Ukrainian Minister of Defence Oleksi Reznikov declared that the Russian invasion of Ukraine had entered a “protracted phase” in an address to the European Union (EU) Foreign Affairs Council for Defence ministers on Tuesday. His remarks came shortly after Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Maliar announced the evacuation of over 260 soldiers of the Azov regiment from the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol the previous day.
Reznikov further accused Moscow of commencing engineering and fortification work in the Kherson region to prepare for military action. In this respect, Reznikov asked the EU to “not let Russia prolong the conflict,” as this would hamper the Ukrainian economy, leading to “the risk of a global food crisis, as well as another migration crisis.”
@oleksiireznikov to #DefMin at the meeting of FA @EUCouncil & @Mircea_Geoana:
— Defence of Ukraine (@DefenceU) May 18, 2022
17🇷🇺BTGs were destroyed in 80 days.🇷🇺 is unable to conduct offensive simultaneously in several strategic areas.The protracted war creates the risk of a global food crisis,as well as migration crisis
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The evacuation operation at the Azovstal steel plant continued on Tuesday, with over 200 others being moved to a recently reopened prison in Olenivka. Maliar also revealed that 53 heavily wounded armed personnel were sent to a hospital in the Russian-controlled town of Novoazovsk. While she refused to divulge the number of men still trapped in the plant, she said that the regiment had completed their combat mission in Mariupol.
In a video statement on Telegram, the commander of the Azov Regiment of the National Guard stationed in Mariupol, Denys Propokenko, announced, “The defenders of Mariupol carried out the order, despite all the difficulties, distracted the overwhelming forces of the enemy for 82 days and allowed the Ukrainian army to regroup, train more personnel and receive a large number of weapons from partner countries.”
I didn’t know English has so many ways to express a single message: the #Azovnazis have unconditionally surrendered https://t.co/cIZtkVkixi
— Dmitry Polyanskiy (@Dpol_un) May 17, 2022
In sharp contrast, Russian First Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations (UN) Dmitry Polyansky called it a surrender, tweeting, “I didn’t know English has so many ways to express a single message: the #Azovnazis have unconditionally surrendered.”
Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister (PM) Iryna Vereshchuk stated that they intended to arrange a prisoner swap for the wounded once their condition stabilises. However, several Russian leaders opposed the proposed prisoner exchange, with speaker of Russia’s lower house Vyacheslav Volodin asserting, “Nazi criminals should not be exchanged,” while Russian Presidential aide Leonid Slutsky called the evacuated Ukrainian men “animals in human form” who should be executed.
Nevertheless, the Kremlin assured that Russian President Vladimir Putin had personally guaranteed that the captured soldiers would be treated according to international standards. Additionally, Russian state-owned media outlet TASS reported that the soldiers would be interrogated by a special committee about what Moscow calls “crimes by the Ukrainian regime against the civilian population” in eastern Ukraine.
Hanna Maliar, Deputy Minister of Defense, on evacuation from #Azovstal.
— Anton Gerashchenko (@Gerashchenko_en) May 16, 2022
The most important thing for Ukraine is to keep them alive.
English subtitles#UkraineUnderAttaсk #AzovstalExtraction pic.twitter.com/TiYAuT0B7F
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky also talked about the Azovstal evacuation during his video address on Tuesday, saying, “The operation to rescue the defenders of Mariupol was started by our military and intelligence officers. To bring the boys home, the work continues, and this work needs delicacy. And time.”
Furthermore, he informed EU about the negotiation process with Russia, which Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova called a blackmail tactic used on European states “in order to solve the tasks that the United States has set for them in the first place.”
An article in Vzglyad says that Russia did not storm Azovstal steel in Mariupol to deny the Azov Battalion members the glory that comes with death in battle
— Samuel Ramani (@SamRamani2) May 17, 2022
Instead, the plan was always to force the Azov Regiment to surrender in order to discredit it as a fighting force
“The people who were at Azovstal, who were simply betrayed by their own leadership in Kyiv, because they used them as a tool for blackmail for everyone else. Purposelessly, completely thoughtlessly and callously,” she told Sputnik radio station on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, all civilians, including the elderly, women and children, were evacuated from the Azovstal steel plant earlier this month in a coordinated operation between the UN and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). In fact, UN Secretary-General António Guterres met Putin in Moscow last month to facilitate the evacuation of civilians through humanitarian corridors, and urged him to end the Ukraine war.
The reality of the Ukrainian warriors of the Mariupol garrison is such that even @MarvelStudios would not be able to fully comprehend it…#Azovstal#Mariupol#UAarmy#UAMarines#UATerritorialDefence@ng_ukraine & #Azov@DPSU_ua @NPU_GOV_UA
— Oleksii Reznikov (@oleksiireznikov) May 16, 2022
Photo by Dmytro Kozatskyi pic.twitter.com/gmhMSz5C2i
Zelensky claimed about 300 civilians were evacuated, whereas the Russian Defence Ministry said 51 people left over a period of three days. However, no confirmation came from either the UN or the ICRC.
With the fall of the Azovstal plant, which was the last stranglehold for the Ukrainian forces in Mariupol, Russia now has clear access to southern and eastern Ukraine, and a direct land connection between the Donbas region and Crimea, which Moscow annexed in 2014. However, the Ukrainian forces pushed back the Russian forces around the second-largest city of Kharkiv in the north in a counter-attack. A senior US administration official claimed that Ukrainian soldiers were within three to four kilometres away from the Russian border.
Information on #Russian invasion.
— MFA of Ukraine 🇺🇦 (@MFA_Ukraine) May 18, 2022
Losses of the Russian armed forces in #Ukraine, May 18. pic.twitter.com/YJ7WB9SZcs
Zelensky also said that Russian forces were targeting the Lviv, Sumy, and Chernihiv regions, calling it a futile attempt that “does not change anything radically. Especially since our air defence and anti-sabotage measures are becoming stronger.” “This is a kind of attempt of the Russian army to compensate for a series of failures in the east and south of our country,” he added.
According to the Ukrainian Defence Ministry, three tanks, three artillery systems, six units of armoured combat vehicles and seven enemy vehicles were destroyed on Tuesday alone, while more than 28,000 Russian armed personnel have been killed to date.