Ukraine army orders Azovstal soldiers to stop fighting: commander

World

Published: 2022-05-20 17:46

Last Updated: 2024-03-27 22:01


Ukraine army orders Azovstal soldiers to stop fighting: commander
Ukraine army orders Azovstal soldiers to stop fighting: commander

The remaining Ukrainian troops holed up in Mariupol's besieged Azovstal steel works have been ordered by Kyiv to stop fighting, a commander of a battalion leading the trapped units said Friday, AFP reported.

"The higher military command has given the order to save the lives of the soldiers of our garrison and to stop defending the city," Denys Prokopenko said in a video on Telegram.

An "ongoing process" was underway to remove killed fighters from the plant, he added.

The soldiers, blockaded in the giant steelworks for weeks, have become a symbol of Ukraine's fierce resistance to Russia's military operation.

The comments came as Moscow said 1,908 Ukrainian troops have surrendered since Monday.