Ukrainian fighters surrender after 82-day Mariupol steelworks siege
•Hundreds taken to Russian-controlled territory •President pays tribute to ‘Ukraine’s heroes’
Hundreds of Ukrainian fighters surrendered to Russian forces at the Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol on Tuesday after 82 days of desperate resistance, bringing an end to the most devastating siege of Russia’s war in Ukraine.
The Kremlin said President Vladimir Putin had personally guaranteed that the prisoners would be treated according to international standards. The fighters were taken to Russian-controlled territory in Ukraine, and are expected to be exchanged for Russians captured by Ukrainian forces.
Russia said at least 256 Ukrainian fighters had “laid down their arms and surrendered,” including 51 severely wounded. Ukraine said 264 soldiers, including 53 wounded, had left.
Some Ukrainian soldiers remain inside the steelworks, but Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Malyar said Kyiv would not disclose how many until all were safe. President Volodymyr Zelensky said: “Ukraine needs Ukrainian heroes alive.”
The complete capture of Mariupol is Russia’s only victory since its Feb. 24 invasion. It gives Mosstill
cow total control of the Sea of Azov coast and an unbroken stretch of eastern and southern Ukraine.
But the port city now lies in ruins, and Ukraine believes tens of thousands of people were killed under months of Russian bombardment and siege.
The UN and Red Cross say the true death toll from the siege is
uncounted but it is certain to be Europe’s worst since the 1990s wars in Chechnya and the Balkans.
For months, Mariupol’s residents were driven into cellars under perpetual bombardment, with no access to food, fresh water or heat, and bodies littering the streets.
Strikes on a maternity ward and a theater where hundreds of people were sheltering became worldwide emblems of Russia’s tactic of devastating population centers.
Thousands of civilians are believed to have been buried in mass graves or makeshift pits in gardens, and Ukraine says Moscow forcibly deported thousands of residents to Russia.
Elsewhere, Ukrainian forces have been advancing at their fastest pace for more than a month, driving Russian forces out of the area around Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city.
Ukrainian troops have reached the Russian border, 40 km north of Kharkiv. They have also pushed at least as far as the Siverskiy Donets river 40 kilometers to the east, where they could threaten supply lines to Russia’s main advance in the Donbas.
In Brussels, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said, the Russian army had suffered “impressive losses” and it was unclear how long it could sustain its campaign.