Failure to end Ukrainian resistance in Mariupol ‘hampering Russian advance’

Russian president Vladimir Putin listens during a meeting of the Russia the Land of Opportunity Supervisory Board at the Kremlin on Wednesday. Picture: Mikhail Tereshchenko, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP

The failure of Russian forces to take the last pocket of Ukrainian resistance in the besieged city of Mariupol is hampering their latest offensive, Western officials have said.

President Vladimir Putin has said his forces would seek to seal off the vast Azovstal steel works, where Ukrainian marines have been holding out, rather than risk storming it.