Russian defense television Zvezda today published the first images inside the Azovstal iron and steel factory in the city of Mariupol, southern Ukraine, after the entire unit entrenched there surrendered and Russian forces moved in to take over.
`They were pushed back meter by meter. Fighting used to take place here, with constant artillery and air strikes,` Artyom, a pro-Russian Ukrainian separatist militia, said as he escorted reporters inside the house.
According to Artyom, Russian forces used many types of firepower, from machine guns, AGS automatic grenade launchers and anti-aircraft artillery, to suppress enemy positions, forcing Ukrainian soldiers to withdraw deep into underground bunkers below the house.
Inside the Azovstal factory after the takeover by Russian forces
Inside the Azovstal factory in the video released by Russia today.
Many concrete blocks, steel and bullet casings lie scattered in the tunnels of the Azovstal factory.
`Azov Battalion gunmen detonated many staircase areas, making it impossible for Russian soldiers and Donetsk militiamen to secretly approach their positions. Everything was booby-trapped. Before surrendering, Azov forces
The Russian Ministry of Defense announced on May 20 that all 2,439 members of the Azov Battalion and Ukrainian soldiers entrenched in the Azovstal factory had surrendered and `the mission of liberating the city of Mariupol has been completed`.
Denys Prokopenko, who claimed to be the commander of the Azov Battalion at the Azovstal factory, previously announced that he had been ordered by his superiors to `stop defending the city of Mariupol and save the lives of the soldiers stationed here`.
After surrendering, most Ukrainian soldiers at the Azovstal factory were taken to a Russian-controlled detention camp in the town of Yelenovka, on the outskirts of Donetsk city.
Situation on the battlefield in eastern Ukraine after nearly three months of fighting.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the agreement leading to the surrender of Ukrainian soldiers in Azovstal involved international organizations acting as intermediaries, including the United Nations and the International Red Cross.
Western experts say the fall of Azovstal base marks Russia’s complete control of Mariupol, an important milestone in the special military campaign in Ukraine.
Controlling Mariupol helps Russia establish a land corridor from the Crimean peninsula to Donbass, while at the same time withdrawing the forces besieging the Azovstal factory to move to operate in other areas of the eastern Ukraine battlefield.
