Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, as reported by Reuters, informed President Vladimir Putin this morning that the country's army had captured the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol, and that 2.000 Ukrainians remained in the "Azovstal" ironworks and that the plant was "successfully blocked".
As reported by France Press, Putin welcomed the Russian "liberation" of Mariupol and ordered that the zone around Azovstal be blocked "so that not even a fly can escape".
Reuters adds that he also said that Russia guarantees the lives of Ukrainian troops who leave the facility, and that they will be treated with respect.
On the other hand, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Irina Vereshchuk asked Russia to urgently allow the evacuation of civilians and wounded soldiers who are in the besieged ironworks through the humanitarian corridor.
"There are about 1.000 civilians and 500 wounded soldiers there. They all have to be pulled out of Azovstal today," Vereshchuk said in an online post, as reported by Reuters.
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