Kiev, Ukraine (AP) – Hundreds of Ukrainian fighters, including wounded men on a stretcher, left a large steel mill in Mariupol to seize the final stand and snatch it from the Russians, which marked the beginning of the end of the war. That became a siege A symbol of Ukraine’s resistance to the invasion of Moscow.
Russia called the operation a mass surrender on Tuesday. Ukrainians avoided using the word, but said the garrison had completed its mission and was working to withdraw the remaining fighters.
On Monday, more than 260 fighters left the Azovstal plant – their last stronghold in Mariupol – and moved to two cities controlled by Moscow -backed separatists, officials on both sides said. The other fighters – their exact numbers are unknown – remain in the ruins of a fortified mill covering 11 square kilometers (4 square miles) in a Russian -occupied city.
Completing the acquisition of Mariupol will give Russia a continuous land bridge over the Crimean Peninsula, which it merged with Ukraine in 2014, and will also remove Ukraine from a viable port. It could also assign Russian forces to fight elsewhere in the industrial center of eastern Ukraine.
But Ukraine sought to make the evacuation a symbol of its side, emphasizing the role Azovstal’s fighters had played in raising Ukraine’s morale and preventing Russian forces from being deployed elsewhere.
“Ukraine needs Ukraine’s heroes to survive.” This is our principle, “said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, adding that troops had begun to liberate the brutally bombed mills, tunnels and bunkers.
“Work continues to bring men home, and it takes delicacy and time,” he said.
So far it is not yet known what he will do after leaving the post.
Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Malyar said 264 fighters were evacuated from the facility, including 53 who were taken to a medical facility “seriously injured”. Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov showed slightly different numbers: 265 evacuated, 51 seriously injured. The difference cannot be explained immediately.
On Monday night, several buses left the factory accompanied by Russian military vehicles. The video from the Russian defense ministry does not show some of the refugees armed. In the footage, the troops are kidnapping and looking for a fighter. Some were on stretchers when they were loaded onto buses.
Ukraine’s former head of national security and finance minister Alexander Danilyuk told the BBC that since Ukrainian forces could not leave the plant, the evacuation following negotiations in Russia-controlled territory was “the only hope” for to the defenders of Azovstal.
Those who remain in the factory are “able to protect it. “But I think it’s important to understand that their main mission is done and now we have to save their lives,” he said.
Withdrawal through full negotiations could also save lives on the Russian side, angering Russian-backed troops, which will surely be a bloody and difficult struggle to remove a labyrinth-like plant from Ukrainian control.
Danilyuk added that the refugees should be exchanged for Russian prisoners, but Vyacheslav Volodin, a president of Russia’s lower house of parliament, said without proof that the plant defenders were “war criminals”. and they should not be exchanged but tried. .
Russia has repeatedly wrongly described a broad war as a struggle against Nazism, and Volodin repeated this accusation.
Maliar, a Ukrainian official, praised the fighters but said it was impossible to free them by “military means”.
“The Mariupol defenders have fully carried out all the missions assigned to them by the commanders,” he said.
Retired French Vice Admiral Michel Olhagarai, former head of the French Center for Advanced Military Studies, said the fall of Azovstal was more of a symbolic than a military stimulus for Russia.
“In fact, Mariupol has already collapsed, but not symbolically because of this incredible resistance,” he said. “Putin can now demand a‘ victory ’in the Donbass region of eastern Ukraine, which is now in the spotlight.
But since Azovstal defenders arrested Russian troops, Ukraine can also claim they have taken the top spot.
“Both sides can be proud or proud of success, with different types of success,” he said.
From time to time, strikes have also affected other parts of the country. Strong explosions took place on Tuesday morning in the western city of Lviv. Witnesses counted at least eight explosions accompanied by distant explosions. The sky to the west of the city, which is under curfew at night, is illuminated by orange lights.
Lviv Oblast Governor Maxim Kozicki said Russia’s attacks targeted railway and military facilities around Yavoriv, west of the city.
The Yavoriv region, just across the border between Ukraine and Poland, has also been the target of previous Russian attacks, apparently aimed at slowing the flow of weapons and supplies from Western countries. . A Russian attack in March killed 35 people at the Yarov military base.
Howitzers from the United States and other countries helped Kiev prevent or subdue Russia, said a senior U.S. defense official who spoke on condition of anonymity in U.S. military analysis.
At the end of another recession for Moscow, Swedish Foreign Minister Anne Linde signed a formal application for NATO membership, which will now be sent to Alliance Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. Follow the Swedish move A similar decision was made by neighboring Finland – Historic changes for countries that have existed for generations.
US President Joe Biden Biden will host Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Anderson and Finnish President Saul Niinisto at the White House on Thursday to discuss the two countries ’NATO bid.
Stoltenberg said the accession process could be quick for the two of them, but Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a NATO member, is already questioning.
He protested against the right of Sweden and Finland to join NATO, saying they could not take a “clear” position against Kurdish militants and other groups that Ankara considers terrorists and has imposed military sanctions on Turkey.
All 30 current NATO members must agree to join their Scandinavian neighbors.
Putin said on Monday that Moscow had “no problems” with Sweden or Finland because they wanted to join NATO, but “the expansion of military infrastructure in this area will certainly provoke our reaction”.
Reported by McQuillan and Jura Carmanau from Lviv, Ukraine. Mstislav Chernov and Andrea Rosa in Kharkov, Elena Bekatoros in Odessa and other AP staff from around the world.
Source: Huffpost
I am David Wyatt, a professional writer and journalist for Buna Times. I specialize in the world section of news coverage, where I bring to light stories and issues that affect us globally. As a graduate of Journalism, I have always had the passion to spread knowledge through writing.