Vladimir Putin has scrapped plans to bombard Mariupol’s sprawling Azovstal steel plant – the last bastion of Ukrainian resistance within the shattered southern port city.
Instead, the Russian President has ordered his soldiers to seal up the four square-mile building – with the final 2,000 Ukrainian fighters inside – so that not even “a fly gets through”.
Holed up in the plant is the 36th Marine Brigade, whose commander, Maj Serhiy Volyna, insists his troops will not surrender, as well as the controversial Azov Brigade – a Ukrainian militia linked to far-right nationalists. According to Volyna, there are also 500 wounded soldiers and hundreds of women and children hiding alongside them.Â
