Over 1,000 fighters transferred from Ukraine’s Mariupol to Russia for ‘investigation’: report

more than 1,000 Ukrainian fighters Russian state media reported on Wednesday that those who surrendered during the battle over the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol were taken to Russia “for investigation there”.

The TASS news agency, citing a law enforcement source, reported that at least 100 prisoners were being held in Moscow and that among them were “foreign mercenaries.”

“More than 1,000 people from Azovstal was transferred to Russia. The source said law enforcement officers are working with them. The investigators also plan to send a number of other prisoners to Russia in the future, after a series of direct confrontations.

The report could not be independently verified.

Russia threatens journalists while America discusses the final in Ukraine

The Russian Defense Ministry says about 2,400 people surrendered in Mariupol before Russia took control of the steel plant there.

The Ukrainian government wants Russia to conduct a prisoner exchange and hand over all those who laid down their arms, but Russian lawmakers want some of the captives to be prosecuted, according to Reuters.

Azovstal mineral group, damaged during the fighting, is seen from the Mariupol sea port in Mariupol, Ukraine, on Monday, May 30.
(AFP)

Ukraine’s Military Intelligence Agency said, on Tuesday, that Russia has so far handed over the bodies of 210 Ukrainian fighters killed in Iraq. Mariupol battleAnd many of them are among the last strongholds of the Azovstal steel mills.

The agency did not specify the number of bodies believed to have remained under the rubble of the factory.

Ukrainian soldiers sit on a bus after being evacuated from the besieged Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol on Tuesday, May 17.
(AP Photo)

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Russia now controls the devastated coastal city. I started delivering the bodies last week. Ukraine said on Saturday that the two sides exchanged 320 bodies, and each recovered 160 bodies. It was not clear if more bodies had been handed over to Russia.

Ukrainian fighters defended the steel plants for nearly three months before surrendering in May under relentless Russian attacks from land, sea and air.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.