‘Alamo’ siege ends

‘Steely’ Ukraine fighters concede

Hundreds of Ukrainian soldiers have laid down their arms at the Azovstal steel works in the decimated city of Mariupol, part of a negotiated end to a weeks-long stalemate.

More than 260 Ukrainian soldiers were evacuated into Russian custody late Monday, with several dozen of the most seriously wounded bound for a hospital in Novoazovsk, a Russian-held town 25 miles east of the plant that come to be known as Ukraine’s Alamo.

An unknown number of fighters remained in the plant Tuesday, and Ukrainian authorities were still working to rescue them. Officials in Kyiv said Mariupol’s defenders had “completed their mission,” and admitted there was no way to free the plant by military means.

With Mariupol more ruin than metropolis after months of heavy fighting, both sides were left trying to frame the outcome as a victory.

“Ukraine needs Ukrainian heroes to be alive. That is our principle,” President Volodymyr Zelensky said Monday night. “Our military and intelligence have started the operation to save Mariupol’s defenders.”

“The work continues to bring the guys home, and it requires delicacy and time,” he added.

It was unclear if soldiers evacuated to Russian-controlled areas would be considered prisoners of war, and Tass — the Russian staterun news agency — said Tuesday the government planned to question the captured fighters in its investigation into “Ukrainian regime crimes.”

But Ukrainian authorities said work was underway to make a deal to release the fighters from custody.

Ukraine avoided the word “surrender” in describing the deal, although Russian sources showed no such inclination. “Overall, 256 Ukrainian militants have surrendered from the territory of the Azovstal steel works in Mariupol,” the self-styled, Russian-aligned Donetsk People’s Republic said in a Telegram post. “There were 51 wounded militants among those captured.”

The surrender marks the end of the bloodiest and most brutal campaign of the war. The southern Donbas port city on the Sea of Azov was home to more than 400,000 people when the war began.

Now nearly three months later, local officials say more than 20,000 civilians were killed in the months of constant bombardment and siege that left Mariupol without power, food and clean water.

The fall of Mariupol gives Russian forces an uninterrupted corridor connecting its Crimea-based forces to its operations in the Donbas, the industrial heartland of eastern Ukraine.

It remains to be seen, though, if such access is too little too late, as Moscow’s troops in the Donbas fail to make significant gains against the Ukrainian army.

Still, Russian forces continued to pound targets in the Donbas as the war enters its 12th week.