LVIV, Ukraine — After weeks of Russian bombardment, a band of Ukrainian soldiers fighting from a battered Mariupol steel plant ended combat operations on Monday, giving Moscow full control of a strategic port city that has been turned into a ruin of empty buildings and mass graves.
Ukrainian officials said that 264 fighters were evacuated to Russian-held territory to the east, including 53 seriously wounded fighters who were taken to a hospital.
The deputy defense minister, Hanna Maliar, said that all would eventually be returned home through a prisoner exchange with the Russians.
