The Azovstal steelworks complex in Mariupol, the last stronghold of the Ukrainian resistance in this strategic port on the Sea of ​​Azov, fell under Russian control on Friday night (20), and in the Donbass further north of the country. Moscow reached the positions of Kiev.

On Friday night, a spokesman for the Russian Defense Ministry said that after the surrender of the last Ukrainian soldiers, the steel complex “has passed into full control of the Russian armed forces” and the news was conveyed to the President. Vladimir Putin.

Footage released by Moscow shows groups of war equipment, some with crutches or bandages, leaving the steelworks after a long war that has become a symbol of Ukraine’s resistance to Russian occupation.

“The military top command has given the order to save the lives of the soldiers in our garrison and stop defending the city,” the regimental commander Denys Prokopenko said in a video posted on Telegram, wearing a large bandage on his right arm. an underground chamber. Kyiv rejects the term surrender, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky describes the operation as “the rescue of our heroes”.

The Russian military released images late Friday that it says are of unarmed Ukrainian fighters held by Russian soldiers. Ukraine hopes to exchange prisoners of war, but Russia has made this clear by indirectly targeting the Azov regiment, which some see as “neo-Nazi” fighters.

The International Committee of the Red Cross urged both sides to provide access to prisoners of war and civilians “wherever they are being held”.

12,000 war crimes investigations

The battle for control of Mariupol resulted in several war crimes charges by Western powers, including the attack on a maternity hospital. According to the Ukrainian prosecutor’s office, Ukraine has opened more than 12,000 war crimes investigations since February 24.

On Friday, Sergeant Vadim Shishimarin, 21, admitted at the first hearing of a Russian soldier charged with war crimes since the invasion began, that he killed an unarmed civilian early in the attack. A decision is expected this Monday (23). The young soldier said he was “sincerely sorry” and his lawyer, in closing remarks, declared him “not guilty” of willful murder and war crimes.

Unable to take Kyiv or Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city in the country’s northeast, Russia is concentrating its military efforts in the east and south. “The enemy is constantly conducting offensive operations in the eastern operational zone to maintain full control over the territory of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions and temporarily occupy the Crimea and the land corridor,” the personnel of the Ukrainian forces wrote on Facebook in the morning. Said. this saturday (21).

In the Donbass basin, which has been partially controlled by pro-Russian separatists since 2014, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said the conquest of the Lugansk region was “almost complete”. Ukraine’s Defense Ministry spokesman Oleksandre Motouzianyk said the situation was “showing signs of worsening” and that “Russian occupation forces opened heavy fire along the entire front”.

“While we are resisting, our troops are recruiting foreign weapons, re-arming, regrouping, and I think we will see a counterattack in June,” local governor Serguiï Gaïdaï said on Friday-Saturday night.

Attack ‘brutal and absolutely useless’

At least eight people, including a child, were injured in a Russian missile attack on a newly built cultural center in the eastern town of Lozova, Ukrainian officials said on Friday.

Russian attacks in Severodonetsk in the Lugansk region on Thursday left 12 dead and 40 injured, according to Sergiï Gaïdaï. Severodonetsk and Lyssychansk, separated by a river, form the last stronghold of Ukrainian resistance in the region.

While Turkey-mediated talks stalled a few weeks ago, Italy said on Friday it had proposed the creation of “an international facilitation group made up of international organizations” such as the UN, the European Union and the Security Service. Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).

“The aim is to work step-by-step (…) starting with, for example, local ceasefires, the withdrawal of civilians, the possibility of opening safe humanitarian corridors, and then of course a general ceasefire, followed by a sustainable peace-building. with a real peace agreement”, Italian in Turin Chancellor Luigi Di Maio announced.

But for now, the war continues, and the G7 nations gathered in Germany pledged on Friday to mobilize $19.8 billion to help Ukraine “fill the financial gap.” The day before, the US Congress issued a massive $40 billion package to Ukraine to allow the country to be equipped with armored vehicles and strengthen its anti-aircraft defences.

(with information from AFP)