Hundreds of besieged Ukrainian soldiers have emerged from their Mariupol bunker hell and handed themselves over to Russian forces.
Their evacuation into Russian custody triggered prisoner swap talks with Moscow expected to demand Ukraine releases imprisoned officers.
Even as they evacuated Russian forces continued to pound Ukraine with missiles, killing ten civilians and injuring three in a strike on Chernihiv.
And in Lviv officials were investigating Monday night’s air strikes on the western region which were aimed at crippling a military storage area.
Many of the Mariupol troops have horrific injuries and are being treated at medical facilities in Russian-held territory in east Ukraine.
It comes amid fears Russian forces will appoint Chechen soldiers to “control” the citizens of Mariupol and have been given a free pass to “loot and intimidate” locals.
More than 260 Ukrainian fighters freed themselves from a labyrinth of underground tunnels beneath Azovstal steelworks having held off Russian attacks for more than 80 days.
Civilians and Ukrainian fighters, many from the Azov Regiment, hid in the Soviet-era steel complex which was designed to withstand nuclear attack.
There are fears for the welfare of the soldiers after “death penalty” calls from Russian lawmakers and politicians branding them “Nazis.”
Ukraine’s military command had said in the early hours of Tuesday that the mission to defend the steel plant was over and President Volodymyr Zelensky said: “Ukraine needs Ukrainian heroes alive.”
A convoy of buses took the soldiers from the plant to Russian-occupied Novoazovsk, although it is not known if and how many Ukrainians are left in the complex.
Moscow has depicted the Azov Regiment as one of the main inspirations behind Moscow’s ridiculed narrative that Ukraine is being governed by “Nazis.”
The Azov Regiment was formed in 2014 as an extreme right-wing volunteer militia to fight Russian-backed separatists but the troops deny being fascist, racist or Nazis.
Ukraine says it has been reformed away from its radical nationalist origins to be integrated into the National Guard and commanders call them:” Heroes of our time.”
A Russian Supreme Court hearing will rule on whether the Azov regiment should be designated a terrorist organisation on May 26, according to the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation.
Ukraine’s President Zelenskiy said in his address that “the work of bringing the boys home continues, and this work needs delicacy – and time”.
But Vyacheslav Volodin, speaker of the State Duma, Russia ’s lower house, said: “Nazi criminals should not be exchanged.”
Lawmaker Leonid Slutsky, one of Russia’s negotiators in talks with Ukraine, called the evacuated combatants “animals in human form” and said they should receive the death penalty.
He said: “They do not deserve to live after the monstrous crimes against humanity that they have committed and that are committed continuously against our prisoners.”
Pavlo Andryushchenko, an adviser to the Mariupol Mayor, accused Russia of planning to hand Mariupol to Chechen troops, explaining: “It becomes a little clear what the occupiers plan to do with Mariupol and who will be the recovery curator.”
Referring to Ramzan Kadrov, the Chechen leader, he added: “In order to intimidate and suppress the resistance it is planned to give the city to the Kadyrovites.”
He indicated that the Chechens will be given freedom of the port trade and will be at liberty to steal anything they like, explaining the deal came : “. . . . With port and looting rights.”