I’m 959 the Ukrainian soldiers of the Azov Battalion who surrendered from Monday to Russian forces. This was announced by the Moscow Ministry of Defense in the bulletin released today, explaining that in the last 24 hours alone 694 soldiers who were barricaded in the Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol have surrendered. In addition, the Russian ministry specifies, out of the total number of soldiers who have surrendered, 80 are wounded, 51 of whom have been hospitalized. Moscow also claims to have killed 270 Ukrainian fighters and “54 units of military equipment were disabled” overnight. Russian forces also claim to have shot down two planes and 15 drones.
And there is concern for Ukrainian soldiers who have left the steel mill and been transferred to Russian-controlled territory. Kiev had made it known that the military would later be exchanged for Russian prisoners. But according to the president of the Duma, Vyacheslav Volodin, these are “Nazi criminals must not be traded and must be prosecuted”. Russian President Vladimir “Putin has guaranteed that they will be treated in line with international laws on the matter,” said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, without clarifying whether they will be considered war criminals or prisoners of war. Moscow will question the fighters who were in the plant, meanwhile the Tass agency reports.
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