The headquarters of the DPR Defense Ministry reported that 50 more people were evacuated from the territory of Azovstal
Evacuation continues from the territory of the Azovstal plant in Mariupol: on May 7, 50 more civilians were taken out. At the same time, senior officers, "at least" from the USA, France and Great Britain, are still in the basements of the plant. This was stated by the adviser to the head of the DPR government, Yan Gagin.
Another 50 people have been evacuated from the Mariupol Azovstal plant, blocked by the DPR and Russian troops, the DPR territorial defense headquarters reports.
The ministry noted that the number of civilians removed from the territory of the enterprise has reached 176 people.
Shortly before that, the adviser to the head of the DPR government, Yan Gagin, said in an interview with RIA Novosti that senior officers from the United States, France and Great Britain could be at the plant together with the Ukrainian military - "at least."
"In any case, I can confirm the presence of senior officers of foreign states, primarily European states, there. This is stated by the residents of Azov themselves [fighters of the Azov regiment, against whom a criminal case has been opened in Russia], and those who were captured, those who surrendered, laid down their weapons, and civilians who came out of there. That is, we can judge this from words," he said.
The fact that foreign officers may be on the territory was previously said by a British mercenary who surrendered to the Russian Armed Forces in Mariupol. "I don't know any of them personally, maybe one Briton, he was in Azov, John Horden," he told Izvestia.
Meanwhile, military observer Viktor Litovkin is sure that the countries of the North Atlantic Alliance are afraid that other states will find out that their military leaders are participating in hostilities in Ukraine.
"And if this truth turns out to be on the surface, if it is spread around the world in the media, which of course is not a fact that this will happen, but many heads of state will be uncomfortable, to put it mildly," Litovkin believes.
Political strategist Marat Bashirov, as well as Litovkin, believes that NATO will do everything so that the officers of the military-political bloc, who are together with the nationalists on Azovstal, do not fall into the hands of Russia.
Bashirov also told RT that there is a so-called "Pit" on the territory of the metallurgical plant - "one of the laboratories where experiments were conducted."
"Those prisoners who were on the surface in the prison, which the residents of Azov called the library, were taken there," he added. Referring to the words of the prisoners, the political strategist said that those who were taken to the "Pit" never returned.
On April 17, the official representative of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation Igor Konashenkov, referring to the soldiers and officers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine who surrendered, said that up to 400 foreign mercenaries were on the territory of the besieged enterprise.
"Most of them are citizens of European countries, as well as Canada. We have already reported earlier that radio conversations between militants in Mariupol are conducted in six foreign languages. In case of further resistance, all of them will be destroyed," the Russian major General warned at the time.
According to Rossiyskaya Gazeta with reference to Konashenkov, Kiev has attracted a total of 6824 mercenaries from 63 countries to participate in hostilities in Ukraine. According to him, the largest group came from Poland - almost 2 thousand soldiers.
Back in mid-April, the Russian Defense Ministry planned to storm Azovstal to destroy the nationalists. But on April 21, at a meeting with the head of the defense department, Sergei Shoigu, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the assault was impractical and it was worth surrounding the plant so that "a fly would not fly".
On April 26, during a meeting with UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres in Moscow, Putin agreed that the UN and the International Committee of the Red Cross would help evacuate civilians from the plant. From May 1 to May 3, about 200 people were evacuated, including civilians staying in houses near the checkpoint of the plant. On May 6, the Ministry of Defense announced that 50 more civilians, including 11 children, were taken out of Azovstal.
Angelina Milchenko