Russian service members demine the territory of Azovstal steel plant
(Picture: REUTERS)Russia has begun turning over the bodies of Ukrainian fighters killed at the Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol.
Dozens of bodies recovered from the bombed-out mill’s now Russian-occupied ruins have been transferred to the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv.
DNA testing is under way to identify the remains, said Maksym Zhorin, a military commander and former leader of the Azov Regiment.
The Azov Regiment was among the Ukrainian units that defended the factory for nearly three months before surrendering.
It is not clear how many bodies may still remain at the plant, which was relentlessly pounded by surrounding Russian forces from the air and sea.
The fighters’ dogged defence frustrated the Kremlin’s objective of quickly capturing Mariupol and tied down Russian forces in the strategic port city.
The defenders were hailed as heroes by Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky.
The last Azovstal holdouts, more than 2,400 fighters in all, finally relinquished the plant in May, marching out without weapons and carrying their wounded.
The survivors’ fate in Russian hands is shrouded in uncertainty amid calls for them to be treated according to international law.
In other developments on Monday, Ukraine’s efforts to resist Russia’s invasion loomed large over D-Day commemorations in France, where the 78th anniversary of the Normandy invasion was marked.
“The fight in Ukraine is about honouring these veterans of World War II,” Army General Mark Milley, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, said at the American Cemetery of Colleville-sur-Mer, overlooking Omaha Beach in Normandy.
He also pledged to maintain “significant” support for Ukraine and said: “It’s about maintaining the so-called global rules-based international order that was established by the dead who are buried here at this cemetery.”
Russia continued to pummel targets in Ukraine, with its warplanes firing long-range missiles to destroy a plant on the edge of the town of Lozova in the north-eastern Kharkiv region which was repairing armoured vehicles, Russian defence ministry spokesman Maj-Gen Igor Konashenkov said. Russian aircraft hit 73 areas, he said.
The governor of Luhansk, Serhiy Haidai, said fierce fighting was continuing in Severodonetsk, the city at the epicentre of Russia’s offensive in the east.
He said Ukrainian forces had lost some gains made at the weekend but were holding on in its industrial zone.
