The city of Mariupol is still the epicenter of the war in Ukraine. The Russian Ministry of Defense announced on Wednesday the surrender of more than a thousand Ukrainian soldiers, information to be taken with a grain of salt.
More than a thousand Ukrainian troops have surrendered to Russian forces in the besieged city of Mariupol for weeks, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Wednesday. “In the city of Mariupol, in the area of the Ilyich metallurgical plant (…) 1,026 Ukrainian soldiers from the 36th Marine Brigade voluntarily laid down their arms and surrendered,” the ministry said in a statement. Of course, the information must be confirmed, as communication is a weapon to discourage resistance.
Read also: Biden talks ‘genocide’, 4.6 million refugees… Ukraine war update
In Mariupol, a strategic port on the Sea of Azov besieged for more than 40 days, Russian forces are tightening their grip on Ukrainian soldiers “surrounded and blocked” in the city where “tens of thousands” of people have died and where ” 90% of the houses” were destroyed, Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhaylo Podolyak said on Tuesday.
The United States reported, still on Tuesday, through the voice of the head of diplomacy Antony Blinken, “credible information” on the possibility that Russia would use “chemical agents” in its offensive to take Mariupol.
The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) said on Tuesday it was concerned about allegations of the use of chemical weapons in the same martyred city.
Read also: Ukraine: in the rubble of Kharkiv