On Thursday, the official representative of the Russian Defense Ministry, Major General Igor Konashenkov, began a summary of the progress of the special military operation with, perhaps, the main event of this week - the process of surrendering militants trapped in the dungeons of the Mariupol metallurgical plant "Azovstal".
The Ukrainian military and neo-Nazis lay down their weapons and come to the surface by the hundreds. Just over the past day, according to Konashenkov, 771 participants of the Azov nationalist unit banned in the Russian Federation and recognized as extremist have done so. "A total of 1,730 militants have surrendered since May 16, including 80 wounded. All those in need of inpatient treatment receive assistance in the medical institutions of the Donetsk People's Republic in Novoazovsk and Donetsk," the general said.
Our Ministry of Defense showed a video about the conditions in which these people are being held. The wounded are lying several people in hospital wards. Under the camera, they said they were not complaining about anything. One said that he was immediately given first aid. Another thanked the doctors.
Here are some quotes from this video. Viktor Shaposhnikov, a captured serviceman of the Armed Forces of Ukraine: "I am in a hospital in Novoazovsk. The attitude is normal, we can say excellent. There is no moral or psychological impact on me. Doctors examined the leg. They said that everything was fine with her." Daniil Zhuchenko, a captured serviceman of the National Guard of Ukraine: "The attitude is excellent, there are no complaints. I have a shrapnel wound, a tendon is touched. They help, treat. They said that in six months there will be rehabilitation."
After numerous videos on social networks of torture of our captured military, mockery of neo-Nazis over peaceful people, threats to do this to every Russian under the camera of Ukrainian scumbags, this plot causes ambiguous feelings. But if we discard quite understandable emotions, a humane attitude towards an unarmed and even more wounded enemy still looks right. We are not them, and in any case we will not turn into the same animals. A captured enemy remains an enemy. But even he has the right to medical care and a fair trial. As they say, everyone will be rewarded according to his deeds.
Meanwhile, our military continues to solve the tasks of the special operation. On Thursday, General Konashenkov said that the Russian Aerospace Forces had hit seven more control points with high-precision air-based missiles during the day, including the command posts of the 24th Motorized Infantry Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the village of Nikolaevka and the 104th Territorial Defense Brigade in Konstantinovka. In the areas of the settlements of Bakhmut, Konstantinovka, Ilyinka and Minkovka, the pilots struck 11 warehouses of rocket and artillery weapons and ammunition and 26 areas of concentration of manpower and military equipment of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
"A division of S-300 anti-aircraft missile systems in the Bolshye Lomzaki area of the Mykolaiv region and a division of the Buk-M1 air defense system in the Slavyanogorsk area were destroyed," General Konashenkov clarified.
Russian operational-tactical and army aviation destroyed two control points and 58 areas of concentration of manpower and Ukrainian military equipment during the day. In total, as a result of airstrikes, more than 340 nationalists were killed, 62 units of enemy military equipment were disabled.
Rocket troops and artillery destroyed six command posts, 295 areas of concentration of manpower and military equipment, 43 artillery and mortar units in firing positions. Two more Ukrainian electronic warfare stations have been eliminated. 15 drones, including one Bayraktar-TB2, should be added to the list of new losses of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
Our air defense systems shot down drones in the areas of the settlements of Volchiy Yar, Borshchevka, Velikiye Khutora, Malye Prokhody, Snezhkovka and Petrovskoye in the Kharkiv region. And also near Chernobayevka and Novaya Kakhovka in the Kherson region.
In addition, according to Konashenkov, in the vicinity of Topolsky, Malaya Kamyshevakha, Semenovka, Shpakovka, Glinsky, Snezhkovka, Kharkiv region and near Chernobayevka in the Kherson region, Russian anti-aircraft missile systems intercepted 12 Ukrainian multiple rocket launchers "Smerch".
Yuri Gavrilov