The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine confirmed via its social media networks on Tuesday evening that its servicemen holed up at the Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol have been ordered to surrender.

"The garrison 'Mariupol' has completed the assigned combat mission. The highest military command issued an order to the commanders of the units located at Azovstal to save the lives of the personnel."

According to Kiev, while holding positions at Azovstal, its soldiers prevented Russian troops from operating in other theaters.

Kiev insisted that the Azov neo-Nazis and members of its regular forces had

"prevented the implementation of the [alleged Russian] plan for the quick capture of [nearby] Zaporozhye, and did not allow access to the administrative border of the Donetsk and Zaporozhye regions."

The president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, said:

"Thanks to the actions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, intelligence, as well as the negotiating group, the International Committee of the Red Cross and the UN, we have hope that we will be able to save the lives of our guys. I want to emphasize that Ukraine needs Ukrainian heroes alive. This is our principle. I think that every adequate person will understand these words. To bring our military back home, the work continues, and this work requires delicacy and time."

A large portion of them are members of the neo-Nazi Azov Regiment. Its first commander, Andrey Biletsky, has said he believes it's Ukraine's mission to

"lead the white races of the world in a final crusade... against Semite-led Untermenschen [inferior humans]."

Moscow has not yet made any public statements about an exchange. Meanwhile, the Ukrainian side has tried to avoid the use of the expression 'surrender'.

From the false headline down, the Washington Post report on the issue is a master piece of propaganda:

Ukraine ends bloody battle for Mariupol, evacuates Azovstal fighters

Ukrainian fighters have ended their weeks-long defense of a besieged steel plant in the strategic port city of Mariupol, as hundreds of combatants — dozens of them seriously wounded — were evacuated from the complex Monday.

One has to read beyond 323 words of falsehood to find out, down in paragraph 7, what really has happened.

Moscow hasn't yet publicly responded to the developments in Mariupol, which were described by Russian state media as an order from Ukrainian military command for its troops to "surrender."

Ukraine's deputy defense minister, Anna Malyar, said 53 seriously wounded soldiers were taken to a hospital in Novoazovsk, a nearby town which is controlled by Russian-backed separatists. Another 211 were transported to another Russian-aligned village, Olenivka, she said. Moscow and Kyiv are brokering a prisoner swap to secure their release.

Malyar said officials were still working to rescue the remaining soldiers, though it is unclear how many are still inside. Ukrainian authorities said last week there were nearly 1,000 holdout fighters in the plant.

The f***ers finally gave up and surrendered unconditionally to the Russian forces as their only alternative was to decease within the next hours or days.

I am sure that the Russian authorities will apply a fine filter to determine who of those prisoners of war are eligible for war crime prosecutions, de-nazification and a long stay in some north Siberian road builder camp.

There are also rumors of NATO personnel presence in the Azovstal catacombs. They will likely get to know the cellars of the famous Lubyanka building in Moscow before being exchanged in this or that deal with their home countries.

The rest will eventually be exchanged for Russian soldiers who are unfortunately held by the Ukrainian military.

'The Cry was No Evacuation" doesn't really ring, does it?

Posted by: Merkin Scot | May 17 2022 9:24 utc | 1

A post at Defence Politics Asia YouTube channel reports the following process is being utilized"

The thing to remember about ANY/EVERY single person who leaves Azovstal previously, presently or in the future is this:

1. The Russians are not stupid or sloppy.

2. First they are taken under guard to a processing place. Wounded are under guard during treatment until fit for normal processing.

3. They are scrupulously checked for real identity by their papers and every civil database the Russians have access to. Local Mariupol LDPR investigators are also there to use their local knowledge to verify all claims of civilian neutrality.

4. They are stripped to look for any fascist sympathetic tattoos, men and women alike, it has been reported by one woman evacuee.

5. They are FINGERPRINTED AND PHOTOGRAPHED and their future intended residential address documented as they may be called as witnesses to war crimes in future criminal trials. The LDPR and Russians are fkn serious about legal retributions for the 8 year war and about making sure that not a single nazi sympathiser ever gets back into social circulation.

6. They are interrogated about all personal matters and all knowledge about what is going in inside Azovstal. Obviously, anyone NOT completely forthcoming is held for future interrogation.

7. Only after all the above tests, they are sorted into:

• free civilians to go home, their choice of Uk or LD or RF territory or to refugee camps;
• harmless Ukrainian Regular soldiers who go to LDPR POW camps awaiting exchange for Regular Russian POWs as per Geneva Convention;
• foreign low level mercenary fighters who go to LDPR POW camps awaiting criminal prosecution;
• high level foreigner (eg NATO staff), who most probably go to FSB Headquarters in Moscow for future intel and political purposes;
• Azov fighters who will all get kept as non-swapable POWs to be prosecuted by the LDPF for war crimes. The LDPR Public Prosecutors have publically clearly stated their guilty punishments may be as high as the death penalty.

So that's the strict filtering regime. So have no fear that any of the "Rats of Azovstal" will escape their rightful fates. Even after another 1000-2000 surrenders, the exact same processing will be done to each and every one. The LDPR and Russian military jails are gunna be real full, real soon.

The poster apparently gathered this information from a range of participants in the conflict. He has been following the Azovstal / Mariopul conflict for the past two months collecting information for a possible book.

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