Russia assures that the Ukrainian military evacuated from Azovstal surrendered

This Monday, 265 Ukrainian soldiers defending the Azovstal steelworks, the last stronghold of resistance in the port city of Mariupol, were evacuated to the town of Olenevka, in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic. Among them were 51 with serious injuries, who were sent to a hospital in the town of Novoazovsk, also under the control of pro-Russian forces.

The Russian Defense Ministry assured this Tuesday that all of them surrendered. “In the last 24 hours, 265 fighters laid down their arms and surrendered, including 51 who were seriously wounded,” reads the Russian military statement. The same information was also released by the separatist authorities in Donetsk.

Meanwhile, the Ukrainian deputy prime minister, Irina Vereshuk, announced that the “humanitarian operation to save the defenders of Azovstal continues.” In the cellars of the steel mill, according to different sources, there could still be more than a thousand Ukrainian fighters from the “Azov” battalion, a unit that Moscow considers a “Nazi” group, of whom some 600 would be wounded.

However, the advisor to the Ukrainian Presidency, Mijailo Podoliak, admitted on Tuesday that the negotiations to exchange the Ukrainian prisoners of Azovstal “are being very difficult, although there is hope.” President Vladimir Putin, in need of some triumph to present to his citizens and who, when launching the current offensive in Ukraine, specified that one of his objectives is to “denazify” and “punish” the Ukrainian neo-Nazi extremists, is hardly going to accept the exchange of the fighters of the «Azov» battalion.

In fact, the Russian deputy and member of the Russian negotiating delegation in the frozen talks with Ukraine, Leonid Slutski, considered this Tuesday that the current moratorium in force in Russia on the death penalty should be ended so that it can be applied to members of the «Azov» battalion. In his opinion, “they do not deserve to live after the monstrous crimes against humanity that they have committed and continue to commit against our prisoners.”

Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov, however, told television cameras that Azovstal prisoners “will be treated in accordance with international standards.” “Everything will be fine, we are sure that we will win and achieve all our objectives in this operation. Our president knows where he is leading the country,” Peskov stressed.

Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Malyar said Monday night in relation to the military held by the Donbass rebel forces that “in order to achieve their return home, an exchange procedure will be carried out. With regard to the defenders still remaining in the Azovstal territory, the rescue measures will continue to be carried out with joint efforts.” In her words, «the defenders of Mariupol fully fulfilled the tasks assigned by their commanders. Unfortunately, we do not have a chance to liberate Azovstal by military means.” Malyar stressed that “now the most important common task for Ukraine and the whole world is to save the lives of the defenders of Mariupol.”

Similarly, the Ukrainian Army General Staff expressed itself in a statement: “The Mariupol garrison completed its combat mission. The highest military command issued an order to the commanders of the units located in Azovstal to save the lives of their troops.” Thanks to them, the note continues, “we were able to have the time we critically needed to create reserves, regroup forces and receive assistance from our allies. The defenders of Mariupol are the heroes of our time. They will forever be in history.”

For his part, the Ukrainian president, Volodímir Zelenski, stated that “our military have launched the operation to rescue the defenders of Mariupol (…) the work continues and delicacy is needed” for its successful completion. “Thanks to the actions of the Ukrainian army, intelligence, the negotiating team, the International Committee of the Red Cross and the UN, we hope we can save the lives of our boys,” Zelensky said.

The “humanitarian corridor” in Azovstal to evacuate Ukrainian servicemen willing to lay down their arms was organized on Monday by the Russian Defense Ministry. For this, a momentary ceasefire was declared. According to Moscow, the operation was agreed with the Ukrainian Army. Mariupol began to be attacked from the day after the beginning of the Russian invasion, on February 24, and has been besieged for almost two months. The city fell on April 21, but not the Azovstal steelworks, against which Russian troops have been thoroughly used with artillery, missiles, aviation and, according to kyiv, even prohibited weapons such as phosphorus bombs have been used.

On the other hand, a Russian missile attack against a Ukrainian military training camp in the town of Desna, located about 60 kilometers north of kyiv, in the Chernigov region, caused eight deaths and twelve injuries on Tuesday. Informed the spokesman for the emergency services of the region, Oleksandr Ivchenko.

Russian troops left the kyiv area at the beginning of April, but in the words of the head of the Chernigov Regional Military Administration, Viacheslav Chaus, Tuesday’s incident “proves again what I constantly say, the war is not over, the The war has not abandoned the region or our cities.