Ukrainian intelligence in contact with prisoners of Azovstal, according to the Minister of the Interior











Photo credit © Reuters


(Reuters) – Ukrainian intelligence services are in contact with prisoners of war who defended the Azovstal metallurgical complex in Mariupol and Kyiv is doing everything to secure their release, Ukraine’s interior minister said.

Uncertainty reigns over the fate of hundreds of Azovstal fighters detained since mid-May by the Russians after Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelensky asked them to lay down their arms after almost three months of siege.

“It is through them (the intelligence services, editor’s note) that we know their conditions of detention, their diet and the possibility of their release”, declared Denis Monastirsky Friday evening on Ukrainian television.

“We all know that they will all be here in Kyiv, and we are doing everything we can to ensure that it is,” the interior minister added.

Kyiv hopes to secure the release of Azovstal fighters through a prisoner exchange. However, Russian parliamentarians want some of these soldiers to be brought to justice.

The Kremlin has assured that fighters who have surrendered will be treated in accordance with international law.

(Report Lidia Kelly in Melbourne and Max Hunder in Kyiv, French version Matthieu Protard)










click here for restrictions
©2022 Reuters
Reuters



Source link -87