Statement from Putin at a Kremlin meeting in the past few hours, saying they have decided
not to storm the Azovstal steelworks at Mariupol and are telling their forces to stand down and blockade the steelworks instead
This is a reversal from Shoigu and Kadyrov's plan to take full control of Mariupol and eliminate all resistance.
They could have stormed the area and engaged in brutal fighting with high casualties, or they could have bombarded it and expended inordinate ordnance and probably not killed all the azov holdouts underground. Putin isn't pretending to cite humanitarian justification, he said that the plan was "impractical", so we can assume the casualty projections were too high. Since Azov probably doesn't have much if any food reserves, being blockaded and under siege with no escape means they can't last more than a few weeks. Maybe we'll see nazi cannibals
Quote
“This is the case when we have to think, that is, we always have to think, and in this case even more so, about preserving the lives and health of our soldiers and officers,” Putin said. “There is no need to climb into these catacombs and crawl underground through these industrial facilities.”
Real life nazi cannibals here we go
This post was edited by Goomshill on Apr 21 2022 03:17am