Vladimir Putin has praised his troops for ‘liberating’ the Ukrainian city of Mariupol as Russian troops prepare to seal off the last area of resistance in the city.

The Russian president has ordered his troops to seal off the Azovstal steelworks plant, where the last remaining Ukrainian resistance in the city is located.

It is unclear how many Ukrainian fighters are in the plant; however, Msocow has estimated the figure at around 2,000.

There are also believed to be around 1,000 civilians in the plant.

Speaking at on Russian state media this morning, President Putin said he wanted the steelworks plant sealed off so that “a fly cannot pass through”.

In a televised event at the Kremlin, he said he no longer considered it necessary to capture the plant and ordered his defence minister to cancel a planned attack.

He said he was cancelling the attack to protect the lives of Russian soldiers.

“There is no need to climb into these catacombs and crawl underground through these industrial facilities,” he told his minister.

“Block off this industrial area so that a fly cannot pass through.”

Mariupol has been a key target for the Kremlin since the invasion began as taking the city would offer Russia a land corridor between Crimea and the Donbas region of Ukraine.

The city is also extremely important to Ukraine’s economy as it boasts the biggest port in the sea of Azov and is a key export hub for the country’s steel, coal and corn.

Just yesterday the commander of the Ukrainian troops barricaded in the steelworks warned his forces would not be able to “hold out for much longer”.

If Moscow now decides to move troops away from Mariupol to continue the offence on the rest of the Donbas, the troops could get an opportunity to break out of the plant.

It is believed that tens of thousands of people are still trapped inside Mariupol with little food, water or access to medical supplies.