Kyiv, Ukraine (AP) – Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday claimed victory in the battle for Mariupol, despite ordering his troops not to risk further casualties by storming the huge steel mill that houses the last Ukrainian bases in of the city.
Instead, he ordered his forces to cordon off the Azovstal plant “so not even a fly can get through.”
Russian troops have bombarded the south-eastern port city since the beginning of the war, largely reducing it to rubble. Senior officials have repeatedly claimed it was on the verge of toppling, but Ukrainian forces have adamantly maintained it.
In recent weeks, according to Russian estimates, a few thousand defenders along with hundreds of civilians holed up in the sprawling steel mill as Putin’s troops bombarded the compound and issued repeated ultimatums ordering their surrender.
But on Thursday, as he has previously done, the Russian leader appeared to change the narrative, declaring victory without taking the facility, which covers 11 square kilometers (4 sq mi) and features about 24 kilometers (15 mi) of tunnels and Bunker is traversed.
“The completion of combat operations to liberate Mariupol is a success,” he said during an appearance with his defense minister. “Congratulations.”
Ukraine scoffed at the idea of a Russian victory.
“This situation means the following: you cannot physically conquer Azovstal. They got that. They suffered huge losses there,” said Oleksiy Arestovich, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
The capture of Mariupol would be the Kremlin’s biggest victory in the Ukraine war to date. It would help Moscow secure more of the coast, complete a land bridge between Russia and the Crimean peninsula that Russia captured in 2014, and allow Putin to move more forces into the larger battle now raging over the eastern industrial heartland Ukraine takes place.
By portraying the Mariupol mission as a success, Putin may be trying to divert focus from the facility, which has become a global symbol of defiance. Even without the facility, the Russians appear to be in control of the rest of the city and its vital port, although that facility appears to be badly damaged.
“The Russian agenda now is not to conquer these really difficult places for Ukrainians to hold their own in the urban centers, but to try to conquer territories and also encircle the Ukrainian forces and announce a great victory,” he said retired British Rear Admiral Chris Parri said.
Putin’s order appeared to mean that Russian forces intended to maintain the siege and wait for the defenders to surrender if they ran out of food or ammunition. The bombing of the facility could well continue.
Meanwhile, western nations rushed to throw heavy weapons at Ukraine to help it counter the new offensive in the east.
US President Joe Biden announced an additional $800 million in military aid to Kyiv, including heavy artillery, 144,000 rounds of ammunition and drones.
But he also warned that the $13.6 billion approved for military and humanitarian aid by the US Congress last month is “nearly gone” and more is needed.
Russia’s Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu estimated that 2,000 Ukrainian soldiers remained at the steel mill. Ukrainian officials said about 1,000 civilians were trapped there along with 500 wounded soldiers. Shoigu said the site was blocked and predicted it could be taken in days.
“I think the planned storming of the industrial area is pointless. I’m ordering it to be aborted,” Putin replied, saying he was concerned about “preserving the lives and health of our soldiers and officers.”
“There is no need to climb into these catacombs and crawl underground through these industrial facilities,” the Russian leader added. “Round off this industrial area so even a fly can’t get through.”
All in all, more than 100,000 people in Mariupol, which had a pre-war population of about 430,000, were believed to be trapped with little or no food, water, warmth or medicine.
The city has garnered global attention as the scene of some of the war’s worst suffering, including deadly air raids on a maternity hospital and theater.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said her country and others were pressuring Russia to let civilians out of Mariupol and stop striking potential evacuation routes.
According to Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk, four buses carrying civilians managed to flee the city on Wednesday after several unsuccessful attempts.
Ukraine has repeatedly accused Russia of launching attacks to block the evacuation of civilians from the city. On Thursday, at least two Russian attacks hit the city of Zaporizhzhia, a staging post for people fleeing Mariupol, although no one was injured, the regional governor said.
Parry called the steel mill decision a change in “operational approach” as Russia seeks to learn from its mistakes in the eight-week-old conflict, which began with expectations of a lightning offensive that would crush Ukraine’s outgunned and outnumbered forces and would conquer Kyiv. Instead, Moscow’s troops became entangled in an unexpectedly tough resistance with increasing casualties and withdrew from the capital.
For weeks, Russian officials have said conquering Donbass, Ukraine’s predominantly Russian-speaking industrial east, is the war’s main objective. Moscow’s forces this week opened the new phase of the war – a deadly push along a 480-kilometer front from the northeastern city of Kharkiv to the Sea of Azov – to do just that.
“They realized that if they get held up in these really sticky areas like Mariupol, they can’t cover the rest of the ground,” Parry said.
In Luhansk, one of two regions that make up Donbass, the governor said Russian forces control 80% of his region. Before Russia invaded on February 24, the Kiev government controlled 60% of Luhansk.
Britain’s Defense Ministry said Russia is likely to want to show significant achievements ahead of Victory Day on May 9, the proudest day on the Russian calendar, marking Nazi Germany’s defeat in World War II.
“This could impact how quickly and vigorously they attempt to conduct operations leading up to that date,” the ministry said.
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Associated Press journalists Mstyslav Chernov and Felipe Dana in Kharkiv, Ukraine; Yesica Fish in Kramatorsk, Ukraine; Danica Kirka in London; and Robert Burns and Aamer Madhani in Washington contributed to this report, as did other AP staffers around the world.
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Follow AP’s coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine