About a dozen buses carrying Ukrainian soldiers left the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol on Monday. This is reported by employees of the Reuters news agency from the eastern Ukrainian port. The circumstances of the evacuation were initially unclear. From the Ukrainian side, it was said that the wounded defenders had been exchanged for Russian prisoners of war. Moscow had refused to evacuate fighters for weeks.
Kiev declined to confirm Russian information on the construction of a humanitarian corridor for wounded soldiers on Monday. A commander of the troops trapped in the steel mill said in a video that he was carrying out orders from the high command to save the soldiers’ lives. He left open what exactly is meant. He did not say that the groups surrounded by Russian units would surrender. Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly called on the fighters to lay down their arms and surrender. They refused because they did not want to go into Russian captivity.
Wounded fighters need to be cared for
The defense ministry in Moscow announced Monday that a ceasefire was in effect and a humanitarian corridor would be opened. The Ukrainian fighters are said to receive medical treatment in the pro-Russian separatist-controlled city of Novoazovsk in eastern Ukraine. The Kiev government had always demanded that the injured be transferred to the Ukrainian-controlled area or to a third country. According to Ukrainian sources, about 1,000 defenders of Mariupol are in the industrial zone of Azovstal. Hundreds of them were said to have been injured.
Russian media released video footage claiming to show wounded soldiers rescued from the Mariupol industrial complex (see tweet below).
Only one glass of water a day
Catastrophic conditions at the controversial Azovstal plant had been previously described. There is only one glass of water per person per day, one of the wives of a Ukrainian camphor who stayed at the steel mill reported in an interview quoted by Ukrainian media on Sunday. The woman said she was last able to talk to her husband a few hours ago. She and the other wives again demanded the evacuation of all entrenched fighters – especially the seriously wounded among them. Their situation is “terrible”: some are missing arms or legs, there are hardly any drugs or narcotics.
Source: Krone
I’m Wayne Wickman, a professional journalist and author for Today Times Live. My specialty is covering global news and current events, offering readers a unique perspective on the world’s most pressing issues. I’m passionate about storytelling and helping people stay informed on the goings-on of our planet.
