Putin calls off plan to storm Mariupol plant, opts for blockade instead
Source: Reuters
April 21 (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin called off plans for the Russian military to storm the sprawling Azovstal steel plant in the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol and said on Thursday he wanted Ukrainian forces there to be hermetically sealed in instead. The full capture of Mariupol, which has been besieged by Russian forces for weeks, is a central part of Moscow's plans to cut Ukraine off from the Sea of Azov and forge a land bridge connecting Russian-annexed Crimea to Russia.
Ramzan Kadyrov, the leader of Russia's Chechnya region whose forces have been fighting in Mariupol, had suggested that the vast Azovstal facility, which covers more than 11 square kilometres (4.25 square miles), would be stormed after Ukrainian forces holed up inside ignored Russian offers to surrender. But Putin, in a Kremlin meeting with Sergei Shoigu, his defence minister, gave the order to call off the plan to storm it, saying it was better to save the lives of Russian soldiers and officers and to sit back and wait while Ukrainian forces ran out of supplies.
"I consider the proposed storming of the industrial zone unnecessary," Putin told Shoigu in a televised meeting at the Kremlin. "I order you to cancel it. There is no need to climb into these catacombs and crawl underground through these industrial facilities," he told Shoigu. "Block off this industrial area so that a fly cannot not pass through."
Putin called on the remaining Ukrainian fighters in Azovstal to lay down their arms, saying Russia would treat them with respect and provide medical assistance to those injured. Shoigu had earlier told Putin that more than 2,000 Ukrainian fighters were still holed up in the plant and that it might take three or four days to take control of the facility.
Read more: https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/putin-cancels-russian-plans-storm-mariupol-steel-plant-opts-blockade-instead-2022-04-21/
= new reply since forum marked as read
He has no confidence that his army can take it. Afraid of looking worse than he/they already do. Just a thought..... could be setting up a "Leningrad" for the Ukrainians 
Wouldn't that be wonderful from a propaganda standpoint I mean?
I hope they get to turn south and save the people in that steel plant, get some air cover, and
kill every single Russian in their way who don't surrender.
How a Mariupol steel plant became a holdout for the city’s resistance
By Adam Taylor and Niha Masih
April 18, 2022 | Updated April 19, 2022 at 9:47 a.m. EDT
A satellite image shows Azovstal Iron and Steel Works in Mariupol, Ukraine, on April 9. (Maxar Technologies/Reuters)
Long before Mariupol’s Azovstal Iron and Steel Works became a key battleground in Ukraine, it played a dominant role in the port city’s economy. As one of the largest metallurgical factories in Europe, it pumped out more than 4 million tons of crude steel annually and provided livelihoods to tens of thousands of people.
But now, amid a devastating war and a weeks-long siege by Russian forces, the sprawling industrial park is no longer producing steel. Instead, the plant and its network of underground tunnels are serving as a shelter and final holdout for thousands of Ukrainian fighters, including many from the Azov Battalion, one of Ukraine’s most skilled — and controversial — military units. ... As many as 1,000 civilians are also hiding in the subterranean network, Mariupol’s city council said Monday in a Telegram message.
Russia’s Defense Ministry on Tuesday repeated its demand that Ukrainian fighters inside the facility lay down their arms, giving them a new deadline of noon local time. The deadline passed without any apparent surrender. Ukrainian officials said that Russian forces were bombing not only Azovstal but also nearby residential areas.
Azovstal was originally constructed in the early Soviet era and was later rebuilt after the Nazi occupation of Mariupol between 1941 and 1943 left it in ruins. It now occupies four square miles along the city’s waterfront. ... “Under the city, there is basically another city,” Yan Gagin, an adviser with the pro-Moscow separatist group the Donetsk People’s Republic, told Russian state news network RIA Novosti over the weekend. ... Gagin complained that the site was designed to withstand bombings and blockades — and that it has an inbuilt communication system that strongly favors the defenders, even if they are far outnumbered.
{snip}
Ellen Francis contributed to this report.
By Adam Taylor
Adam Taylor writes about foreign affairs for The Washington Post. Originally from London, he studied at the University of Manchester and Columbia University. Twitter https://twitter.com/mradamtaylor
By Niha Masih
Niha Masih is an India-based correspondent for The Washington Post based in New Delhi. Before joining The Post in 2019, she reported on politics, conflict and religious fundamentalism in India for Hindustan Times and New Delhi Television (NDTV). Twitter https://twitter.com/NihaMasih
(from here - https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1014&pid=2887316)
Yet in 2022, Putin has been attempting to occupy the entirety of Ukraine with less than 1/3rd of the troops used in Desert Storm, where Ukraine has a pop. of ~43.5 million (over 20 times that of 1991 Kuwait, with Kuwait now at 4 million in 2022) and having an area that is over 33 times the size of Kuwait, at 233,000 sq. miles.
