Hundreds and more Ukrainian fighters who made their stand inside Mariupol’s bombed-out steel plant surrendered, bringing the total to over 1,700, Russia said Thursday, amid international fears about the fate of the prisoners in Moscow’s hands.
Amnesty International said in a tweet that the Ukrainian soldiers are now prisoners of war and as such “must not be subjected to any form of torture or ill-treatment.”
While Ukraine expressed hope for a prisoner exchange, Russian authorities have threatened to investigate some of the Azovstal fighters for war crimes and put them on trial, branding them “Nazis” and criminals.
The Azov Regiment’s far-right origins have been seized on by the Kremlin as part of an effort to cast Russia’s invasion as a battle against Nazi influence in Ukraine.
Russia taking the Azovstal steel gave the notion that Russia would claim complete control of Mariupol and secure a long-sought victory.
But it was only a symbolic victory, since the city is already effectively in Moscow’s hands and analysts say most of the Russian forces that were tied down by the battle there have already left.
Ever since, Kyiv’s troops, bolstered by Western weapons, have thwarted Russia’s initial goal of storming the capital, Kyiv, and have put up stiff resistance against Moscow’s forces in the Donbas, the eastern industrial region that President Vladimir Putin has set his sights on capturing and other strategic places.
The surprising success of Ukraine’s troops has buoyed Kyiv’s confidence.
It is only fair to say that both Russia and Ukraine have POWs from both sides.
