Thousands of Ukrainian soldiers and their commanders are still defending their positions at the Azovstal metallurgical plant in Mariupol, a pro-Russian separatist leader said on Wednesday after information released by Moscow that 959 defenders had surrendered since Monday.
At the beginning, there were “more than 2,000 people” in the steel plant, said the leader of the self-proclaimed Donetsk Republic Denis Pushilin at a meeting with journalists in Mariupol, where the France Presse agency was part of a trip organized by the Russian Defense Ministry.
After the surrender, which began on Monday, “a little more than half” remained, he added, which means about a thousand.
“The commanders and senior officers of the Azov Battalion have not yet come out,” the separatist leader said.
In the morning, the Russian Ministry of Defense announced that “694 veterans, including 80 wounded, have been captured in the last 24 hours,” he added.
The same source states that 51 were admitted to the hospital in Novoazovsk, which is under the control of the Russians and their separatist allies.
The ministry did not say anything about the fate of the prisoners, and Russian authorities have repeatedly said that they do not consider at least some of them soldiers, but neo-Nazi fighters.
Ukrainian authorities, on the other hand, want an exchange of prisoners of war.
Pushilin said that “everyone who is healthy is in custody in the Elenovskaya colony”. “The fate of war criminals and nationalists, if they lay down their arms, will be decided by the court,” he added.
On Wednesday, the streets of the city where Russian flags were displayed were deserted, an AFP reporter reported. About thirty cars were waiting in line at the gas station. At the request of the agency, four residents said that they have not had electricity since March 3.