The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation reported that a booby-trapped van with the bodies of the Armed Forces of Ukraine was found at Azovstal
The head of the Donetsk People's Republic Denis Pushilin said that several "lost" servicemen of the Armed Forces of Ukraine were found on the territory of the Azovstal plant. And the official representative of the Russian Defense Ministry, Major General Igor Konashenkov, said that during the inspection of the underground of the metallurgical plant, a mined van with 152 bodies of dead soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine was found.
"The lost were sent to their comrades"
As Pushilin said on the air of the program "Solovyov.Live", several "lost" people were "identified" on the territory of "Azovstal". They were "sent to their comrades." In total, according to the head of the DPR, three or four more people were captured.
And Konashenkov during the morning briefing said that during the "inspection of underground structures of the Azovstal metallurgical plant in Mariupol, Russian servicemen found an "isothermal van".
"152 bodies of dead militants and servicemen of the Armed Forces of Ukraine were stored in a van with a non-functioning cooling system. during the inspection of the van, Russian sappers identified four mines installed under the bodies of the dead Ukrainian servicemen. The combined mass of explosives in them was sufficient to destroy all the remains of the bodies remaining in the van," Konashenkov said.
The official representative of the Russian Defense Ministry recalled that the command of the Azov battalion before the surrender publicly asked the President of Ukraine, Vladimir Zelensky, to help ensure that the bodies of the victims were taken and their families were helped to bury them.
"However, there have been no requests from Kiev to receive the bodies of the dead from the Azovstal plant," the Major General noted.
According to his information received during the "interrogations of captured Azov militants," the bodies were mined by order received from Kiev. According to Konashenkov, with the help of this provocation, the Ukrainian authorities wanted to "accuse Russia of deliberately destroying the remains of the bodies and prevent their removal for transfer to relatives."
"The Russian side plans to transfer the bodies of Ukrainian militants and military personnel found on the territory of the Azovstal plant to representatives of Ukraine in the near future," the official representative of the Russian Defense Ministry concluded.
Findings of investigators
On Tuesday morning, RIA Novosti reported that employees of the Investigative Committee, who began to inspect the Azovstal plant that had come under the control of the Russian Federation, found a box with improvised explosive devices in the territory previously occupied by the Ukrainian military.
According to one version of the investigators, the soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine could plan to use these devices by sabotage and reconnaissance groups on the territory of Mariupol. According to the RF IC, the manufacture of such explosive devices at Azovstal was pointless, since they had factory-made mines for mining corridors and premises of the metallurgical plant.
In addition, investigators found ammunition and foreign-made weapons, food supplies, broken smartphones, laptops and flash cards on the territory of the plant. And in the basements, places of destruction of uniforms, ammunition and weapons of the Armed Forces of Ukraine were found.
"Everyone was hiding in their corner"
The Russian Defense Ministry announced on May 20 that the territory of the Azovstal plant in Mariupol had been completely taken under control.
"The territory of the Azovstal plant in Mariupol, where a group of Ukrainian militants of the Nazi formation Azov has been blocked since April 21, has been completely liberated. The underground structures of the enterprise, in which the militants were hiding, came under the full control of the Russian armed forces," Konashenkov said at the time.
He clarified that since May 16, 2,439 servicemen of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, blocked on the territory of the plant, have surrendered.
"Today, on May 20, the last group of 531 militants surrendered. The so-called "commander" of "Azov", because of the hatred of Mariupol residents and the desire of the citizens to punish him for numerous atrocities, was taken out of the territory of the combine in a special armored car," Konashenkov said then.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu reported on the establishment of control over Azovstal and Mariupol to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
On May 26, the official representative of the DPR, Eduard Basurin, said that all the Ukrainian military hiding on Azovstal would be found, and it would take two to three weeks to completely clean up the plant.
"I said at the very beginning that after his release ("Azovstal". - "Newspaper.En") there will be a complete sweep within two to three weeks, because the territory is large, there is where to hide, plus the inconsistency of the general command at Azovstal, it led to everyone living in their own way and everyone hiding in their corner. Therefore, it is possible that they will find... I think they would be happy to come out themselves, but they are afraid. They will find everyone," Basurin said on Channel One.
Maria Shustrova
