Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday said the southeastern city of Mariupol has been “liberated” except for the Azovstal steel plant, where the Russian military estimates are about 2,000 Ukrainian soldiers.
In a meeting with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, Putin called off a planned assault on the Azovstal steel plant, which has a sprawling network of underground tunnels. Putin said assaulting the plant wasn’t worth risking the lives of Russian soldiers. “There is no need to climb into these catacombs and crawl underground through these industrial facilities,” he said.
Instead of the assault, Putin ordered the steel plant to be put under blockade so “not even a fly comes through.” Putin also said to offer the Ukrainian forces another chance to surrender.
“Offer anyone, who has not laid down their arms yet, to do that,” Putin said, according to RT, adding that those who surrender will be spared their lives. According to Ukrainian officials, there are also civilians trapped at the steel plant.
Among the Ukrainian forces holding out in the plant is the neo-Nazi Azov Battalion, which is part of Ukraine’s National Guard. In comments to The Washington Post, Svyatoslav Palamar, Azov’s deputy commander, rejected Putin’s claims of victory in Mariupol but also admitted his troops needed to be evacuated.
“There’s no strength to support the garrison and Mariupol … We insist on the help of a third country to guarantee the safe exit of the garrison, to the territory of a third country,” Palamar said.
On Wednesday, Ukrainian officials offered to hold special talks with Russia to reach a deal on evacuating the Ukrainian troops and civilians that are still in Mariupol.
I saw that video, Putin was back at a small table. What happened to the big table? Did they need the wood for coffins?
Nah, they don’t need it, they use mass graves. He probably used his table to patch up some of his tanks. Lol.
You feel sorry for dead Nazis? I bet your grandfather didn’t.
Oh please, that is not a very funny joke. Unlike the Russians, the Ukies are killing all and sundry in their panic. Russia had done what is needed and will await the outcome. Kiev insists on the trapped men NOT surrendering. A wonderful democratic country, full of compassion and decency, of course.
I thought it was pretty funny, but then I remember the Russians put you in a zinc box. Here in the West we are seeing all kinds of gruesome pictures of what Russian “liberation” means to the liberated, mass graves everywhere.
Sure – in your wildest dreams.
Those photos are easy to fake, like Ze’s scripts and setups from his acting career pretending the “atrocities” are the Russkies’ work.
They were using it for all the Uki surrenderers
Russia has thousands of square miles of forest. A little education about Russia would have prevented your question.
Ah plenty of wood for coffins.
They would probably make the UKrainian nazis pay for the wood , though.
What’s wrong with a big table – you have issues with large things?
Sure. For Ukrainians and Russians. But you don’t have a problem with death, just as long as Russia is destroyed on the cheap. You and the two Don’s should form a club. You could call it: “Pretending to give a shit about Ukrainians”.
There is no end to fantasy talk coming from Ukraine and Western allies. Who are the civilians waiting to leave Mariupol? The town was 99% Russian populated in 2014. In spite of all the efforts to discriminate against native population, there is no major change to population makeup. In Mariupol they are flying imd Soviet flags, the ones that Sovjet Army flew iver Berlin.
It will be difficult politically for Rusdian government to allow these forces to go, as many are known for committing attrocities during the fight for Mariupol.
At the moment Russia is destoring electricity and other mynucipal services. Peoplev will come back only if assured that Russia will never turn the city back to Ukraine.
We have a big problem. Every dsy we lose more and more of informed sources. All that is left are some Indian and Chinnese sources of reliable informatiion.
nobody is going to go back, Ukraine is a dead man’s land.
as for the Steel plant, no more news drones ? -but I am sure Russia reviewed the news footage on NBZ this week! Thanks, You complete them!
This is no Masada stalemate: offers to surrender were made, it is Zekenski that drew the line of policy on surrender and he needs those in the steel plant to stand their ground!
Pat Robertson has declared that Russia is Gog and that God put hooks in their mouths as Ezekiel 38:4 says of Gog only Gog leaves its northern military muster to head South, not west. There is nothing to substantial to back up any other behavior in scripture and no way is Russia Gog.
These lemmings, these rabid zealots believe our snakeoil that Russia is Gog. Or military prep and plans reflect that. These inked Nazis think they are serving God in defense. More like they Serve Gog -a confederacy of Nazis in and around NATO.
LET THEM ROT if they are suicidal lemmings.
They are Zekenski’s Judas Goat and are completely acceptable sacrifices in that way for more campaigning of international helps and sympathy.
The Ukrainians are in some kind of cultish blood oath effect and they cannot go back on their oaths. Robertson Sheppard’d these suicidal nazified goons.
Zelenski blamed the world before for deaths and now he will not negotiate peace.
Let them Nazis rot.
They won’t let Azov go. I suspect there are quite a few NATO troops and commanders down there as well, hence the refusal to surrender and reveal that.
Nazis are there.
What is NATO doing arming and abetting NAZIS?
Russian definition of liberated city; completely leveled. Lol Good job, Putin. Now go denazify your own country.
Just like we’ve done against little weak cities.
As reporters on the ground interviewing civilians prove, most of the damage was caused by Azov Nazis (their term) putting artillery and tanks among civilian buildings, schools, and hospitals to draw Russian fire.
Putin is now doing a hitler where he is micro-managing tactics. The downfall of all amateur generals. Down will he go, its guaranteed now. 6 months from now, he will suicide.
You poor coot. Try reading real news.
While deganamida’s comment makes no sense, there is some analogy between Mariupol and Stalingrad. To tie down Soviet forces Hitler ordered the defense of Stalingrad even after that city was totally surrounded by the Red Army and the German soldiers had zero chance of breaking out. I believe that Zelinsky does not order the fighters in that plant at Mariupol, which is totally surrounded, to surrender to tie down Russian forces.
