“In the last 24 hours, 694 fighters, including 29 wounded, have become prisoners. Since May 16, 959 fighters, including 80 wounded,” have surrendered, the ministry said in a statement.
According to the same source, 51 of them were hospitalized in Novoazovsk, a town controlled by the Russians and their separatist allies in the region of Donetsk (East).
The ministry did not specify what fate these prisoners will have. The Russian authorities have repeatedly indicated that at least some of them are not considered soldiers, but neo-nazi fighters.
The Ukrainian fighters still at the steelworks, including the main commanders of the Azov battalion, They will only be able to leave “if they lay down their arms and surrender”clarified the Kremlin spokesman, Dmitri Peskov, to the Russian agency Tass.
Ukraine wants to organize for its part an exchange of prisoners of war.
These soldiers were entrenched in the labyrinth of underground galleries of the huge Azovstal steelworks, which has become a symbol of Ukrainian resistance to the offensive launched by Russia on February 24.
The strategic city of Mariupol, where this industrial complex is located, was severely damaged by the fighting and the Russian siege.
Source: Ambito
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