Add to this that Ukraine reportedly has one of the largest military forces in the area (with ~170,000 active duty), and this is all head-scratching, strongly suggesting why the Russian outreach to China.
And as an additional reply in that OP, I noted this - https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1014&pid=2887348
And yes - the "scale up" thing is glaring. And although as the USSR, up until the early 1990s, his nation did have control over that entire area (so there is some knowledge-base). But that was like 30 years ago and things have changed!
So what he is left doing as a "plausible" strategy is to attempt to "finish off" what has been going on for like 14 years battling the Ukraine military in the separatist areas with no meaningful progress, and then try to proclaim a "victory" as that being "what they wanted all along".
Meanwhile, Putin has created "killing fields" and missed a critical goal of any "warrior" by NOT trying to "salvage" some kind of booty there and instead opted to level the place that they wanted to occupy and control. The amount of money that would be needed to rebuild that city and its infrastructure is probably astronomical. I think I have seen reports quoting Zelenskyy as saying it would be upwards of $500 billion or more to repair much of the nation's infrastructure - just to start.
I am thinking that he was figuring he could work with China, who has spent decades creating, nurturing, and perfecting "rapid construction" teams out of their millions of inhabitants who go around the world to do that sort of thing. However I don't think that Putin figured the sanctions would exist (at least like they have), so even if China can provide construction workers to rebuild, he won't have $$$ to pay them.
3 hours ago
Anton Troianovski
Putin calls off an assault on the last Ukrainian holdout in Mariupol, and tries to claim a victory.
President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia called off an assault on a steel plant that has become Ukraine’s last redoubt in the port city of Mariupol, ordering Russian forces to blockade it instead, as he tried to claim a victory in one of the war’s bloodiest battles.
Sergei K. Shoigu, the Russian defense minister, told Mr. Putin in a meeting aired Thursday on state television that all of Mariupol was under Russian control except for the industrial zone of the Azov steel plant, where, he said, more than 2,000 Ukrainian fighters had taken refuge.
Mr. Shoigu told Mr. Putin that it would take “three to four days to finish the work” at the steel plant. Mr. Putin, in the tightly choreographed meeting, responded by calling the storming of the plant “impractical.”
“I order it to be canceled,” Mr. Putin said. “This is the case when we must think — that is, we must always think, but even more so in this case — about preserving the life and health of our soldiers and officers. There is no need to climb into these catacombs and crawl underground through these industrial facilities.”
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/04/21/world/ukraine-russia-war-news/putin-calls-off-an-assault-on-the-last-ukrainian-holdout-in-mariupol-and-tries-to-claim-a-victory
WaPo -
By Mary Ilyushina and Amar Nadhir 8:42 a.m.
Russia is claiming military victory in the key Ukrainian port city of Mariupol, although Ukrainian troops remain within the Azovstal steel plant.
“The Russian Armed Forces and the Donetsk People’s Republic militia have liberated Mariupol, and the remaining nationalists are hiding in the industrial zone of the Azovstal steelworks,” Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Thursday during a rare, televised one-on-one meeting with President Vladimir Putin.
Shoigu said that “around 2,000? Ukrainian troops remain in Azovstal and that the Russian army will need “three to four days” to wrap up military action at the plant.
Iryna Vereshchuk, a deputy prime minister for Ukraine, said “about 1,000 civilians and 500 wounded soldiers” remain, and she called for “an urgent humanitarian corridor” to evacuate them.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/04/21/russia-ukraine-war-news-mariupol-live-updates/#link-P5NYQETNDVCGZDVXJO6Z7VUO4Q
(yes I'm bothering you
)
somewhere around 200,000 troops defending Kaliningrad. Also, he has Belarus to bolster any deficits in troop strength. They have around 3-5 million troops. Plus, he apparently hired foreign fighters, and the Wagner Group. So, don't take it for granted that he doesn't have what he needs to take the coast and the Odesa Oblast.
He is anxious to take Odesa. He'll claim that Odesa wants to be Russian, and he'll commence to pound them, too. So, he has bottled up the steel factory in Mariupol, and plans to move on.
Now is the time to supply Ukraine with the best we've got. Because of the breakaway province in Moldova, defense of the South can be tricky. The ships apparently have moved out of range, but are they really? They need to be reduced to underwater historical sites.
Ukraine, 
