Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered his forces not to storm the last remaining Ukrainian stronghold in the besieged city of Mariupol – but to block it “so that not even a fly comes through”.
Russia’s defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, told Mr Putin on Thursday that the sprawling Azovstal steel factory where Ukrainian forces are holed up is “securely blocked”. He said the rest of the city has been “liberated”, which Mr Putin hailed as a “success”.
Leaving the factory in Ukrainian hands, however, robs the Russians of the ability to declare a complete victory in Mariupol. The city’s capture has both strategic and symbolic importance.
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Ukraine said the Russians dropped heavy bombs to flatten what was left of the sprawling factory, believed to be the city’s last pocket of resistance.
A few thousand Ukrainian troops, by the Russians’ estimate, remained in the factory and its labyrinth of tunnels and bunkers spread out across about four square miles. Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky said about 1,000 civilians were also trapped.
A Ukrainian apparently in the facility posted a Facebook video urging world leaders to help evacuate people, saying: “We have more than 500 wounded soldiers and hundreds of civilians with us, including women and children.”
The officer identified himself as Serhiy Volynsky of the 36th Marine Brigade and warned: “This may be our last appeal. We may have only a few days or hours left.”
The authenticity of the video could not be independently verified.
Evacuation failed
Another attempt to evacuate civilians trapped in the port city failed on Wednesday because of continued fighting, and the number of people fleeing Ukraine passed five million.
Meanwhile, the Kremlin said it submitted a draft of its demands for ending the war as the West raced to supply Ukraine with heavier weapons to counter the Russians’ new drive to seize the industrial east.
It comes after Russia reported the first successful test launch of a new type of intercontinental ballistic missile, the Sarmat. Mr Putin boasted that it can overcome any missile defence system and make those who threaten Russia “think twice”.
The head of the Russian state aerospace agency called the launch out of northern Russia “a present to Nato”. The Pentagon described the test as “routine” and said it was not considered a threat.
On the battlefield, Ukraine said Moscow continued to mount assaults across the east, probing for weak points in Ukrainian defensive lines.
Russia said it launched hundreds of missile and air attacks on targets that included concentrations of troops and vehicles.
The Kremlin’s stated goal is the capture of the Donbas, the mostly Russian-speaking eastern region that is home to coal mines and metal and heavy-equipment factories.
Detaching it from the rest of Ukraine would give Mr Putin a badly needed victory two months into the war, after the botched attempt to storm the capital, Kyiv.
Analysts have said the offensive in the east could become a war of attrition as Russia faces Ukraine’s most experienced, battle-hardened troops, who have fought pro-Moscow separatists in the Donbas for eight years.
Russia said it presented Ukraine with a draft document outlining its demands for ending the conflict — days after Mr Putin said the talks were at a “dead end”.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said “the ball is in their court, we’re waiting for a response”.
He gave no details on the draft and it was not clear when it was sent or whether it offered anything new to the Ukrainians, who presented their own demands last month.
Mr Zelensky said he had not seen or heard of the proposal, though one of his top advisers said the Ukrainian side was reviewing it.
Moscow has long demanded Ukraine drop any bid to join Nato. Ukraine has said it would agree to that in return for security guarantees from other countries.
US President Joe Biden was set to announce plans on Thursday to send more military aid to Ukraine, according to a US official who was not authorised to comment publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Mr Zelensky said Ukraine’s western allies have “come to understand our needs better”, adding that Ukraine is receiving new shipments of western weapons “now, when Russia is trying to step up its attacks, not in weeks or in a month”.
Mr Putin, meanwhile, boasted that the Sarmat missile has “no equivalents in the world”.
The Sarmat is intended to eventually replace the Soviet-built missile code-named Satan by Nato as a major component of Russia’s nuclear arsenal.
It will ”make those who, in the heat of frantic, aggressive rhetoric, try to threaten our country think twice”, Mr Putin said.
