Ukraine war: Azov Battalion evacuates dead amid surrender at Mariupol steel plant
The Ukrainian Azov regiment, still entrenched in unknown numbers in the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol, said on Friday it was evacuating its dead after Kyiv ordered hundreds of its men to surrender to "save lives".
"The higher military command gave the order to save the lives of the soldiers of our garrison and to stop defending the city," confirmed regimental commander Denys Prokopenko in a video on Telegram, a large bandage on his right arm and a swollen left arm, from what appeared to be an underground room.
After the evacuation of civilians and then hundreds of de facto Ukrainian soldiers taken prisoner by the Russians, "the process continues" to evacuate the bodies of the killed soldiers, added the commander of this elite regiment founded by Ukrainian nationalists, which was defending Azovstal alongside a unit of marine fusiliers.
"I hope that soon the families and all of Ukraine will be able to bury their fighters with honours. Glory to Ukraine," he concluded.
The last pocket of Ukrainian resistance in this city, the huge metallurgical complex with its maze of underground galleries dug in the Soviet era was the last pocket of Ukrainian resistance in this port city on the Sea of Azov, massively bombed by the Russians. The fierce defence of the site resulted in an unknown number of military casualties.
Earlier in the day, the Russian defence ministry, whose forces now hold the city, said 1,908 Ukrainian soldiers from Azovstal had "rendered themselves prisoner" since Monday.
Moscow released images showing cohorts of men in combat gear emerging from the steel plant, some on crutches or bandages, after a long battle that had become a symbol of Ukrainian resistance to the Russian invasion.
According to Kyiv, the martyred
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