Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday morning welcomed the fall of the besieged city of Mariupol.
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Earlier Thursday, a top Putin ally said Mariupol would be under Russian control "before lunchtime, or after lunch."
Mariupol is the biggest city to be seized by Russia since it invaded Ukraine eight weeks ago in an attack that has taken longer than some military analysts expected, seen over five million people flee abroad and turned cities to rubble.
Video: Reuters
"Before lunchtime, or after lunch, Azovstal will be completely under the control of the forces of the Russian Federation," Ramzan Kadyrov, the head of Russia's republic of Chechnya, whose forces have been fighting in Ukraine, said of the steel plant.
Putin on Thursday ordered the Russian military to cancel plans to storm the Azovstal plant and said he wanted it to continue to be hermetically blockaded instead.
Putin gave the order to Sergei Shoigu, his defense 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.
"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."
Putin said his decision not to storm the Azovstal plant was motivated by the desire to safeguard the lives of Russian soldiers.
Ukraine's defense ministry was not immediately available for comment. Its general staff said in an early Thursday update that missile and bomb strikes continued across the country.
The southeastern port city of Mariupol has endured the fiercest fighting of the war as besieging Russian forces try to take full control. Its capture would be a big strategic prize and would link territory held by pro-Russian separatists in the east with the Crimea region that Moscow annexed in 2014.
A few dozen civilians managed to leave the city on Wednesday in a small bus convoy, according to Reuters witnesses.
A Ukrainian marine commander, Serhiy Volny, said fighters at the steel works may not be able to hold out for much longer. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said an estimated 1,000 civilians are sheltering there.
Ukraine was ready for a "special round of negotiations" with no conditions "to save our guys ... military, civilians, children, the living and the wounded," Ukrainian negotiator Mykhailo Podolyak said on Twitter.
Meanwhile, the Kremlin said it submitted a draft of its demands for ending the war, and the West raced to supply Ukraine with heavier weapons to counter the Russians' new drive to seize the industrial east.
With global tensions running high, Russia reported the first successful test launch of a new type of intercontinental ballistic missile, the Sarmat. Putin boasted that it can overcome any missile defense system and make those who threaten Russia "think twice." The head of the Russian state aerospace agency called the launch out of northern Russia "a present to NATO."
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The Pentagon described the test as "routine" and said it wasn't considered a threat.
Meanwhile, US President Joe Biden is set to announce plans to send additional military aid to help Ukraine fight back against the Russian invasion, according to a US official.
The official said Biden will deliver a Thursday morning address at the White House detailing his plans to build on the roughly $2.6 billion in military assistance the administration has already approved for Ukraine.
The new package is expected to be similar in size to the $800 million package Biden announced last week. It includes much needed heavy artillery and ammunition for Ukrainian forces in the escalating battle for the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine.
Earlier this week, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also said his country would send heavy artillery to Ukraine. And Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte told Zelenskyy that the Netherlands will send more heavy weapons, including armored vehicles.
A senior US defense official on Wednesday said training of Ukrainian personnel on American 155mm howitzers has begun in a European country outside Ukraine.
