The bitter struggle of the Azovstal steelworks, located in Mariupol (Ukraine) has come to an end.
The militiamen who were still fighting have surrendered to the Russian Army and the pro-Russian forces fighting on the eastern front of the country.
The Kremlin says it will treat them as "war criminals."
Some 53 seriously wounded Ukrainian forces have been transferred to a medical center in the city of Novoazovsk, under pro-Russian rule.
Ukraine assures that another 211 people were evicted in a humanitarian corridor to the city of Olenivka (Donetsk).
The government says they will "bring home" their men through an exchange with captured Russian prisoners.
If the conquest of Mariupol is confirmed, Russia would manage to unite it with the Crimean peninsula, illegally annexed in 2014. It would be a key victory for Vladimir Putin, while the fighting continues in the Donbas region.
The Ukrainian General Staff has ordered the remaining Azovstal defenders to focus on “saving the lives of their personnel”.
The Mariupol garrison "has fulfilled its mission," he said in a note.
The exact number of soldiers who remain in the bunkers and basements of the steelworks has not been reported, in which hundreds of civilians who have already been transferred to Ukrainian territory through various humanitarian corridors were also sheltering until just a few days ago.
