Surrendering Mariupol troops face uncertainty
Some have been taken to a penal colony, others may face war crime trials
KYIV, Ukraine — Nearly 1,000 last-ditch Ukrainian fighters who had held out inside Mariupol’s pulverized steel plant have surrendered, Russia said Wednesday, as the battle that turned the city into a worldwide symbol of defiance and suffering drew toward a close.
Meanwhile, the first captured Russian soldier to be put on trial by Ukraine on war-crimes charges pleaded guilty to killing a civilian and could get life in prison.
The Ukrainian fighters who emerged from the ruined Azovstal steelworks after being ordered by their military to abandon the last stronghold of resistance in the now-flattened port city face an uncertain fate. Some were taken by the Russians to a former penal colony in territory controlled by Moscow-backed separatists.
While Ukraine said it hopes to get the soldiers back in a prisoner swap, Russia threatened to put some of them on trial for war crimes.
Amnesty International said the Red Cross should be given immediate access to the fighters. Denis Krivosheev, Amnesty’s deputy director for the region, cited lawless executions allegedly carried out by Russian forces in Ukraine and said the Azovstal defenders “must not meet the same fate.”
It was unclear how many fighters remained inside the plant’s tunnels and bunkers, where 2,000 were believed to be holed up at one point. A separatist leader in the region said no top commanders had emerged from the steelworks.
The plant was the only thing standing in the way of Russia declaring the full capture of Mariupol, a fall that would make it the biggest Ukrainian city to be taken by Moscow’s forces, giving a boost to Putin in a war where many of his plans have gone awry.
But military analysts said the city’s capture at this point would be more symbolic than anything else, since Mariupol is already effectively under Moscow’s control and most of the Russian forces tied down by the drawn-out fighting have already left.
Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said 959 Ukrainian troops have abandoned the stronghold since they started emerging Monday.
Video showed the fighters carrying out their wounded on stretchers and undergoing pat-down searches before being taken away on buses escorted by military vehicles bearing the proKremlin “Z” sign.
In a sign of normalcy returning to Kyiv, the U.S. Embassy reopened Wednesday, one month after Russian forces abandoned a bid to seize the capital and three months after the outpost was closed. A dozen embassy employees watched solemnly as the American flag was raised.
“The Ukrainian people, with our security assistance, have defended their homeland in the face of Russia’s unconscionable invasion, and, as a result, the Stars and Stripes are flying over the Embassy once again,“Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement.
Meanwhile, Sgt. Vadim Shishimarin could get life in prison for allegedly shooting a a 62-year-old Ukrainian man through an open car window in the northeastern Sumy region on Feb. 28, four days into the invasion.
Shishimarin, a captured member of a Russian tank unit, was prosecuted under a section of the Ukrainian criminal code that addresses the laws and customs of war.
“The … accused Shishimarin fully admitted the guilt of the crime in accordance with all circumstances established during the pre-trial investigation and announced by the prosecution during the trial today,” prosecutor Yaroslav Uschapivskyi said.
“(Shishimarin) was instructed (to shoot a civilian) by a person who was not his direct commander, nor a person whose instructions he was obliged to follow,” Uschapivskyi added. “So, it’s not correct to say that there was some sort of order.”
Ukrainian Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova has said previously that her office was readying war crimes cases against 41 Russian soldiers for offenses that included bombing civilian infrastructure, killing civilians, rape and looting.
It was not immediately clear how many of those suspects are in Ukrainian hands and how many would be tried in absentia.
Prosecutors will continue presenting evidence against Shishimarin after his guilty plea.