Russian forces take Azovstal plant administration building in Mariupol - Kadyrov - TASS

Administration building of the Azovstal plant in Mariupol and the adjacent territory is under control of Russian forces, Head of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov said in his Telegram channel Thursday.

"Mariupol is ours!.. The city has been taken definitively and completely… The strategically important administration building of the Azovstal plant has been taken under control, and all adjacent territory has been cleared," Kadyrov said, adding that what little remains of Ukrainian nationalists "have been blocked under a thick layer of concrete and steel inside the plant."

According to Kadyrov, once the city’s defenses were breached, "such outcome was unavoidable," even despite the complications that Russian forces had because the nationalists used civilians as hostages and picked firing positions near or inside residential buildings.

"Because of this, elimination missions were twice as difficult. Civilian losses could not have been allowed, but a threat [had to be] eliminated. Response measures have been conceived and later implemented in the shortest time span," Kadyrov said.

Earlier on Thursday, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu reported to President Vladimir Putin that Russian and Donetsk People’s Republic forces liberated the city of Mariupol. According to Shoigu, the remaining nationalists hid in the Azovstal industrial area.