Battle for Mariupol: Russia claims victory, Ukraine denies

Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed victory Thursday in the battle for Mariupol, even as he ordered his troops not to take the risk of storming the giant steel plant where the last Ukrainian defenders in the city were holed up in a maze of underground passages.

Instead, Putin directed his forces to seal off the Azovstal plant “so that not even a fly comes through”.

After nearly two lethal months of bombardment that have largely reduced Mariupol to a smoking ruin, Russian forces appear to control the rest of the strategic southern city, including its vital but now badly damaged port.

But 2,000 Ukrainian troops, by Moscow's estimate, have stubbornly held out for weeks at the sprawling plant, despite a pummelling from Russian forces and repeated demands for their surrender. About 1,000 civilians were also trapped there, according to Ukrainian officials.

Instead of sending troops in to finish off the defenders in a potentially bloody frontal assault, Russia apparently intends to maintain the siege and wait for the fighters to surrender when they run out of food or ammunition.

Also watch: Over 9,000 bodies in a mass grave near Mariupol: Ukraine

Mayor Vadym Boychenko rejected any notion that Mariupol had fallen into Russian hands.

The capture of Mariupol would represent the Kremlin's biggest victory yet of the war in Ukraine. It would help Moscow secure more of the coastline, complete a land bridge between Russia and the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia seized in 2014, and free up more forces to join the larger and potentially more consequential battle now underway for Ukraine's eastern industrial heartland, the Donbas.