Russia-Ukraine crisis updates | April 21, 2022

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 hermetically blockaded instead. They all need to be pulled out of Azovstal today,” Vereshchuk said in an online post.-Reuters Mariupol, Ukraine Putin tells forces not to storm Ukraine holdout in Mariupol Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his forces not to storm the last remaining Ukrainian stronghold in the besieged city of Mariupol on Thursday but instead to block it "so that not even a fly comes through.” His defense minister, Sergei Shoigu, said the rest of the city beyond the sprawling Azovstal steel plant where Ukrainian forces were holed has been “liberated” — as Russian officials refer to areas of Ukraine they have seized. Another attempt to evacuate civilians from Mariupol will be made Thursday, Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said.-AP Russia Putin cancels Russian plans to storm Mariupol steel plant, opts for blockade instead 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. In the southern Kherson region, which Russia has claimed to fully control, the Russian military “plan to organize the forced mobilization of the population for war with Ukraine,” as well as cut off “humanitarian support of the region from the Ukrainian authorities,” the General Staff said.-AP Russia Top Putin ally says Russia will capture Mariupol on Thursday A top ally of President Vladimir Putin said Russian forces will seize the last main stronghold of resistance in the besieged city of Mariupol on Thursday, after Ukraine proposed talks on evacuating troops and civilians there. It includes much needed heavy artillery and ammunition for Ukrainian forces in the escalating battle for the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine.-AP Ukraine ‘Days or hours left’: Russia tightens the noose in Mariupol Russian forces tightened the noose around the defenders holed up Wednesday in a mammoth steel plant that represented the last known Ukrainian stronghold in Mariupol, as a fighter apparently on the inside pleaded on a video for help: “We may have only a few days or hours left.” With the holdouts coming under punishing new bombing attacks, another attempt to evacuate civilians trapped in the pulverized port city failed because of continued fighting.