Moscow says more Mariupol fighters surrendering; kyiv is silent about its fate

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KYIV/MARIUPOL (AP) — Russia said Wednesday nearly 700 more Ukrainian fighters had surrendered in Mariupol, but kyiv remained silent on their fate, while a pro-Russian separatist leader said the commanders were still hiding in tunnels under the steel mill. from Azovstal.

More than a day after kyiv announced that it had ordered its garrison in Mariupol to withdraw, the outcome of Europe’s bloodiest battle in decades remained unresolved. Ukrainian officials stopped all public discussion about the fate of the fighters who had last held there.

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“The state is making maximum efforts to carry out the rescue of our military. Let’s hope. Currently, the most important thing is to save the lives of our heroes,” military spokesman Oleksandr Motuzaynik told a news conference. “Any information to the public could jeopardize that process.”

Russia said 694 more fighters had surrendered overnight, bringing the total number of people who had laid down their arms to 959. The leader of the pro-Russian separatists who control the area, Denis Pushilin, was quoted by local news agency DNA. saying that the top commanders were still inside the plant.

Ukrainian authorities had confirmed the surrender of more than 250 fighters on Tuesday, but did not say how many more were inside or what might become of them.

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“Unfortunately, the issue is very sensitive and there is a very fragile set of talks today, therefore I cannot say anything more,” Mariupol Mayor Vadym Boichenko said. He said President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, the Red Cross and the United Nations were involved in the talks, but gave no details.

Negotiations over the surrender of Mariupol came as Finland and Sweden formally applied to join NATO, sparking the very expansion that Russian President Vladimir Putin has long cited as one of his main reasons for launching the “special military operation”. ” in February.

The final surrender would close a nearly three-month siege on the port city of more than 400,000 people, where Ukraine says tens of thousands of civilians have been killed under Russian bombardment.

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Ukrainian officials have talked about organizing an exchange of prisoners for defenders of Mariupol. Moscow says no such deal was made for the fighters, many of them from a unit with far-right origins it calls Nazis.

Russia says more than 50 wounded fighters have been taken to a hospital for treatment, and others have been taken to a prison, both in cities controlled by pro-Russian separatists.

The Russian Defense Ministry released videos of what it said were Ukrainian fighters receiving hospital treatment after surrendering in Azovstal.

One man lying in bed said he had access to food and doctors, while a second said he had been bandaged and had no complaints about his treatment. It was not possible to establish whether the men spoke freely.

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The Kremlin says that Putin has personally guaranteed the humane treatment of those who surrender. Other Russian politicians have called for them to be held captive and even executed.

FINLAND AND SWEDEN APPLY TO NATO

The ambassadors of Sweden and Finland handed over their NATO application letters at a ceremony at the alliance’s headquarters in Brussels.

“This is a historic moment that we must seize,” said NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.

US President Joe Biden said Washington would work with Finland and Sweden to stay vigilant against any threats while their membership was considered.

Turkey has said in recent days that it will block Nordic members from joining unless they do more to crack down on Kurdish militants on its soil. Stoltenberg said he thought the problem could be overcome, and Washington also said he hopes it will be resolved.

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Finland, which shares a 1,300 km (810 mile) border with Russia, and Sweden were militarily non-aligned during the Cold War.

Although Russia had threatened to retaliate against the plans, Putin said on Monday that his NATO membership would not be a problem unless the alliance sends more troops or weapons there.

Despite the war and sanctions, Russia remains the main source of energy for Europe.

The EU’s executive European Commission announced a €210 billion plan for Europe to end its dependence on Russian oil, gas and coal by 2027, including plans to more than double the renewable energy capacity of the EU by 2030.

In another sign of Moscow’s isolation, Google became the latest major Western company to pull out of Russia, saying its Russian unit had declared bankruptcy and was forced to close operations after its bank accounts were seized.

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VICTORY

The surrender of the steel plant in Mariupol would allow Putin to claim a rare victory in a campaign that has otherwise failed. In recent weeks, Russian forces have left the area around Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, after being pushed out from the north and around the capital kyiv in late March.

However, Moscow has continued to press its main offensive, trying to capture more territory in the Donbass region of southeastern Ukraine, which it claims on behalf of separatists it has supported since 2014.

Mariupol, the main port of Donbas, is the largest city Russia has captured so far, giving Moscow full control of the Sea of ​​Azov and an unbroken swath of territory in eastern and southern Ukraine. The siege was Europe’s deadliest battle since at least the wars in Chechnya and the Balkans of the 1990s.

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The almost total destruction of the city demonstrated Russia’s tactic of raining fire on population centers.

Human Rights Watch said it had documented more cases of apparent war crimes committed by Russian troops in the kyiv and Chernihiv regions from late February through March, including summary executions, torture and other serious abuses.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov and the Russian Defense Ministry did not respond to requests for comment on the report. Moscow denies targeting civilians and says, without evidence, signs of atrocities were staged to discredit its troops.

(Reporting by Natalia Zinets and Max Hunder in kyiv and a Reuters reporter in Mariupol Additional reporting from Reuters Offices Writing by Peter Graff and Angus MacSwan; Editing by Nick Macfie and Philippa Fletcher)