The Russian Defence Ministry reported that a total of 959 Ukrainian soldiers had left Mariupol’s Azovstal steelworks over the past two days, state news agency RIA Novosti informs. The Ukrainian servicemen had spent over two months barricaded on the plant’s territory.
The ministry added that 694 soldiers had “surrendered” over the past 24 hours, including 80 wounded servicemen.
Reuters reported yesterday that at least seven buses with Ukrainian soldiers had left the territory of the plant in the direction of the self-proclaimed Donetsk “people’s republic” (“DPR”). Eyewitnesses stated that by the evening, the soldiers were transported to a former penal colony in Yelenovka, a settlement in the “DPR”.
On 16 May, it was reported that 54 badly wounded Ukrainian soldiers and 211 more servicemen were evacuated to “DPR”-controlled territory after an agreement was reached between Russia and Ukraine. The Ukrainian Defence Ministry stated that Kyiv plans to hold a prisoner swap with Russia to return the Azovstal soldiers to Ukraine-controlled territory. The Ukrainian military leadership ordered the commanders of the units remaining at Azovstal to preserve the life of the soldiers.
The Russian Defence Ministry reported that the Azovstal fighters had “surrendered.” Soon after that, Russian State Duma speaker Vyacheslav Volodin offered to prohibit the exchange of prisoners from Ukraine’s Azov battalion for Russian prisoners of war, due to the fact that the Azov fighters are “Nazi criminals.” Another Russian lawmaker proposed to lift the death penalty for the fighters of Ukraine’s Azov battalion.
Meanwhile, the Russian Investigative Committee announced its plans to interrogate the Ukrainian servicemen transported to “DPR” territory. “Russian investigators will identify the nationalists and determine their involvement in the crimes committed against the civilian population,” the committee stated.
