All Ukrainian defenders of Mariupol’s Azovstal’ steel factory had surrendered but a few hold-outs, as both Ukraine Armed Forces (UAF) and Russian Federation (RF) units seemed to pause most activities elsewhere on the fighting front, Saturday news reports and official statements said.
Moscow state-controlled television on May 21 showed images of Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu reporting to President Vladimir Putin that Mariupol was fully under Russian control.
President Volodymyr Zelensky in a May 20 national television address said all civilians, medical personnel and wounded had exited the factory premises to enter RF custody, and that “I think that soon all (inside the steel works) will leave.” Red Cross intermediaries were participating in talks on the scene, he said.
Key leaders of Azovstal’ defense forces laid down arms and handed themselves over to RF troops during the evening of May 20, both Ukrainian and RF news reports said. It was not clear by midday on the 21st whether the factory premises were clear, or if hold-outs were still inside.
The Readovka Telegram channel, a Kremlin-supporting news platform, said the end of the 84-day siege was a decisive victory for RF arms and a disaster for Ukraine’s military. More than 2,500 UAF troops became POWs during the fighting and in mass surrenders starting early last week, the channel claimed.
Zelensky called the Mariupol fighter heroes and praised them for holding down substantial RF combat forces needed by the Kremlin elsewhere, and for giving Ukraine time to raise troops and mobilize equipment. He said that all members of the mixed command of National Guard, regular army Marines, SBU intelligence service agents, border troops units, police, medics and civilians fighting in the final defense of the city, in a last-ditch bastion inside the Azovstal’ steel mill, were heroes.
Equally heroic were UAF combat pilots flying supply missions to the besieged fighters through powerful RF air defenses. Around 90 percent of air supply and medical evacuation flights sent to Mariupol were shot down, Zelensky said.
Along the war’s main fighting front in the north-west Kharkiv, Luhansk and Donetsk regions, combat tempo seemed to slow on Friday, with reduced numbers of reported bombardments, direct-fire engagements and troop movements.
The northern approaches to the city Severodonetsk, and the eastern suburbs of the town Popasna reportedly saw RF air strikes and artillery bombardments, but – in contrast to most of the previous week – UAF official statements reported no RF attempts to advance.
A Ukraine Army General Staff May 20 situation estimate said that Rf forces appear to be taking an operational pause, forced on them by heavy losses, to bring in reinforcements in the north-east Kharkiv region, and equipment for a renewed attempt at an assault crossing of the Siviersky Donets River, in the Lyman-Yamal-Bilohordivka sector.
RF high command has said its objectives in Ukraine’s Donbas region are total control of Donetsk and Luhansk regions and destruction of the 8-15,000 UAF troops holding heavily-fortified positions in central Donbas, by encirclement. Kicked off in mid-April, the RF’s Donbas’ offensive has stalled in the face of fierce Ukrainian resistance, and particularly, repeated strikes by UAF drone-controlled artillery.
