PMore than a thousand Ukrainian soldiers have surrendered to Russian forces in Mariupol, the port city in southeastern Ukraine besieged for weeks. “In the area of the Ilyich metallurgical plant, 1,026 Ukrainian soldiers from the 36and marine brigade have voluntarily laid down their arms,” the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement, adding that there were 47 women and 126 officers among them.
According to this source, 150 of them were injured and were treated at Mariupol hospital. During the night of Tuesday to Wednesday, a report by Russian public television broadcast on Rossiïa 24 announced the surrender of more than a thousand Ukrainian soldiers in this locality. Footage showed men in camouflage uniforms carrying wounded on stretchers or being interrogated while standing in what appears to be a cellar.
At least 20,000 dead in Mariupol
On Tuesday, regional authorities in southeastern Ukraine assessed the number of victims in Mariupol, which had been bombed for more than forty days, at at least 20,000 dead. The fighting is now concentrated in the gigantic industrial zone of the city. Taking Mariupol would allow the Russians to consolidate their territorial gains on the coastal strip along the Sea of Azov by connecting the Donbass region to the Crimean peninsula, which they annexed in 2014.
