Ukraine’s military announced on Tuesday that it was trying to evacuate all remaining troops from the beleaguered port of Mariupol, relinquishing control to Russia after months of shelling.
The evacuation of hundreds of combatants, many of whom were wounded, to Russian-held areas certainly signalled the conclusion of the Ukraine war’s longest and bloodiest conflict, as well as a huge loss for Ukraine. Mariupol is now in ruins following a Russian siege that Ukraine claims killed tens of thousands of people.
‘The ‘Mariupol’ garrison has completed its combat mission,’ said Ukraine’s General Staff in a statement.
‘The high military command directed the commanders of the forces stationed at Azovstal to spare the lives of the personnel… Mariupol defenders are our time’s heroes,’ it continued.
According to Ukrainian Deputy Defence Minister Anna Malyar, 53 injured troops from the steelworks were transported to a hospital in the Russian-controlled town of Novoazovsk, some 32 kilometres (20 miles) to the east, while another 211 people were transported to the town of Olenivka, which is controlled by Russian-backed separatists.
She said that all evacuees could be vulnerable to a prisoner swap with Russia.
It was estimated that 600 troops were inside the steel facility. The Ukrainian military said operations were underway to evacuate those who remained inside.
‘We hope to be able to spare our men’ lives,’ Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy stated in an early morning address. ‘There are some who have been gravely injured. They are being cared for. Ukraine requires the survival of Ukrainian heroes.’
According to Reuters, five buses carrying Azovstal personnel arrived in Novoazovsk late on Monday. Men were packed on stretchers on three levels in one, which was marked with a Z, like many Russian military vehicles in Ukraine. One man was wheeled out, his head covered securely in heavy bandages.
Ukrainian fighters have recently drove Russian soldiers out of the area around Kharkiv, the largest city in the east, after previously holding the capital Kyiv and its environs.
However, heavy combat and bombardment persisted across a large portion of the country’s east.
According to Zelenskiy’s office, the entire front line around Donetsk is under constant enormous bombardment, while a missile strike on the town of Desna in the northern district of Chernihiv killed and injured an indeterminate number of people.
Following defeats elsewhere, Ukraine’s military staff stated that Russian forces were reinforcing and ready to restart their offensive near Slovyansk and Drobysheve, southeast of the important town of Izyum.
Russian attacks have persisted in the areas surrounding Kyiv and Lviv, close the Polish border. According to Reuters, a series of explosions hit Lviv early Tuesday. According to Zelenskiy’s administration, one missile struck a military facility but caused no casualties.
According to regional Governor Roman Starovoit, a village in Russia’s western province of Kursk, which borders Ukraine, came under Ukrainian fire on Tuesday. Three residences and a school were struck, but no one was hurt, he added.
Russian border guards returned fire to stop the firing from large-calibre weapons in the border settlement of Alekseyevka, according to Starovoit, who posted on the messaging app Telegram.
Moscow describes its nearly three-month-old invasion as a ‘special military operation’ to free Ukraine of Nazis, which Kyiv and its Western allies dismiss as a flimsy justification for an unprovoked war.
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