Red Cross registers hundreds of Ukrainian Pows from Mariupol

THE Russian military has said that more Ukrainian fighters who were making a last stand in Mariupol have surrendered, bringing the total who have left their stronghold to 1,730, while the Red Cross said it had registered hundreds of them as prisoners of war.

The International Committee of the Red Cross said that the registrations of Ukrainian POWS, which included wounded fighters, began on Tuesday under an agreement between Russia and Ukraine.

The humanitarian agency said however that its team did not transport the fighters to “the places where they are held”, which were not specified.

Ukrainian fighters who emerged from the Azovstal steelworks after being ordered by their military to abandon the last stronghold in the 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.

The Red Cross cited rules under the Geneva Conventions that should allow the organisation to interview POWS “without witnesses” and that visits with them should not be “unduly restricted”.

The organisation did not specify how many POWS were involved. It was also not clear how many fighters are left at the plant. Russia previously estimated that it had been battling some 2,000 troops in the waterside plant.

Denis Pushilin, a senior Russiabacked separatist official in a region that includes Mariupol, said those Ukrainian soldiers who needed medical assistance were admitted to hospital while others were put in a detention facility.

Despite the setback in Mariupol, Ukraine’s confidence has been growing after fighting the Russians to an effective standstill and forcing Moscow to withdraw from around Kyiv.

Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to President Volodymyr Zelensky who was involved in several rounds of talks with Russia, said on Thursday in a tweet that at this stage “do not offer us a ceasefire – this is impossible without total Russian troops withdrawal”.

Ukraine’s military said in its morning briefing on Thursday that Russian forces were still pressing their offensive on various fronts in the east, but were being successfully repelled.

In the eastern Donbas region, four civilians were killed in the town of Sievierodonetsk in a Russian bombardment, Luhansk governor Serhiy Haidai said. Three other civilians were wounded in the attack on Wednesday, and the shelling continued into early Thursday, Mr Haidai said.

On the Russian side of the border, the governor of Kursk province said a truck driver was killed and several other civilians wounded by shelling from Ukraine.

Separatist authorities in the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine said two civilians were killed and five wounded also in Ukrainian shelling over the last 24 hours.

Mariupol was a target of the Russians from the outset as Moscow sought to open a land corridor from its territory to the Crimean Peninsula, which it seized from Ukraine in 2014.

The city has largely been reduced to rubble by relentless bombardment, and Ukraine says over 20,000 civilians have been killed.

Meanwhile, Turkey’s president has flatly stated that his country will oppose Sweden and Finland joining Nato.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told a group of Turkish youth in a video released on Thursday: “We have told our relevant friends we would say ‘no’ to Finland and Sweden’s entry into Nato, and we will continue on our path like this.”

Each of Nato’s 30 member countries has the power to veto a membership bid.

Mr Erdogan has said Turkey’s objection stems from Sweden’s – and to a lesser degree with Finland’s – perceived support of the banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and an armed group in Syria that Turkey sees as an extension of the PKK.

Ukraine said it hopes to get the soldiers back in a prisoner swap