Did Mariupol fall? Ukraine’s strategic port, a martyred city of this war that lasted nearly 50 days, continues to fight bitterly amid little and sometimes conflicting information, victims of propaganda from both sides. But it fell into the hands of Russia seems inevitable.

On Wednesday, Russia said 1,026 Ukrainian soldiers had surrendered in the besieged port city. But a top adviser to the president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, insists on that the city still stands and some sailors joined another battalion.

The mayor of Mariupol said up to 21,000 civilians have been killed in the southern town 100,000 more are waiting to be evacuated.

The fact is that the city was surrounded by Russian forces, and it was also destroyed. Photos taken by a Russian drone show an apocalyptic destruction of this port enclave that once, less than two months ago, had 450 thousand inhabitants.

The city is deserted and its monoblocks are darkened by bombing, their facades with windows are blown away. No one sees.

Successively burning building blocks appear, no trees on the streets. No vehicles. It is scorched earth.

A “horror show”

When the city falls into the hands of the Russians, what will happen to the last pockets of the Ukrainian resistance?

The question was asked this Tuesday by the BBC, which has a battalion of journalists spread across Ukraine. Yogita Limaye, Mark Lowen, Joel Gunter and Anna Foster in kyiv; Jonathan Beale in the Donbas, Tom Bateman in the Dnipro, Catherine Byaruhanga in Odessa, Dan Johnson and Toby Luckhurst in Lviv.

According to the chain, in Mariupol (until the opposite is confirmed) the fight is called Battalion of Azova ultranationalist militia which is now part of the Ukrainian armed forces.

Azov warriors and Ukrainian sailors coped defend parts of the besieged city in recent weeks despite the depletion of resources and Russia’s brutal attack.

If the Marines surrender en masse, it’s not surprising, Drs. Aglaya Snetkov, Professor of International Politics at University College London, quoted by the BBC.

“They have run out of supplies, they have run out of food, ammunition and water. Ukrainian soldiers have posted online that their only option it is surrender or diebut the kyiv authorities closed that claim, ”he said.

But if thousands of Azov warriors are forced to surrender, they will face a “horror show” in the hands of Russian soldiers, he added.

“There are many will be killed and many will be forced to go in front of Russian television cameras to say what they have done.

“Really this will be the end of the Azov battalion, which is an integral part of the narrative of Russia about why they are involved in what they are doing in Ukraine … to fight the ‘Nazis’. “

Putin’s argument for the invasion of Ukraine to rescue it from the hands of the neo-Nazis is based on groups such as the Azov battalion, which took its name from the Sea of ​​Azov, on which Mariupol is dependent.

They are actually a small number of people who make up a small part of Ukraine’s general forces, but have been headlines since the war began.

His presence in Mariupol became the main focus of Moscow’s propaganda war.

Russia refers to its invasion as a “special military operation”, which it says it was “demilitarize” and “denazify” Ukraine.

The Azov battalion began as an ultra-nationalist militia in 2014, when it was formed to fight Russian-backed separatists who had taken over parts of Ukraine’s eastern Donbas.

but since then is under government supervision Ukrainian as part of the National Guard. It attracts a mix of united nationalists, ultranationalists and other youth for him I don’t like Russia and many of them speak Russian.

Having full control over Mariupol was a huge strategic advantage for Russian forces. This would allow them to redeploy thousands of troops to the east to concentrate on the new offensive planned there.

Clarín newsroom with information from agencies and BBC News

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