Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered his troops to seal off Ukrainian defenders inside the besieged port city of Mariupol.
Mr Putin told forces to abandon plans to storm the sprawling Azovstal steel works there, where Ukraine is still resisting the invaders.
But a leader of the controversial Azov battalion said, Mr Putin “has just admitted their possible defeat”.
“They’re not able to occupy the Azovstal,” Maksym Zhorin said.
The Azovstal Iron and Steel Works – a massive, four sq-mile (10 sq km) plant in the south-east of the city – has become the last centre of Ukrainian resistance in Mariupol. Civilians as well as fighters are inside the plant.
Taking the port city is a key war aim for President Putin. It would give his forces a land bridge to Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula, which Russia occupied in 2014.
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But despite controlling most of the city, the Russians still have not dislodged the Ukrainian troops inside the Azovstal works.
‘So that a fly cannot pass through’
At a televised meeting with Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu on Thursday, Mr Putin officially cancelled plans to assault the works and ordered instead that the area be sealed off.
“Block off this industrial area so that a fly cannot not pass through,” he said.
“There is no need to climb into these catacombs and crawl underground through these industrial facilities,” he said, while praising Mr Shoigu for the successful operation to “liberate Mariupol” from Ukraine.
It comes after weeks of Russian bombardment of the area, and repeated demands for Ukrainian troops within to surrender.
