View of Mariupol in the direction of the Azovstal metallurgical plant. Archival photoMOSCOW, April 17—RIA Novosti.The militants and mercenaries blocked on the territory of the Azovstal plant in Mariupol demand permission from the Ukrainian authorities to surrender, the head of the Interdepartmental Coordination Headquarters said of the Russian Federation for Humanitarian Response — Head of the National Center for Defense Control of the Russian Federation, Colonel-General Mikhail Mizintsev. «During April 16, 2022, there was a sharp increase in the intensity of radio communications by militants of nationalist formations and foreign mercenaries blocked in Mariupol at the Azovstal metallurgical plant, — the general said. According to him, according to the information that the Armed Forces received with the help of 367 radio intercepts carried out in a day, the militants are in a hopeless situation, with virtually no food and water, they insistently demand approval from Kyiv to surrender. «At the same time, representatives of the Ukrainian authorities categorically forbid to do so and are threatened with subsequent executions under «wartime» conditions,» Mizintsev added.
