Kadyrov claims that more than 1,000 Ukrainian troops have surrendered in Mariupol
Fighting continues in Mariupol. The coastal city is under heavy siege by Russian troops, who claim to control much of the town. According to the Russian Defence Ministry, 1,026 soldiers of the Ukrainian 36th Marine Brigade have surrendered due to lack of food and ammunition, including 162 officers.
Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov has reiterated this information, noting that more than 1,000 Ukrainian marines have surrendered. Many of the Chechen fighters sent to Ukraine are fighting in Mariupol. Kaydrov has also indicated via his Telegram channel that there are "about 200 wounded who cannot receive medical assistance" inside the Azovstal steel plant. "For them and all the others it would be better to end this useless resistance and return home to their families," he added.
Ramzan Kadyrov posts another video purportedly from Mariupol where the last-standing Ukrainian troops are holding out. Lots of grenades down stairways & holes, lots of appeals to Allah, but not much else. Chechnya’s dictator has 26 times claimed the city’s imminent fall. pic.twitter.com/kNHYnnB1Mw
— Kevin Rothrock (@KevinRothrock) April 12, 2022
However, the Ukrainian authorities have not confirmed this. In fact, Oleksei Arestovych, assistant to President Volodimir Zelensky, has stressed that units of the 36th Ukrainian Marine Brigade have joined the ranks of the ultra-nationalist Azov battalion. This union, according to Arestovych, increases and strengthens "the city's defence system". The Ukrainian General Staff has also reported Russian attacks on Azovstal and the city's port, according to Reuters.
If Russian troops finally seize this part of the city, they would take full control of Mariupol, which would allow them to create a corridor between the Crimean Peninsula and the separatist areas of the Donbas. It would also be the first major city to fall into Russian hands after Kherson, also in the south of the country.
Because of Mariupol's geostrategic importance, it is one of the places in Ukraine that is suffering the most from the horror of war. For weeks now the city has been under heavy siege without food, water or electricity. According to figures from the Mariupol City Council, some 21,000 civilians have died since the Russian invasion.
It is also very likely that war crimes similar to those we have seen in Bucha and other places near Kiev recaptured by Ukrainian forces are being committed in the city. As Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said, the horrors of Bucha "are only the tip of the iceberg", since "without exaggeration and with great regret the current situation in Mariupol is much worse compared to what happened in Bucha and other regions near the capital".
Citizens who have managed to leave the city have described the current situation in Mariupol to the media. As in Bucha, witnesses speak of rape, looting and torture. "When we were in Mariupol, the Chechens were looting. They were stealing people's gold. Everything was getting really dangerous, we heard that they were raping women," a woman who managed to flee the city tells the BBC. Chechens have also been accused of committing atrocities around Kiev.
The Chechen leader has become one of the most prominent figures in the war in Ukraine. Through his Telegram channel Kadyrov broadcasts the movements of his troops in Ukraine while trying to psychologically undermine the Ukrainian forces.
Kadyrov has also become a spokesperson for Moscow, going so far as to announce the future plans of Russian troops. In this regard, the Chechen president and close ally of Vladimir Putin has warned of an "offensive" in several parts of the country, "not only in Mariupol". "First of all, we will completely liberate Donetsk and Lugansk, and then we will take Kiev and all other cities," he announced earlier this week on Telegram. "We will not take a step back," he added.
