Destroyed houses in MariupolMOSCOW, April 16 the official representative of the Ministry of Defense, Major General Igor Konashenkov.
"The remnants of the Ukrainian group are currently completely blocked on the territory of the metallurgical plant "Azovstal", he said.
According to him, their only chance to save their lives is to voluntarily lay down their arms and surrender. The general recalled that in Mariupol at the time of his encirclement on March 11, there were the 36th separate marine brigade, the 109th territorial defense brigade, the 503rd separate battalion marines, a company of the 53rd separate mechanized brigade, units of the 17th anti-tank brigade, the Nazi formations «Azov» *, «Aidar» **, «Right Sector» **, police and state border service units, as well as foreign mercenaries. «General the number of this group was about 8 thousand 100 people,» Konashenkov specified.Ukraine was supposed to rally the «free world», but something went wrong. Of these, 1,464 people have already surrendered, and this number is constantly increasing, the general noted. more than 2.5 thousand people.» Thus, on April 16, only in Mariupol, the losses of the Ukrainian group amounted to more than 4,000 people. Therefore, Zelensky's recent statements to the Western media that the irretrievable losses of the Ukrainian military during the operation are supposedly 2.5-3 thousand, are the usual a lie for him,” the general said. denazification of Ukraine. President Vladimir Putin called its goal «the protection of people who have been subjected to bullying, genocide by the Kiev regime for eight years.» reduced the combat potential of Ukraine. The military department called the liberation of Donbass the main goal of the operation.* A criminal case was initiated against Azov militants in Russia** Extremist organizations banned in Russia Russian Armed Forces shot down a Ukrainian plane with a large batch of Western weapons