Russia claimed on Friday to have captured Mariupol's Azovstal steel plant, where the final pocket of Ukrainian resistance was defending the bombarded port city.
The steel plant was completely liberated on Friday with the surrender of 531 Ukrainian fighters, according to a Russian defense ministry spokesman.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu told President Putin that Russian forces were in control of Mariupol.
Many of the Ukrainian soldiers were evacuated from the steel plant this week as Russian forces closed in on Mariupol. Humanitarian convoys were used earlier in May to evacuate civilians.
The capture of Mariupol marks the end of a months-long devastating siege on the southern port city that officials say has left thousands of civilians dead, as the city's defenders and thousands of civilians sheltered in the steel complex built when.
The fighters were held out for weeks longer than expected and denied Russia a victory before the May 9 celebrations in Russia. In late April, Putin called off the assault on Azovstal and demanded Ukrainians surrender. The commander of forces inside Azovstal told Insider that he would not surrender.
The city of Mariupol was reduced to rubble by a bombing campaign.
Russia wanted to establish a land corridor from occupied Crimea to the eastern Donbas region, and Azovstal was the final stand in the strategic city.
The translations are by Oleksandr Vynogradov.
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