The latest on the Russia–Ukraine crisis, May 5. Click here for updates from May 4.
Russia Denies Troops Storming Azovstal, Says Putin Order Still Stands
The Kremlin denied that Russian troops were storming the Azovstal steel plant in Ukraine’s southern port city of Mariupol, where Ukrainian fighters and civilians are trapped, and said humanitarian corridors were operating there on Thursday.
Asked if a claim by a senior Ukrainian official that Russian troops had broken into the plant’s territory was true, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov referred reporters to President Vladimir Putin’s previous order not to storm it.
Putin was shown on television on April 21 telling his defense minister instead to seal off the vast complex so “a fly can’t pass through”.
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