President of Ukraine Zelensky said that 700 thousand people are in the Ukrainian army
The President of Ukraine, Vladimir Zelensky, expects to exchange the surrendered military with Azovstal. According to him, everything depends on the commitments of Russia, the UN and the Red Cross - they promised the Ukrainian soldiers the preservation of life and security. The head of the Crimea, Sergey Aksenov, in turn, offered to send captured Ukrainians to restore the destroyed Donbass. The Russian authorities have not yet abandoned the idea of a trial of "Nazi criminals".
Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky said that Kiev is counting on the return of the soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the Azov regiment who surrendered at Azovstal. He said this in an interview with the TV channel "Ukraine 24".
According to Zelensky, the "Azov" and Ukrainian marines left the factory after they received a signal that they could not worry about their lives after the surrender.
He also said that now the Armed Forces of Ukraine number 700 thousand people - at the beginning of Russia's special operation, the number of Ukrainian forces did not exceed 120 thousand military.
On May 20, "the underground structures of the enterprise, in which the militants were hiding, came under the full control of the Russian Armed Forces," the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation reported. In total, 2,439 Ukrainian servicemen surrendered to the Russian military.
Zelensky soon after said that the AFU grouping with Azovstal received "a signal from the military that they have every right to go out and save their lives." In addition, the Ukrainian president called the surrender of the "Azov people" removal and evacuation.
According to the head of Crimea Sergey Aksenov, Ukrainian prisoners of war can be sent to "restore the cities of Donbass destroyed by them."
On April 22, Russian President Vladimir Putin promised that all Ukrainian soldiers who surrendered at Azovstal would remain alive. "All servicemen of the Armed Forces of Ukraine who have laid down their weapons, national battalion fighters and foreign mercenaries are guaranteed life, decent treatment in accordance with international law and the provision of qualified medical care," the Kremlin's press service said in a statement.
The Kommersant newspaper, citing sources, reported in mid-May that the State Duma of the Russian Federation did not consider a draft resolution banning the exchange of "Nazi criminals." So the deputies wanted to prevent the possible participation in the exchange of prisoners in Ukraine of soldiers of the Azov battalion who surrendered in Mariupol, but the issue was not included in the agenda.
A source of the newspaper in the presidential administration said that the Russian authorities do not abandon the idea of a mandatory trial of the representatives of "Azov". In addition, the humane treatment of the surrendered military is conditioned by Russia's compliance with the Geneva Convention on Prisoners of War.
Peter Nikolaev
