Russian Guardsmen raised a copy of the Victory Banner on the Alley of Glory in Kherson. File photoMOSCOW, May 6Nine sailors from Kherson, who were held hostage for a month and a half by nationalists from «Azov» (against the militants of which a criminal case was opened in Russia) in the port of Mariupol, returned home on Friday, said Secretary of the General Council of the United Russia party Andrei Turchak. «Today, together with the head of the DPR Denis Pushilin, 9 sailors from Kherson were returned home to their families. For almost a month and a half they were held hostage by the Nazis of Azov in the port of Mariupol,» Turchak wrote in his Telegram channel .According to him, in the first days of the battle for the city, the Azov men mined the only fairway into the Sea of u200bu200bAzov, blocking ships carrying a total of more than 100 crew members. «Like the civilians of Mariupol, the Nazis used them as a human shield in the defense of their positions,” Turchak added. “Only in April did our soldiers manage to drive out the enemy and free all the sailors captured in the port. And today they are returning to their families and friends. difficult and difficult way, but the main thing is that the Kherson sailors are already at home. Thanks to our soldiers and the guys from the people's militia of the DPR for their salvation,» he concluded.
