Russian president Vladimir Putin has ordered his invading forces not to storm the last remaining Ukrainian stronghold in the besieged southern city of Mariupol, instead instructing troops to block the port “so that not even a fly comes through”.
His defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, said the rest of the city had been “liberated” and that the sprawling Azovstal Iron and Steel Works, a four square mile labyrinth of tunnels and bunkers, remained “securely blocked”.
