KYIV: Russia said on Tuesday that 265 Ukrainian dogfaces had surrendered after carrying a last stage at the besieged Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol, egging Kyiv to call for an internet exchange.
Moscow claimed control of the strategic harborage megacity of Mariupol last month after a weeks-long siege, but hundreds of Ukrainian dogfaces remained drilled up in underground coverts beneath the huge Azovstal artificial zone.
“ Over the once 24 hours, 265 zealots laid down their arms and surrendered, including 51 heavily wounded,” the Russian defense ministry said.
Publishing images showing wounded dogfaces being carried on stretchers, it said the injured were taken to a sanitarium in a part of the eastern Donetsk region controlled by pro-Kremlinrebels. Meanwhile, Kyiv said accommodations with Russia on ending the near three-month war, which has killed thousands and transferred millions fleeing, were “ on hold”, condemning Moscow for failing to compromise.
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Ukraine’s defense ministry verified the dogfaces had left Azovstal, expressing a stopgap for an “ exchange procedure. to repudiate these Ukrainian icons as snappily as possible”.
For those remaining in the maze of coverts underneath the steelworks complex, it said it was doing “ everything necessary for their deliverance” — although a military intervention wasn’t possible.
In Moscow, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov didn’t answer questions about whether the Azovstal dogfaces would be treated as war culprits or captures of war.
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President Vladimir Putin “ guaranteed that they would be treated according to the applicable transnational laws,” he said.
Ukraine has indicted Moscow of war crimes during the conflict, especially in the city of Bucha near Kyiv, where journalists saw at least 20 bodies lying in the thoroughfares after Russian forces withdrew in late March.
The International Criminal Court said it was planting its largest-ever field platoon in Ukraine, comprising 42 investigators, forensic experts, and support staff.
Trying to stay alive
The army said holding the steelworks had delayed the transfer of Russian colors to another corridor of Ukraine and stopped Moscow from snappily landing the southern megacity of Zaporizhzhia.
“ Azovstal protectors ruined Russia’s plan to capture the east of Ukraine. This fully changed the course of the war,” twittered presidential assistant Mykhaylo Podolyak.
“ 83 days of Mariupol defense will go down in history as the Thermopylae of the 21st century,” he said, pertaining to the notorious last stage by the Spartans against the Persians in 480 BCE.
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