Russian government sources say that 900 Ukrainian soldiers who left the Mariupol iron plant and surrendered to the Russian army have been sent to Russian prison colonies.
Hundreds of Ukrainian soldiers have surrendered to the Russian army in ambush at the Mariupolin Azovstal steel plant after weeks of siege and warnings during the months-long Russian war in Ukraine.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zharo said that 51 of the 959 Ukrainian soldiers who surrendered to the Russian army after leaving the plant had been hospitalized for their injuries and the remaining 908 Ukrainian soldiers had been imprisoned in the Russian military’s prison town of Olenivka.
Russian spokesman Dmitry Peskov declined to give a clear explanation as to whether the Ukrainian soldiers thus sent to prison shoes would be treated as criminals or prisoners of war.
Following this, the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense said in a statement that it was implementing the process of transferring captured soldiers and that Ukrainian heroes would be released soon.
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The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense also said that it was taking all possible measures to rescue Ukrainian soldiers still lurking inside the ambush pipes of the Azovstal steel plant.