“The evacuation mission continues. It is led by our military and intelligence officers, and the most influential international mediators are involved,” he said.
Zelensky noted that he discussed this process during a telephone conversation with the President of France Emmanuel Macron. He did not provide any other details about the process itself.
Agency Reutersreferring to an eyewitness, wrote that on May 17, seven buses with Ukrainian servicemen, accompanied by the Russian army, left the plant.
Video published Russian public Mash.
Also a video showing the evacuation process, published militant “DPR” Alexander Khodakovsky. It was also published on the YouTube channel of the publication “Apostrophe”.
VIDEO
Video: Apostrophe / YouTube
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War of Russia against Ukraine. The main thing (updated)
The Azovstal plant is the last facility held by the Ukrainian military in Mariupol. Among them are fighters of the National Guard, including the Azov regiment, SBU officers, military personnel of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, border guards and policemen. There were also hundreds of civilians in the bomb shelters of the plant until recently.
On May 2, the occupiers broke into the territory of Azovstal, where they began active fightsbut the Ukrainian defenders hold the linealthough they have lack of water, food and medicine. The fighting continues to this day.
Until the beginning of May, there were also local residents at Azovstal, who were hiding there from the shelling of the invaders. On May 7, their evacuation was completed. With the support of the UN and the Red Cross, they took away from the factory about 300 civilianmostly women and children, the Office of the President said.
On May 10, Vice Prime Minister – Minister for Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories of Ukraine Iryna Vereshchuk said that only more than 1 thousand Ukrainian servicemenamong them hundreds of wounded.
Defenders of Mariupol asked to evacuate those at Azovstal by applying the extraction procedure to them (movement to a third country), which guarantees that they will not return to Ukraine until the end of the war. However, Russia refused such a procedure. On May 12, Vereshchuk reported that negotiations are underway with the Russian Federation on the evacuation of seriously wounded Ukrainian servicemen from Azovstal in exchange for captured Russian servicemen.
On the evening of May 16, the Azov Regiment reported that “in order to save lives, the entire Mariupol garrison carries out the approved decision of the high military command and hopes for the support of the Ukrainian people.” What kind of solution, in the message was not specified. In a video message, the commander of the Azov regiment, Hero of Ukraine Denis Prokopenko (call sign Redis) said that “there are no completely safe plans and operations in the war.”
After that, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine announced that 264 Ukrainian servicemen were evacuated from Azovstal, including 53 seriously wounded. They were transported to Novoazovsk and Olenovka, which are located on the territory controlled by the “DPR” militants. The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine reported that they plan to exchange the evacuated defenders of Mariupol.
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On the night of May 17, Zelensky announced the beginning of the operation to rescue the defenders of Mariupol. According to him, it “requires delicacy and time.”
On the afternoon of May 17, Vereshchuk reported that the humanitarian the operation to rescue the Ukrainian military continues. Servicemen remain at Azovstal. The Ministry of Defense stated that will not tell their number until the operation is completed.
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