According to reports by the Interfax agency, a window is opening for the evacuation of the last wounded at the Azovstal Steel Plant in Mariupol after the Russian Defense Ministry announced a ceasefire agreement with Kyiv. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy expressed his opinion on the ongoing negotiations, speaking in a video message published yesterday, March 15, about “very difficult and delicate negotiations to save our people from Mariupol and Azovstal”. A humanitarian corridor has already been activated for the wounded soldiers in the steel mill. According to local media, the buses with more than 51 wounded, mainly from the Azov battalion, are already outside and being taken by Donetsk separatist troops first to the hospital and then to prison.
The Kremlin’s announcement comes as Kyiv’s closest officials remain skeptical about Russian overtures. In particular, adviser to Ukraine’s Interior Minister Vadym Denysenko is quoted by Ukrinform: “Everything is clear here about Azovstal. Unfortunately, the only task for the Russian troops is to capture the steel mill. There are no other modalities, despite all the efforts of President Zelenskyy, all our diplomacy and the families of those who are currently in the steel mill, unfortunately this is Putin’s personal decision ».
The yellow on the surrendered Ukrainian soldiers
A few hours before the Kremlin’s announcement, the commander of a unit of the internal forces of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, Alexander Khodakowski, announced the first surrender of the soldiers barricaded in the steelworks: “Ten soldiers with white flags came out . out of a tunnel”. A fact denied by the Marijupol Mayor’s adviser Petro Andryushchenko, who instead repeatedly denounced how intense the Russian bombing of the plant had become.
Also read: