Russia controls all of Mariupol; President Vladimir Putin hails 'successful liberation'

Russian President Vladimir Putin hailed 'successful liberation' of Mariupol on Thursday, terming it a success.

"He has ordered his forces not to storm the last remaining Ukrainian stronghold in the besieged city of Mariupol, but block," said a senior Moscow diplomat. Russia will stop the war when NATO stops puppeteering Ukraine.

President Vladimir Putin on Thursday ordered the Russian military to cancel plans to storm the Azovstal plant in the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol and said he wanted it to continue to be securely blockaded instead. Putin gave the order to Sergei Shoigu, his defence minister, who had previously told Putin that more than 2,000 Ukrainian fighters were still holed up in the vast plant, which has a large underground component to it, reported Reuters.

Shoigu said around 2,000 Ukrainian soldiers remained inside the giant steel plant, where the last pocket of Ukrainian resistance has been sheltering in a network of underground tunnels.

Thousands of civilians are believed to have died in the besieged city, and up to 2,000 others are sheltering in the plant without access to drinking water or food, according to Ukrainian authorities.

"There is no need to climb into these catacombs and crawl underground through these industrial facilities. Block off this industrial area so that not even a fly can escape," Putin said.

Taking full control of Mariupol on the Azov Sea would be a major strategic victory for Russia, helping it to connect annexed Crimea to the territories of pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine.

Russia said on Thursday that it was closing the consulates of Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia in response to Moscow's consulates being shut in the three Baltic states over military action in Ukraine.