Putin Stops Mariupol Plant Assault As Ukrainians Foil Attacks

Russian President Vladimir Putin has stopped an assault on a Mariupol steel plant and declared the offensive a success after killing up to 10,000 civilians in the city and absorbing more casualties as 2,000 Ukrainian defenders conduct guerrilla-type operations from nearby areas and stage attacks from a warren of underground positions.

Photo Insert: The Azovstal Iron and Steel Works plant

To mask his fear of getting more Russian and Chechen soldiers killed, Putin said that no one at the besieged Azovstal Iron and Steel Works plant would be allowed to escape, and told troops to “block the industrial zone so that even a fly couldn’t get through," the Washington Post reported.

Parents of crewmen killed when Ukraine blasted the Russian missile cruiser Moskva have slammed Putin for not recovering the bodies of sailors killed as Neptune missiles unleashed by Ukraine slammed into the 12,500-ton flagship of the Black Sea Fleet, sinking it quickly, contrary to the claim of Putin that all crew members were saved.

Of the 510 sailors on board the ship, only 47 were rescued by a Turkish boat, CNN and the Associated Press (AP) also reported.

The full capture of Mariupol, which has been besieged by Russian forces for weeks, is a central part of Moscow's plans to cut Ukraine off from the Sea of Azov and forge a land bridge connecting Russian-annexed Crimea to Russia, Reuters reported.

Ramzan Kadyrov, the leader of Russia's Chechnya region whose forces have been fighting in Mariupol, had suggested that the vast Azovstal facility, which covers more than 11 square kilometers (4.25 square miles), would be stormed after Ukrainian forces holed up inside ignored Russian offers to surrender.

Fighting continues in the city and drones, anti-aircraft, and anti-tank missiles the Ukrainians have deployed are destroying convoys sent to encircle the city.

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