Ukrainian Azovstal metal plant troopers who surrendered turned POWs, Pink Cross registry confirms

The Ukrainian troopers who surrendered Mariupol’s Azovstal metal plant after weeks of defiance have turn into prisoners of battle in Russian-controlled areas, the Worldwide Committee of the Pink Cross confirmed this week.

The ICRC registered tons of of the POWs, which means the group has private particulars about every service member. 

The POWs are being held in a separatist-controlled area of jap Ukraine, the group mentioned. 

“The registration course of that the ICRC facilitated includes the person filling out a type with private particulars like identify, date of start and closest relative,” a press release from the Pink Cross mentioned Thursday. “This data permits the ICRC to trace those that have been captured and assist them be in contact with their households.”

The registrations began on Tuesday, the Pink Cross mentioned, including that the work continued by Thursday. 

AZOVSTAL FIGHTERS WILL FACE RUSSIAN INTERROGATION, COURT 

Pink Cross workers drive by of their autos to the besieged Mariupol’s Azovstal metal plant to watch the evacuation of Ukrainian servicemen from Azovstal metal plant, in Mariupol, in territory beneath the federal government of the Donetsk Individuals’s Republic, jap Ukraine, Wednesday, Could 18, 2022. (G3 Field Information Picture)
(G3 Field Information Picture)

The Pink Cross mentioned that the 1949 Geneva Conventions mandate that the group be given instant entry to POWs “in every single place the place they’re held. The ICRC have to be allowed to interview prisoners of battle with out witnesses, and the length and frequency of those visits shouldn’t be unduly restricted.”

RUSSIAN-BACKED SEPARATISTS SAY 900 UKRAINIAN TROOPS SURRENDERED AT STEEL PLANT, DISPUTING EARLIER FIGURES 

On this picture taken from video launched by the Russian Protection Ministry Press Service on Wednesday, Could 18, 2022, Ukrainian servicemen stand in font of a Russian serviceman after they left the besieged Azovstal metal plant in Mariupol, Ukraine. (Russian Protection Ministry Press Service through G3 Field Information)
(Russian Protection Ministry Press Service through G3 Field Information)

Russia mentioned practically 1,000 of the final defenders holed up contained in the plant – Mariupol’s final pocket of resistance – had surrendered. 

Ukraine’s navy made no point out of Mariupol in its early morning briefing Thursday, saying solely that Russian forces had been nonetheless urgent their offensive on varied sections of the entrance within the east, however had been being efficiently repelled.

UKRAINE STRIKES DEAL TO EVACUATE AROUND 50 WOUNDED FIGHTERS FROM MARIUPOL AZOVSTAL FACTORY 

Combined studies have emerged regarding the variety of Ukrainian personnel that had been evacuated from the plant upon its give up, as early estimates put the determine between just a few hundred and 1,000, Ukraine’s navy mentioned.

A serviceman of Donetsk Individuals’s Republic militia stands guard not removed from the besieged Mariupol’s Azovstal metal plant in Mariupol, in territory beneath the federal government of the Donetsk Individuals’s Republic, jap Ukraine, Wednesday, Could 18, 2022. (G3 Field Information Picture)
(G3 Field Information Picture)

The Ukrainian fighters who emerged from the ruined Azovstal steelworks after being ordered by their navy to desert the final stronghold of resistance within the now-flattened port metropolis face an unsure destiny. The Russians reportedly took a few of them to a former penal colony in territory managed by Moscow-backed separatists.

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The G3 Field Information contributed to this report.