[ad_1]
Russian television today broadcast footage of Ukrainian soldiers allegedly surrendering in the southern city of Mariupol, at a time when the presidents of four countries bordering Russia had arrived in Kiev to show support for Ukraine.
Russia’s defense ministry said 1,026 soldiers from the 36th Navy Brigade, including 162 officers, had “voluntarily lowered their weapons” near the Ilyich iron ore plant.
The Ukrainian Defense Ministry said there was no information about the surrender while the military command said Russian forces had attacked the Azovstal industrial zone and the city port.
While the Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, whose forces are taking part in the battle, had urged the last Ukrainians who were resisting in Azovstal to surrender.
Mariupol is one of the main targets of the Russian army to take control of the eastern Donbas region. The mayor said 21,000 civilians have died while about 100,000 remain in Mariupol awaiting evacuation.
The capture of the city would mark the acquisition of the land connection between the self-proclaimed republics of Donetsk and Luhansk in Donbas, and Crimea. The latter complained by Moscow since 2014.
Today in Kiev were the Polish presidents Andrzej Duda, that of Estonia Alar Karis, that of Gitanas Nausėda of Lithuania and that of Latvia, Egils Levits.
“We are going to Kiev to send a strong message of political and military support,” Nausėda said from the train station before departure.
top channel
[ad_2]
Source link
