The Azov Regiment has stopped the defense of Mariupol in order to preserve the lives of its soldiers.
The Regiment Commander, Lieutenant Colonel Denys Prokopenko announced this in a video address, Ukrainian News Agency reports.
"86 days of defense of Mariupol. The top military leadership gave an order to preserve the life and health of the garrison servicemen and stop the defense of the city," Prokopenko said.
Prokopenko noted that they managed to evacuate all the civilians of the city who were hiding at the Azovstal. The seriously wounded received the necessary assistance and they were also evacuated. It is planned to exchange them and deliver to the territory controlled by Ukraine.
"As for the killed heroes, the process continues," Prokopenko said.
As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, the Deputy Commander of the Azov Regiment, Sviatoslav Palamar, announced that as of Thursday, May 19, he and the command were on the territory of the Azovstal plant in Mariupol.
The Russian Ministry of Defense claims that almost a thousand Ukrainian fighters left the blocked Azovstal plant in Mariupol.
A video of the wounded defenders of Azov being searched got into social networks.
Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov said that the defenders of Mariupol complied with the order and restrained the Russian invaders for almost 2 months, and now they are fulfilling the order to save their lives.
It is planned to exchange the Ukrainian military for captured Russian soldiers. Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Reintegration of Temporarily Occupied Territories Iryna Vereshchuk said that the exchange will take place after the condition of the wounded improves.
The DPR group claims that the Ukrainian servicemen are being interrogated in a pre-trial detention center.
On May 16, Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar reported that 53 seriously wounded fighters from Azovstal were evacuated to the hospital of occupied Novoazvosk, and another 211 were taken through a humanitarian corridor to occupied Olenivka.
Earlier, the Commander of the Azov Regiment, Denys Prokopenko, said that they had completed the task, and that it was important to save the lives of the military.
On May 12, the Russian side rejected Turkey's proposals to evacuate the defenders of Mariupol, Donetsk region, who were located at the Azovstal plant.
Meanwhile, experts from the U.S. Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said that the Kremlin needs a victory, so they want to declare Mariupol completely under Russian control as soon as possible. Thus they explained the fact that Russia agreed to evacuate the Ukrainian defenders from Azovstal.
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