophrenic inclinations’ and declined to comment further.
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