Fears for Mariupol defenders after surrender to Russia

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MARIUPOL, Ukraine (Reuters) – Concerns grew on Wednesday for the welfare of greater than 250 Ukrainian fighters who surrendered to Russian forces on the Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol after weeks of determined resistance.

The surrender introduced an finish to essentially the most devastating siege of Russia’s warfare in Ukraine and allowed President Vladimir Putin to declare a uncommon victory in his faltering marketing campaign, which many navy analysts say has stalled.

Buses left the steelworks late on Monday in a convoy escorted by Russian armoured automobiles. Five arrived within the Russian-held city of Novoazovsk, the place Moscow stated wounded fighters could be handled.

Seven buses carrying Ukrainian fighters from the Azovstal garrison arrived at a newly reopened jail within the Russian-controlled city of Olenivka close to Donetsk, a Reuters witness stated.

Russia stated a minimum of 256 Ukrainian fighters had “laid down their arms and surrendered”, together with 51 severely wounded. Ukraine stated 264 troopers, together with 53 wounded, had left.

Russian defence ministry video confirmed fighters leaving the plant, some carried on stretchers, others with palms up to be searched by Russian troops.

There had been some ladies aboard a minimum of one of many buses in Olenivka, Reuters video confirmed.

While each side spoke of a deal below which all Ukrainian troops would abandon the steelworks, many particulars weren’t but public, together with what number of fighters nonetheless remained inside, and whether or not any type of prisoner swap had been agreed.

The Kremlin stated Putin had personally assured the prisoners could be handled in accordance to worldwide requirements, and Ukrainian officers stated they could possibly be exchanged for Russian captives.

Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk stated Kyiv aimed to prepare a prisoner swap for the wounded as soon as their situation stabilised.

Russian Deputy Ambassador to the United Nations Dmitry Polyansky stated there had been no deal, tweeting: “I didn’t know English has so some ways to categorical a single message: the #Azovnazis have unconditionally surrendered.”

TASS information company reported a Russian committee deliberate to query the troopers, lots of them members of the Azov Battalion, as a part of an investigation into what Moscow calls “Ukrainian regime crimes”.

High-profile Russian lawmakers spoke out in opposition to any prisoner swap. Vyacheslav Volodin, speaker of the State Duma, Russia’s decrease home, stated: “Nazi criminals shouldn’t be exchanged.”

Lawmaker Leonid Slutsky, one among Russia’s negotiators in talks with Ukraine, known as the evacuated combatants “animals in human kind” and stated they need to be executed.

Formed in 2014 as an excessive right-wing volunteer militia to struggle Russian-backed separatists, the Azov Regiment denies being fascist or neo-Nazi. Ukraine says it has been reformed and built-in into the National Guard.

Natalia, the spouse of a sailor amongst these holed up within the plant, advised Reuters she hoped “there can be an trustworthy change”. But she was nonetheless nervous: “What Russia is doing now’s inhumane.”

BATTLE FOR DONBAS

The denouement of the battle for Mariupol, which got here to symbolise Ukrainian resistance, is Russia’s greatest victory because it launched what it calls a “particular navy operation” to “denazify” the nation on Feb. 24.

It offers Moscow management of the Azov Sea coast and an unbroken stretch of japanese and southern Ukraine. But the port lies in ruins, and Ukraine believes tens of 1000’s of individuals had been killed below months of Russian bombardment.

On the diplomatic entrance, U.S. President Joe Biden will host the leaders of Sweden and Finland on the White House on Thursday to focus on their NATO purposes, the White House stated. The Nordic nations are optimistic they’ll overcome objections from Turkey over jointing the 30-nation alliance.

Russia’s offensive within the east, in the meantime, appeared to be making little progress, though the Kremlin says all its goals can be reached.

Around a 3rd of the Donbas was held by Russia-backed separatists earlier than the invasion. Moscow now controls round 90% of Luhansk area, but it surely has failed to make main inroads in the direction of the important thing cities of Sloviansk and Kramatorsk in Donetsk so as to lengthen management over your complete Donbas.

Ukrainian forces have superior at their quickest tempo for greater than a month, driving Russian forces out of the world round Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest metropolis.

Ukraine says its forces had reached the Russian border, 40 km (25 miles) north of Kharkiv. They have additionally pushed a minimum of so far as the Siverskiy Donets river 40 km to the east, the place they may threaten Russian provide strains.

Putin could have to resolve whether or not to ship extra troops and {hardware} to replenish his weakened invasion drive as an inflow of Western weapons, together with scores of U.S. and Canadian M777 howitzers which have longer vary than their Russian equivalents, bolsters Ukraine’s fight energy, analysts stated.

“Time is certainly working in opposition to the Russians … The Ukrainians are getting stronger virtually every single day,” stated Neil Melvin of the RUSI think-tank in London.

(Reporting by Natalia Zinets in Kyiv and a Reuters journalist in Mariupol; Additional reporting by Reuters bureaux; Writing by Rami Ayyub and Stephen Coates; Editing by Grant McCool and Lincoln Feast.)



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