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Ukraine is also seeking to evacuate the last soldiers trapped in the Azovstal steel plant as the first war crimes trial of a Russian soldier begins in Kiev.
As the war entered its third month, Azovstal became a symbol of fierce Ukrainian resistance that repelled Russian occupation with much greater efficiency than expected and forced President Vladimir Putin to recalibrate his military objectives from capturing the capital. Kiev in focus on the eastern regions of the country.
Units of Ukrainian soldiers were standing in the underground maze of tunnels of the giant plant, impeding Russia’s advance through the surrounding territory, yet on Tuesday Moscow announced that more than 260 of them had already surrendered.
Kiev’s defense ministry said it would do “everything necessary” to save the number of personnel still at the plant, but acknowledged that no military option was available.
“The evacuation mission continues, it is overseen by our military and intelligence,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a speech overnight.
“It involves the most influential international mediators,” he continued. Troops fleeing Azovstal have been taken prisoner by the Russians, including 51 seriously injured who were taken to a hospital in the eastern Donetsk region controlled by pro-Kremlin rebels. The Defense Ministry in Kiev said it hoped for an “exchange procedure… to repatriate these Ukrainian heroes as soon as possible.”
Meanwhile in Kiev, 21-year-old Russian soldier Vadim Shishimarin, from Irkutsk, Siberia, is on trial for allegedly shooting an unarmed civilian and threatening him with life imprisonment.
Prosecutors say Shishimarin’s tank unit was attacked and he and four other soldiers robbed a car in the Sumy region, where they encountered a 62-year-old cyclist, whom the Russians opened fire on, leaving him dead on the spot.
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