“It is only propaganda to affirm as Putin does that Mariupol is conquered, also in light of the fact that the Azovstal steel plant remains in the hands of the Ukrainians. He takes her for a ride because he probably thinks he has time to do it. But it also means that on May 9 Putin will not parade in the city ”. Following the statement by the Russian president together with Defense Minister Shoigu, that he does not want to attack the Azovstal steel plant, where it is estimated that two thousand Ukrainian fighters are barricaded, while keeping it under strict siege, the Italian general Carlo Jean, speaking with Adnkronos , declares that, “although it is difficult to get inside Putin’s head, there may actually be the will to force the Ukrainian military to surrender through the blockade, forced to do so before they die of hunger and hardship”. The second possibility, according to Jean, is that “Putin wanted to recover as much as possible the men and means that were employed in Mariupol to use them in other attacks in the Donbass, where it seems that the Russian forces encounter considerable difficulties, given that their numerical superiority does not it is so overwhelming compared to the Ukrainians’ willingness to resist, that with the new weapons they have at their disposal, in particular American anti-tank Javelins and ‘kamikaze’ drones, they are inflicting heavy losses on them. The pincer that was supposed to surround the Ukrainian forces is practically at a standstill and the Russian ones are forced into frontal fighting in which they demonstrate all the lack of training and logistics, the same that had led to the disaster of the offensive on Kiev ”. “Azostal is a city within a city – explains the general and expert in military strategy – and it is difficult to enter the basement to find the defenders. It is necessary to see how many exits there are, because the Azov regiment is certainly well placed and if there are many exits they will try to fight back and put the Russian forces in a bad way. It also seems that the resistance is not only in the steel plant – he adds – but in various points of the city, even if I find it difficult for an attack by the Ukrainian army on Mariupol, since it would have to act with a complex of forces too large to be able to escape, with the lines of communication occupied, to Russian interception “. (by Cristiano Camera)