Russia announced this Friday (05.20.2022) the surrender of the last Ukrainian fighters entrenched for almost three months in the Azovstal steelworks in the city of Mariupol (southeast), a key step in the strategy of conquering the east of the country.
“Since May 16, 2,439 Nazis from the Azov (battalion) and Ukrainian servicemen blocked at the steel mill have surrendered. Today, May 20, the last group of 531 fighters surrendered,” said Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov.
Russian Defense Minister Serguei Shoigu informed President Vladimir Putin “of the end of the operation and the total liberation of the (Azovstal) complex and the city of Mariupol,” he added.
The Ukrainian authorities had ordered their troops to lay down their weapons in the morning, in order to “save the lives” of the soldiers who were still hiding in the tunnels of the industrial complex, the last stronghold of resistance in Mariupol, devastated by months of bombing.
The evacuation will also allow the removal of the dead. “I hope that soon the families and everyone in Ukraine will be able to bury their fighters with honors,” Ukrainian Azov Battalion Commander Denys Prokopenko said.
Ukraine wants to exchange Azovstal soldiers for Russian prisoners, but pro-Russian authorities in the Donetsk region have said some could face trial.
Fighting rages in Donbas
“We hope that … all prisoners of war will be treated in accordance with the Geneva Convention and the law of war,” said US Defense Department spokesman John Kirby.
The siege and shelling of this strategic port city on the Sea of Azov has led to numerous accusations of war crimes, including an attack on a maternity hospital.
Controlling Mariupol would allow Russia to create a land bridge connecting the territory with Crimea, annexed by Moscow in 2014.
In Ukraine, the first Russian military officer tried for war crimes has asked a “pardon” in a kyiv court, detailing how he killed a civilian at the start of the Russian invasion nearly three months ago.
“I’m really sorry,” said 21-year-old Vadim Shishimarin.
Russia is currently focusing its offensive on eastern and southern Ukraine, after an unsuccessful attempt to capture the capital, kyiv.
Fighting rages in the eastern Donbas region, a Russian-speaking area partially controlled by separatists since 2014, which includes the Lugansk and Donetsk regions.
mg (afp, AP)