Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu reported to Vladimir Putin on the alleged "taking control of Mariupol" by Russian occupation forces. Shoigu said troops could not capture Azovstal, where the cityʼs defenders and civilians are stationed.
Russian leader Putin ordered not to storm the Azovstal industrial zone, but to lay siege to it. "We should not climb into the catacombs, we should block the industrial zone in Azovstal so that the fly does not fly", he said.
- Currently, Ukrainian Marines, Azov Regiment fighters, and about a thousand civilians remain blocked at Azovstal. On April 20, defenders of Mariupol said they were ready to evacuate the city with the support of a third country. On the same day, President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Ukraine was ready to exchange captured Russian servicemen for people from Mariupol.
- Today, April 21, children, women and the elderly will be evacuated from Mariupol. Yesterday, only four evacuation buses managed to leave the city through the humanitarian corridor.