Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register April 16 (Reuters) – Russia’s Defense Ministry announced on Saturday that it had cleared the entire urban area of Mariupol of Ukrainian forces and said only a handful of fighters remained at the Azovstal steel plant, the site of repeated clashes. In a web post, the ministry said that since April 16, Ukrainian forces in the besieged port city had lost more than 4,000 people, the RIA added. Russian forces have been trying for several weeks to seize the port, which is located in the Sea of Azov, a body of water in the northeast of the Black Sea. Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register “The entire urban area of Mariupol has been completely cleared … remnants of the Ukrainian group are currently completely blocked on the territory of the Azovstal metallurgical plant,” the ministry said. “Their only chance to save their lives is to voluntarily lay down their arms and surrender.” There was no immediate reaction from Kyiv to the Russian ministry’s statement, which also said 1,464 Ukrainian troops had been handed over so far. Moscow said the total number of “irreparable losses” suffered by Ukraine totaled 23,367, but did not provide any information or say whether it included only those who had lost their lives or who had also been injured. (This story corrects to make it clear that Mariupol is in the Sea of Azov, not the Black Sea) Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register Report by David Ljunggren. Edited by Cynthia Osterman Our role models: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
