On Monday, Kyiv did not want to confirm Russian information about the establishment of a humanitarian corridor for injured soldiers. A commander of the troops trapped in the steel mill said in a video that he was carrying out orders from the high command to save the soldiers’ lives. He left open what exactly is meant. He did not say that the groups surrounded by Russian units would surrender.
The Defense Ministry in Moscow announced on Monday that a ceasefire was in effect and a humanitarian corridor would be opened. The Ukrainian fighters were to receive medical treatment in the pro-Russian separatist-controlled city of Novoazovsk in eastern Ukraine. The government in Kyiv had always demanded that the injured be transferred to the area controlled by Ukraine or to a third country. According to Ukrainian sources, around 1,000 defenders of Mariupol are holed up in the Azovstal industrial zone. Hundreds of them are said to be injured.
