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Russia says Mariupol captured, apart from Azovstal plant
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Russia says Mariupol captured, apart from Azovstal plant
About 2,000 Ukrainian militants are still entrenched at Azovstal steel plant, Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu told President Putin

21 Apr, 2022 07:14

https://cdni.russiatoday.com/files/2022....27fd48.jpg
The territory of the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol.

Russian forces have fully captured the key Black Sea port-city of Mariupol, Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu told President Vladimir Putin on Thursday. However, more than 2,000 Ukrainian militants still remain entrenched at the Azovstal steel plant in the city, he added.

When Mariupol was encircled in early March, some 8,100 Ukrainian soldiers, foreign mercenaries, and nationalist militants – including members of the notorious Azov Battalion – remained inside, according to the minister’s estimates.

More than 1,400 militants have laid down their arms, Shoigu said, adding that over 142,000 civilians have also been evacuated from the city that has been under siege for weeks.

President Vladimir Putin has called Shoigu’s plan of storming the Azovstal plant “inadvisable” and ordered to “safely block” the area instead while extending to those inside another offer to lay down their arms.

Russia has twice sought to establish a humanitarian corridor for those willing to leave the plant in recent days, but both attempts failed. The Russian Defense Ministry has been calling on the remaining Ukrainian forces, besieged at a steel plant, to lay down their arms, offering safety guarantees, if they accept the surrender proposal and halt all hostilities.

Shoigu said that the Russian forces had announced ceasefires and opened humanitarian corridors for two hours a day for the past two days on Putin’s orders to allow those inside the Azovstal plant to leave.

Sergey Volyna, the commander of Ukraine’s 36th Marines Brigade, which is holed up at the plant, claimed that “hundreds” of civilians were trapped in the facility.

“We have made some 90 buses and 25 ambulances ready for them,” Shoigu said, adding that cameras have been mounted in the area to monitor the situation. “No one has left the Azovstal [plant],” he added. Some 100 civilians from other areas seized this opportunity to evacuate, the minister said.

The Russian forces have also freed all hostages held at the Mariupol port, including the crews of sea vessels, who had their communications cut off by hostage-takers, Shoigu said. The port is still closed due to the presence of mines, he added.

The Ukrainian forces holed up in the plant outlined their own conditions for leaving the besieged location late on Wednesday. The troops indicated that they would leave the area with the support of an unspecified “third party,” Svyatoslav Palamar, the deputy commander of the neo-Nazi Azov regiment, said at the time. He added that they also wanted to keep their personal weapons, refusing to surrender.

Mariupol has seen some of the most intense fighting since Moscow launched its offensive.

Russia attacked the neighboring state in late February, following Ukraine’s failure to implement the terms of the Minsk agreements, first signed in 2014, and Moscow’s eventual recognition of the Donbass republics of Donetsk and Lugansk. The German and French brokered protocols were designed to give the breakaway regions special status within the Ukrainian state.

The Kremlin has since demanded that Ukraine officially declare itself a neutral country that will never join the US-led NATO military bloc. Kiev insists the Russian offensive was completely unprovoked and has denied claims it was planning to retake the two republics by force.

https://www.rt.com/russia/554252-mariupo...ine-plant/

Russia offers besieged Ukrainian troops chance to surrender
Moscow promises to spare the lives of “nationalist militants” and “foreign mercenaries” in Mariupol

16 Apr, 2022 22:44

https://cdni.russiatoday.com/files/2022....5a88f8.jpg
Smoke rises over the Metallurgical Combine Azovstal in Mariupol

The Russian Defense Ministry has called on the remaining Ukrainian forces, besieged at a steel plant in the coastal city of Mariupol, to lay down their arms, offering safety guarantees, if they accept the proposal and halt all hostilities on Sunday morning.

“Considering the catastrophic situation at the Azovstal metallurgical plant, and being guided by purely humane principles, the Russian Armed Forces offer militants of nationalist battalions and foreign mercenaries to stop hostilities and lay down their arms starting 6am Moscow time on April 17, 2022,” the Russian Defense Ministry said in a late-night announcement on Saturday.

https://eng.mil.ru/en/news_page/country/...d=12417675

All who lay down their weapons are guaranteed the preservation of life,” the ministry stated.

Earlier on Saturday, Moscow revealed its estimate of Ukrainian casualty numbers, claiming that in the city of Mariupol alone, Kiev has lost more than 4,000 combatants, including “foreign mercenaries” and “Nazis” associated with the notorious Azov and Aidar regiments.

In its ceasefire proposal, the Russian military said that the remaining troops are in a “hopeless situation, with virtually no food and water,” citing the contents of hundreds of radio intercepts on Saturday alone. The holed-up fighters allegedly “persistently request permission from the officials in Kiev to lay down their arms and surrender,” while the Ukrainian authorities “categorically forbid it under the threat of wartime executions,” Moscow claimed.

Moscow offered to establish a direct communication line with the Ukrainian troops at 5am, and to indicate the beginning of the actual ceasefire at 6am by raising flags around the perimeter of Azovstal – red on the Russian side and white on the Ukrainian side. The Ukrainian units will then have until 1pm to withdraw from their stronghold, without any weapons or ammunition.

The proposal and terms of surrender “will be broadcast continuously throughout the night to Ukrainian formations at Azovstal on all radio channels at 30-minute intervals,” the ministry added.

Earlier this week, more than 1,000 service members of Ukraine’s 36th Marines Brigade allegedly laid down their arms at the Illich Steel and Iron Works, a giant metal mill they were using as a stronghold. The report, however, was disputed by Ukrainian officials.

Mariupol has seen some of the most intense fighting since Moscow launched its offensive.

Russia attacked the neighboring state in late February, following Ukraine’s failure to implement the terms of the Minsk agreements, first signed in 2014, and Moscow’s eventual recognition of the Donbass republics of Donetsk and Lugansk. The German and French brokered protocols were designed to give the breakaway regions special status within the Ukrainian state.

The Kremlin has since demanded that Ukraine officially declare itself a neutral country that will never join the US-led NATO military bloc. Kiev insists the Russian offensive was completely unprovoked and has denied claims it was planning to retake the two republics by force.

https://www.rt.com/russia/554005-russia-...der-terms/
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