Mariupol siege nears end, but Donbas fight ongoing

KYIV, Ukraine, May 20 ------ The battle that turned Mariupol into a worldwide symbol of defiance and suffering drew toward a close as Russia said nearly 1,000 last-ditch Ukrainian fighters who held out inside a pulverized steel plant had surrendered.

The Ukrainian military made no mention of the southern port city in its early morning briefing on May 19, saying only that Russian forces were still pressing their offensive on various sections of the front in the east, but were being successfully repelled. In the eastern Donbas region, which has been the center of recent fighting as Moscow's forces on the offensive have clashed with staunch Ukrainian resistance, four civilians were killed in the town of Sievierodonetsk during a Russian bombardment, Luhansk Gov. Serhiy Haidai said. Three other civilians were wounded in the attack on May 18 and the shelling continued into early May 19, he added.

On the Russian side of the border, Roman Starovoit, governor of Kursk province, said a truck driver was killed and several other civilians wounded by Ukrainian shelling. Separatist authorities in the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine said two civilians were killed and five wounded, also by Ukrainian shelling over the last 24 hours. The Ukrainian fighters who emerged from the ruined Azovstal steel mill after being ordered by their military to abandon the last stronghold of resistance in the now-flattened city face an uncertain fate. Some were taken by the Russians to a former penal colony in territory controlled by Moscow-backed separatists. While Ukraine said it hoped to get the soldiers back in a prisoner swap, Russia threatened to put some of them on trial for war crimes. In the first war-crimes trial held by Ukraine, a captured Russian soldier pleaded guilty on May 18 for killing a civilian and faces possible life in prison.

Amnesty International said the Red Cross should be given immediate access to the Mariupol fighters who surrendered. Denis Krivosheev, Amnesty's deputy director for the region, cited lawless executions allegedly carried out by Russian forces in Ukraine and said the Azovstal defenders "must not meet the same fate." It was unclear how many fighters remained inside the plant's labyrinth of tunnels and bunkers, where 2,000 were believed to be holed up at one point. A separatist leader in the region said no top commander had emerged from the steelworks. The plant was the only thing standing in the way of Russia declaring the full capture of Mariupol. Its fall would make Mariupol the biggest Ukrainian city to be taken by Moscow's forces, giving a boost to Putin in a war where many of his plans have gone awry.

Military analysts, though, said the city's capture at this point would hold more symbolic importance than anything else, since Mariupol is already effectively under Moscow's control and most of the Russian forces that were tied down by the drawn-out fighting had already left. Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said 959 Ukrainian troops had abandoned the stronghold since they started coming out on May 16. Video showed the fighters carrying out their wounded on stretchers and undergoing pat-down searches before being taken away on buses escorted by military vehicles bearing the pro-Kremlin "Z" sign.

The US has gathered intelligence that shows some Russian officials have become concerned that Kremlin forces in Mariupol are committing abuses, including beating city officials, subjecting them to electric shocks and robbing homes, an American official familiar with the findings said. The Russian officials are concerned the abuses would further inspire residents to resist the occupation, and the treatment runs counter to Moscow's claims that its military has liberated Russian speakers, added the official, who was not authorized to comment. In the war-crimes case in Kyiv, Russian Sgt. Vadim Shishimarin, a 21-year-old member of a tank unit, pleaded guilty to shooting an unarmed 62-year-old Ukrainian man in the head through a car window in the opening days of the war. Ukraine's top prosecutor has said some 40 more war-crimes cases are being readied.

Source: manilatimes.net