Except by several orders of magnitude; Stalingrad involved the surrender of some 250,000 Germans, tying down close to 1 million Soviet troops. Mariupol maybe 2000 Ukrainians, if that; tying down what, 1 or 2 battalion groups of Russians? IF Zelinsky is really going to go the “fight to the last man” route, I think that speaks more to his desperation than to the Russians. It also puts the lie to the Ukrainian claims of having taken large numbers of Russian prisoners; IF that were remotely true, they’d be offering an exchange, as the Azovites are among the few reliable troops Zelensky really has.
Mostly Chechens actually. In either case Putin is taking his time to preserve as much vital infrastructure as possible including this steel plant.
great points.
Zelenski and his political party are in a masonic/religious oath framework.
A die-for oath.
A Religous oath.
A conviction of service to a deity that cannot betrayed oath.
A death wish pact.
A Blood oath for blood sport.
USA RR went there and beat the drum over Gog and Uki self preservation in Gog’s country . The result were Pat’s Nazis War party and spreading Fascism in europe.
The greatest generation is about dead and the grandchildren see no problem in fascism or a Nazi branding: they have rights too
great points.
Zelenski and his political party are in a masonic/religious oath framework.
A die-for oath.
A Religous oath.
A conviction of service to a deity that cannot betrayed oath.
A death wish pact.
A Blood oath for blood sport.
USA RR went there and beat the drum over Gog and Uki self preservation in Gog’s country . The result were Pat’s Nazis War party and spreading Fascism in europe.
The greatest generation is about dead and the grandchildren see no problem in fascism or a Nazi branding: they have rights too
and there is a short direct correlation to Nazis and the party in power in Ukraine.
Finland, Sweden, Germany and Poland and USA have political parties aligned with Nazis.
Do you know what happens to Gog?
It is overseas as a military force but they do not live there, the Gog false prophet is in Israel, not at his dying wife’s side .
Gog’s homeland gets the full force of a solar flare, a
real ripper.
No Sun, no moonlight and lots of darkness and smoke.
Dreamy huh? Stars fall from heaven too but they are a man made constellation locally.
Out there everything is electromagneticly or electrostaticly coupled and too much of a load can mess up basic solar and planetary functions. What makes untenable conditions on earth will also blow back our space junk like stars falling from heaven.
No, he does it out of real cruelty and/or fear of his bosses.
You arrogant ignorant sod. Who are you with your rose-colored glasses to judge my view? [real news]? What are you. Like 11 years old?
Your view is Putin will fall in six months. That has no basis in reality. Putin will be in office long after Biden is gone.
Your not very bright either nor are you or familiar with deductive reasoning. But go on and keep making obtuse statements that are distorted and surreal. Its apparently your one trait you do well..
Sutenin, you’re a little Finnish Fascist Flubot programming Nazi living in the USA.
go back and live there with your browbeating rhetoric of misogyny and sexual deviancy. No self respecting woman here wants you and your sounding like a racist rapist.
This side of earth is going to get some sun, get its hair blown back.
Go there and live your dream, to the same denomination Anders Breivik was in, maybe you can find a woman of your dreams there?
A boy with a big gun between his hands to compensate for a little one between his legs is so so sad…
While the US borrows or prints a billion dollars a day to pour into fight? I’m not sure you realize who is being bled here.
‘While the US borrows or prints a billion dollars a day to pour into fight?’ Your math is way off though i 100% agree with your gist.
Zelenski is performing a Steelhaus Putsch using his people as nonnegotiable goods.
While claiming to defend democracy, Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky has outlawed his opposition, ordered his rivals’ arrest, and presided over the disappearance and assassination of dissidents across the country.
https://thegrayzone.com/2022/04/17/traitor-zelensky-assassination-kidnapping-arrest-political-opposition/
Mariupol”liberated” of course in inverted commas, as if the usual news is true.
The “demands” for safe evacuation of the Azov Battalion are absurd. They had best surrender now, else whatever happens is of their own making. I am no supporter of Russia, and I think the invasion is wrong, but the Azovites are die-hard neo-nazis, who committed their share of war crimes in the Donbass fighting over the last 8 years, and deserve whatever happens to them.
They likely have human shields amongst them as is typical.
I would believe anything about the Azovites; but the US media will portray them as “heroic freedom fighters”; in the same way we portrayed Al Qaeda and Nusra Front as “heroic patriots” in their battle against Assad in Syria. Yet these same media and governmental propagandists will cry “treason!”, “disinformation!”, and “russian troll!” at anyone that questions their dishonest narrative. And NO, I don’t support Russia, but the truth is the truth; it used to mean something.
Little pissant terrorists sure make a lot of demands.
Russia does not want to destroy the steel plant. There is no escape for Ukraine/NATO troops trapped down there. They can starve or surrender. My only concern is they are holding human shields hostage down there.
There are no NATO troops there.
They bombed all around it.
The infrastructure to support the plant labor is all gone.
It seemed like Russia was going to leave the plant alone and it seemed like they might want it for themselves but Where do you think looked like a great place to hang out? A: the plant
There is feedback that they have no intentions to sweep the plant or to secure it. If it becomes a Nazi tomb then it is a Nazi Memorial and that will have to go.
Every one in there is either there by order or freewill. Women, children too: As Azov Hostages or sympathizers, they need to leave the conscripts fighting this war. This is not Martyrdom, it is cult suicide.
Russia can starve the fascist Azov fighters and remaining mercenaries.
Then they can eat each other like the rats that they are.