About 2,000 Azovstal defenders still in Russian captivity

Over the year, Ukraine has managed to return about 500 Azovstal defenders home, while about 2,000 more are in Russian captivity.

Natalka Zarytska, head of the NGO "Council of Wives and Mothers "Women of Steel", said this at a briefing dedicated to one year anniversary of the withdrawal from Azovstal steelworks held at the Media Center Ukraine–Ukrinform.

"Despite all efforts, only 20% of the defenders, who stood to the death until they received an order from the command to lay down their arms and save their lives, were able to return over the past 12 months. Only the defenders of Azovstal received such an order during the war. According to information from open sources, fulfilling the order, about 2,500 defenders left the territory of the plant. Over the year, about 500 defenders were returned. This means that about 2,000 boys and girls are still in the hell of captivity, and together with them, their relatives and friends have been in the hell of uncertainty for the whole year," Zarytska said.

She stressed that the service members are tortured and starved in captivity.

"Last September, there was a big exchange of Azovstal defenders. Service members, who had been in captivity for four months, returned. Everyone is aware of the condition in which they returned: they lost 40 kg of weight on average, got their kidneys lowered, spines broken, knees injured, muscles broken, sight, hearing, teeth lost, psychological trauma acquired," Zarytska said.

According to her, on May 6 this year, 45 more Azovstal defenders were brought back, and these people, who were healthy and strong a year ago, now lost their health forever.

"The enemy cannot tolerate the fact that brave and freedom-loving people live in Ukraine, so it refuses to hand them over, trying to take revenge in this way, ignoring the norms of international humanitarian law and disregarding the Geneva Convention," she said.

As reported, the defense of Mariupol lasted 84 days. The fighting for Azovstal steelworks lasted until May 20, 2022, when the senior military leadership of Ukraine gave the order to stop the defense since Mariupol was captured by the Russian army, the steelworks was blocked and almost completely destroyed.

On May 16-17, the Russian invaders carried out the first "evacuation" of wounded Ukrainian defenders from the plant. They took more than 50 people to Russian-occupied Novoazovsk town and another 211 people were taken to Olenivka village.