It seems that in the labyrinthine basement of the Azovstal steel plant, many more men (and some women) resisted than was believed. In three days, 1,730 Ukrainian fighters have left, 771 of whom have done so in the last 24 hours, a volume of fighters much greater than that recognized by Kyiv when it ordered its regiment to abandon the fight in Mariupol.
The final result of the bloodiest battle in Europe for decades remains unresolved, with the great unknown of knowing what will be the fate of the hundreds of Ukrainian soldiers who resisted in the great steel mill at the end of a siege of almost three months.
Ukraine, which says it aims to secure a prisoner swap, has refused to say how many fighters were inside the plant or the fate of the rest since confirming that just over 260 had surrendered in the first hours after the attack. to consider "their mission accomplished" in Mariupol and give them permission to lay down their arms in order to save their lives.
The leader of the Russian-backed separatists who control the region said almost half of the fighters remain inside the steelworks, where bunkers and underground tunnels have protected them from weeks of Russian bombardment.
"Today more than half of them, this is absolutely correct, they have already left there with a white flag," the leader of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR), Denis Pushilin, told the Soloviev Telegram television channel. live. “Let them surrender, let them live, let them honestly face charges for all their crimes,” he added.
The wounded receive medical treatment at a hospital in Novoazovsk, a city in the Russian-occupied zone in the breakaway republic of Donetsk. The others were taken to a former colonial prison in Olenivka, in the same region and where, according to Pushilin, they were being well treated. The Russians yesterday released videos in which some wounded confirmed this. It is unknown under what conditions the statements were recorded.
Ukrainian officials say they cannot publicly comment on the fate of the fighters as behind-the-scenes negotiations are taking place to rescue them. "The state is making maximum efforts to carry out the rescue of our service personnel," military spokesman Oleksandr Motuzaynik told a news conference. "Any information to the public could jeopardize that process."
Moscow denies having accepted a prisoner exchange, as requested by Ukraine; and the Russian Duma, the lower house of the Russian Parliament, calls for them to be tried as "neo-Nazi criminals" or "war criminals". Many of the Azovstal defenders belong to a Ukrainian unit with far-right origins, the Azov Regiment, which Moscow calls Nazis and says must be prosecuted for the crimes they have committed. Ukraine, on the other hand, calls them national heroes.
The end of the fighting in Mariupol, the largest city Russia has so far captured, allows Russian President Vladimir Putin to claim a rare victory in the invasion that began on February 24. It gives Russia full control of the Sea of Azov and an unbroken stretch of territory across eastern and southern Ukraine. It also connects the Crimean peninsula, forcibly annexed by Russia in 2014, with the self-proclaimed independent territories of Luhansk and Donetsk.
Ukraine says tens of thousands of civilians have been killed in a nearly three-month siege and Russian shelling that leveled the city. The Red Cross and the United Nations say it is impossible to calculate the true number of victims, but agree that it runs into the thousands. That makes it the bloodiest battle in Europe since at least the Chechen and Balkan wars of the 1990s.
Moscow denies targeting civilians in its "special military operation" to disarm and "denazify" its neighbor. Ukraine and the West say Russian forces have killed many thousands of civilians in an unprovoked war of aggression.
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