Russia has begun handing over the bodies of Ukrainian fighters killed at the Azovstal factory, the steel plant that served as a bastion in the destroyed city of Mariupol, a symbol of resistance against the Russian invasion.
According to Masksym Zhorin, a military commander and former leader of the Azov regiment, dozens of bodies of fighters recovered from the ruins of the Azovstal factory, now occupied by the Russians, were transferred to the Ukrainian capital, where DNA tests are being carried out to identify the remains.
The Azov regiment was among the Ukrainian units that defended the factory for nearly three months before surrendering.
It is unknown how many bodies remain in the factory, which was heavily shelled by Russian forces.
The stubborn defense of the steelworks fighters frustrated the Kremlin’s goal of quickly capturing Mariupol and held Russian forces in this strategic port city.
The more than 2,400 defending fighters were hailed as heroes. by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who highlighted his courage and resilience.
The recovery of the remains of the fighters from the ruins of Azovstal was not announced by the Ukrainian government, but the relatives of the soldiers killed in the factory admitted this process to the Associated Press news agency.
The Ministry of Reintegration of the Occupied Territories of the Government of Ukraine announced on Saturday the first officially confirmed exchange of military corpses since the beginning of the warwith the two sides exchanging 320 bodies in total (160 for each side).
The exchange took place on Thursday, on the front lines of the Zaporizhia region in southern Ukraine, where the Russians control part of the territory.
The Avoz regiment is a National Guard unit that grew out of a group called the Azov Battalion, formed in 2014 as one of many volunteer brigades that emerged to fight Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine.
The Azov Battalion attracted fighters from far-right circles, which Moscow took advantage of to legitimize its thesis of seeking to “denazify” the kyiv regime.
Zhorin, the former leader of the Azov Regiment who now commands a military unit based in kyiv, confirmed that the bodies of fighters recovered from Azovstal were among the remains exchanged between the two warring countries.
The brother of a missing Azov fighter, feared dead in the steel mill, said that At least two vans with bodies from Azovstal were moved to a military hospital in kyiv for identification.
Viacheslav Drofa said the remains of his older brother, Dmitry Lisen, do not appear to be among those recovered so far.
The mother of a soldier killed during a Russian airstrike on the factory said she received a call from the Azov regiment to inform her that her son’s body could be among those flown to kyiv.
I am waiting for the body of my son. It is important for me to bury him on our Ukrainian land,” said the mother.
Source: Observadora
