In the port city of Mariupol, the resistance of the Ukrainian defenders against Russian troops has apparently come to an end in the twelfth week of the war. This ends the longest siege of a city in the Ukraine war – in this case with a victory for the attackers. On Tuesday night, 264 Ukrainian soldiers, National Guardsmen, border guards and other gunmen were taken away in buses from the Azov Steelworks, the defenders’ last post in Mariupol. According to the Ukrainian army, 53 were seriously injured.
Deputy Defense Minister Anna Malyar said the seriously injured were taken to a hospital in the city of Novoazovsk, apparently under the direction of the Russian military, and the remaining 211 people to the city of Olenivka. Both cities are in the sphere of influence of the Russians and the pro-Russian fighters of the “Donetsk People’s Republic”. Maljar said, “For the further way of their return home, the process of an exchange will be started. For those defenders who still remained on the territory of Azovstal, joint efforts of the authorities are trying to save them.” Ukraine and Russia have exchanged prisoners several times so far in this war.
“Ukraine needs its heroes alive”
At the same time, the statement makes it clear that there are still armed people and perhaps also civilians in the buildings and basements of the extensive steel works. Exactly how many could not or did not want to say when asked by the Kiev government on Tuesday; recently there was talk of up to 600 armed men. “Unfortunately, we do not have the opportunity to use military means to lift the blockade of Azovstal,” said the politician. Those who have now been deported have “fulfilled their tasks in full”. Now the most important thing is “to save the lives of the defenders of Mariupol”. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a video address that “Ukraine needs its heroes alive”. Her return home will require “tact and time”. Apparently the International Committee of the Red Cross and the United Nations were also involved in the evacuation.
The port city of Mariupol, which has a population of 400,000, was surrounded a few days after the start of the Russian attack and was subjected to heavy attacks. Experts and Ukrainian authorities assume thousands of civilian deaths. After the last defenders retreated to the “Azovstal” compound, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that his troops should not storm the plant, only besiege it so that “not even a fly comes out”. Nevertheless, according to Ukrainian information, the plant was repeatedly shelled for weeks. Most recently, the Russian army is said to have used phosphorus bombs, an accusation that the Ukrainian side underscored with a video recording of the factory premises; the use of this weapon where civilians are threatened is prohibited internationally. Kateryna Prokopenko, the wife of one of the defenders, told the FAZ: “There are many dead soldiers in the ruins of the bunkers that the Russians attacked with heavy bombs.”
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