Ukraine Working To Pull Last Fighters From Mariupol Steel Mill
Newsy
Ukraine Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar said 264 fighters were evacuated from the plant, including 53 "heavily wounded."
Hundreds of Ukrainian fighters defending the last holdout in Mariupol were evacuated to areas controlled by Russian-backed separatists and officials worked Tuesday to get the rest out, signaling the beginning of the end of a siege that became a symbol of Ukrainian resistance.
Russia called the operation a mass surrender. The Ukrainians avoided using that word — but said the garrison had completed its mission.
More than 260 fighters — some severely wounded — were pulled from a steel plant on Monday that is the last redoubt of Ukrainian fighters in the city and transported to two towns controlled by separatists, officials on both sides said. Other fighters — their precise numbers unknown — remain inside the Azovstal steelworks that sprawl over 4 square miles in a city otherwise controlled by Russian forces.
