Pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine said on Wednesday that five Ukrainian soldiers defending the last redoubt controlled by Kyiv forces in Mariupol (southeastern Ukraine) had laid down their arms and that 140 civilians had been evacuated .
“Five Ukrainian servicemen have laid down their arms and left the Azovstal factory of their own free will,” where the ultimate defenders of Mariupol are entrenched, the authorities of the self-proclaimed separatist republic of Donetsk, unrecognized, said in a statement. by the international community.
In a separate statement released on Tuesday evening, the separatists said 140 civilians had been evacuated from the town.
These claims were not independently verifiable.
The Russian army and its separatist auxiliaries have been trying for nearly two months to seize Mariupol, a large port city ravaged by bombing and in the grip of a humanitarian disaster.
The last Ukrainian elements defending the city are essentially entrenched in the Azovstal metallurgical complex, a set of factories and underground passages from which Moscow forces are struggling to dislodge them.
Russia has repeatedly urged Ukrainian fighters to lay down their arms.
On Tuesday evening, a commander of the Ukrainian forces holed up in Azovstal called on the international community to proceed with their “extraction”, believing that he and his men were living their “last days” or even their “last hours”.
Pro-Russian separatists also accused Ukrainian forces in kyiv on Wednesday of having fired nearly 200 projectiles the day before at separatist areas, killing a civilian. Claims that cannot be independently verified.