Hundreds more Azov battalion soldiers surrender at Azovstal steel plant

RT reported, on May 19, the Ministry of National Defense Russia According to the report, 771 more Ukrainian fighters surrendered, bringing the total number of people captured from the Azovstal steel plant to 1,730 since May 16.

The Azovstal Steel Plant serves as the last bastion of Ukrainian forces in the important port city of Mariupol, which the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) claims as its territory.

According to the Russian military, the prisoners were “fighters of the Azov nationalist unit” and were transferred to locations in Novoazovsk and Donetsk, two cities controlled by the DPR. 80 wounded Ukrainian soldiers are receiving medical treatment.

But according to Mr. Denis Pushilin, leader of DPR, the Azov . battalion senior commander still missing from the list of those who surrendered. “At the moment, there is no top-level commander. They have not left yet,” Mr. Pushilin told a local news agency.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky ordered the fighters in Mariupol to surrender, later describing it as an evacuation believed to have taken place “thanks” to Ukrainian military and intelligence agents, and was approved by the Committee for Letters. International Red Cross (ICRC) monitoring. The ICRC provided a brief description of its involvement in a statement on May 19.

The ICRC said that “hundreds of Ukrainian prisoners of war have been recorded” in Azovstal and the process is still ongoing. The ICRG is compiling lists and recording the personal details of those arrested to monitor them during their detention and to “help them stay in touch with their families”.

Underscoring its role as a neutral observer in war matters, the ICRG said it is maintaining “secret dialogue with the parties to the conflict about their obligations under international humanitarian law”.

In a separate post on Twitter, the ICRC stressed that the organization is bound by certain restrictions on how it operates, such as not being able to testify in court about prisoner visits it conducts. or prosecute detainees.

The ICRC is the internationally recognized watchdog for the Geneva Conventions, the rules of war, which regulate how signatories are obligated to treat prisoners of war.

Some Ukrainian officials have previously accused the organization of various wrongdoing during the evacuation of civilians from eastern Ukraine to safety in Russia, which Kiev insists was done as early as possible. head.

Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine Iryna Vereshchuk at one point accused the ICRC of “working with the enemy”. The International Committee of the Red Cross denies the allegations, saying it never took part in forced evacuations, even in Ukraine or anywhere else in the world.