161.ru: Eighty-nine people from Azovstal were transported to Taganrog

Ukrainian soldiers from the Mariupol plant "Azovstal " were delivered to Taganrog. A source in the security forces of the Rostov region told the local publication 161.ru about this.

"They brought 89 people to us, almost all of them are combatants ... They will be distributed further from Taganrog. Some of our [Ukrainian military] will also remain in the region. They are now an important object [for exchange]," the journalists' interlocutor said.

The head of the Rostov Public Monitoring Commission, Igor Omelchenko, suggested in a comment to 161.ru that the Ukrainian military were placed in the Taganrog SIZO-2. According to him, the detention center was emptied of those arrested in the spring.

Omelchenko called the information that the Ukrainians could have been taken to SIZO-1 in Rostov-on-Don unlikely. On May 17, RT correspondent Valentin Gorshenin reported that the fighters from Azovstal had been taken to this detention center.

A source for 161.ru in the security forces stated that those military personnel who are found to be involved in the Azov Regiment will be tried in the Southern District Military Court.

The Russian Ministry of Defense did not comment on this information.

• On the evening of May 16, more than 260 soldiers left the territory of Azovstal. The next day, seven more buses with soldiers left the plant. Reuters reported that the defenders of Azovstal were taken to a former penal colony in the village of Elenovka near Donetsk, which is under the control of the Russian military and the self-proclaimed DPR.
• The Russian Defense Ministry claims that the Ukrainian soldiers have surrendered. According to the agency, as of May 18, a total of 959 soldiers have been evacuated from the plant, of which 51 wounded were taken to the hospital in Novoazovsk in the DPR. The Ukrainian authorities have promised to return the defenders of Azovstal as part of the exchange.
• The Russian Investigative Committee announced that “they will interrogate the surrendered militants who were hiding at the Azovstal plant in Mariupol.” State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin proposed banning the exchange of Azov fighters, stating that they are “Nazi criminals” and that they should be tried.