Ukraine war: Zelensky disputes Russian claim Mariupol has fallen, as mass grave images emerge
- Russia on Thursday said it had ‘liberated’ Mariupol, with just a few thousand Ukrainian soldiers left in the Azovstal plant complex
- New satellite images show what appear to be mass graves near Mariupol that local officials say could hold as many as 9,000 dead
Putin appeared on Russian state television on Thursday with Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu to announce that he was rescinding the order to storm Mariupol’s Azovstal steel plant, where a few thousand remaining Ukrainian forces in the city are surrounded, adding that he now planned to seal the plant “so that not even a fly can get in or out”.
Putin also reiterated his demand that the encircled Ukrainian fighters in the city lay down their weapons and surrender if they wanted to escape with their lives. About 1,000 civilians were also trapped in the plant, according to Ukrainian officials.
The city continues to resist the Russians, Zelensky said in a video message early Friday, “despite what the occupiers say about them”.
Mariupol, a major port in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region, sits between areas held by Russian separatists and Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula Moscow seized in 2014. Capturing the city would allow Russia to link the two areas.
Even as Putin claims his first big prize since his forces were driven away from the capital Kyiv and northern Ukraine last month, it falls short of the unambiguous victory Moscow has sought after months of combat in a city reduced to rubble.