On May 20, the Russian Ministry of Defense announced that all defending Ukrainian soldiers had left the territory of the Azovstal plant. There is no independent confirmation of this information. The plant remained the last bastion of the defenders of Mariupol, which came under Russian control in April.

According to a statement by the Russian Ministry of Defense, the head of the department, Sergei Shoigu, reported to Vladimir Putin on Friday about “the completion of the operation and the complete liberation of the plant and the city of Mariupol.”

According to the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, a total of 2,439 Ukrainian soldiers who were on the territory of Azovstal surrendered.

The Ukrainian authorities did not officially comment on the surrender of the plant to Russian troops. Previously, they called what was happening a “rescue operation” of the military, avoiding the terms “captivity” or “surrender.”

In his last nightly address, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky did not mention the end of the operation at the plant, but before that, on the air of the telethon, he said that “as of today, all civilians, doctors, and the wounded have been taken out of Azovstal.” “In the near future, not even one of these days, the export of everyone will be completed,” the Ukrainian president added.

On Friday evening, a video appeared in the Russian state media and pro-government telegram channels with the defender of Azovstal, the commander of the 36th Marine Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Sergei Volynsky (call sign “Volyn”), in which he introduces himself and confirms that he was taken prisoner. It was also alleged that the commander of Azov Denis Prokopenko (call sign Radish) and the castle Svyatoslav Palamara (call sign Kalina) left the territory of the plant. Video recordings with them have not been published.

The Russian Ministry of Defense stated that Prokopenko, the commander of Azov, was taken out of the territory of the plant in a special armored car, allegedly “because of the hatred of the Mariupol residents and the desire of the townspeople to punish him for numerous atrocities.” Earlier, Russian officials repeatedly tried to blame the indiscriminate bombing and mass death of civilians as a result of the siege of Mariupol on “Ukrainian nationalists”. In mid-April, the OSCE mission published a report on war crimes and violations of humanitarian law by Russian troops in Mariupol.

The Russian Ministry of Defense reported that the wounded defenders of Azovstal would be sent to medical institutions in Novoazovsk and Donetsk on the territory of the self-proclaimed DPR.

Most of the prisoners of war were sent to a penal colony in the village of Yelenovka near Donetsk – according to the adviser to the mayor of Mariupol Petr Andryushchenko, there are already three to four thousand Mariupol residents who have not passed the so-called filtration.

At least 89 more people from among the defenders of Azovstal were taken to Russia and imprisoned in SIZO-2 in Taganrog. According to TASS, the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation plans to interrogate the Ukrainian military as part of an investigation into “the crimes of the Ukrainian regime.”

Kyiv expects to return the military to the territory under its control, said President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky. And Deputy Prime Minister Irina Vereshchuk said that she hopes for the exchange of wounded Ukrainian soldiers after their recovery for Russian prisoners of war.

Many Russian politicians and pro-government media opposed the exchange. In particular, State Duma speaker Vyacheslav Volodin instructed State Duma committees to prepare a resolution prohibiting the exchange of “Nazi criminals” (as the members of the Ukrainian Azov regiment were called in the Duma).

In response, Deputy Minister of Defense of Ukraine Anna Malyar called on fellow citizens “not to worry too much about the calls of Russian deputies not to exchange captured fighters of the Azov regiment: these calls, in her opinion, can be designed for an internal audience.

Active hostilities at Azovstal began on March 18, 2022. In early March, Mariupol itself was surrounded by Russian troops. At the same time, Azovstal remained under the control of Ukraine, as the Ukrainian military took refuge at the plant, including from the Azov regiment, who defended the plant.

On April 1, Russian President Vladimir Putin “on camera” meeting with the Minister of Defense, canceled the order to storm Azovstal and instructed the Russian military to block the plant’s territory. Nevertheless, the bombing and attempts to storm the plant, according to the Ukrainian side, did not stop.

The military and civilians who remained at Azovstal refused to surrender and actually found themselves in a blockade: they had almost no water, food, medicines and ammunition.

At the same time, the Russian military failed to capture Azovstal. The plant occupies a vast territory between the Kalmius River on the one hand and the shore of the Sea of Azov on the other. The plant has its own cargo port and an extensive system of underground utilities. The assault on such a fortified area by infantry units can last for weeks without a guaranteed result.

The American Institute for the Study of War (ISW) believes that Russian sources may exaggerate the number of Ukrainian soldiers who left Azovstal. According to ISW, this may be done either to negotiate the exchange of the maximum number of prisoners, or to avoid the unpleasant admission that only “hundreds” of Ukrainian soldiers managed to keep the plant under control for so long.

In times of war, the BBC cannot promptly verify information from officials of the warring parties.