Russia’s defense ministry said on Friday that Ukrainian fighters and foreign mercenaries had been “securely blockaded” at the Azovstal steel plant where they have been holding out in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol, Euronews reports.
President Vladimir Putin had ordered his defense minister on Thursday to block off the vast Azovstal complex “so not even a fly can get through” rather than try to storm it.
The defense ministry also said Russia had hit dozens of targets in the Donetsk and Kharkiv regions of Ukraine on Friday.
In a statement, the ministry referred to the remaining fighters of Ukraine’s Azov battalion, holed up in the steel plant, as Nazis.
“All remnants of the Ukrainian ‘Azov’ Nazis, together with foreign mercenaries from the United States and European countries, are securely blockaded on the territory of the Azovstal plant,” it said.
“The Nazis are ignoring our demands to release the women and children allegedly with them to travel freely in any direction.”
The defense ministry said the situation in Mariupol, a city which had been reduced to ruins in the worst devastation of the eight-week war, had “returned to normal” and humanitarian aid was being delivered.