DONETSK (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 20th April, 2022) Five Ukrainian soldiers have laid down their arms and left the Azovstal metallurgical plant in Mariupol, where pockets of Ukrainian forces have been hiding since the takeover of the port city by Russian troops, the forces of the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) said on Wednesday.
"Having used the proposal made by the DPR People's Militia and the Russian armed forces, five servicemen of the Ukrainian armed forces laid down their arms and voluntarily left the territory of the Azovstal plant," the DPR forces said on its Telegram channel.
According to the DPR forces, the Ukrainian soldiers learned about the proposal that they can voluntarily lay down their arms from special leaflets that had been previously dropped on the territory of the industrial zone of Mariupol.
On February 24, Russia launched a military operation in Ukraine with the purpose of "demilitarization and denazification" of the country after the breakaway republics of Donetsk and Luhansk appealed for help in defending themselves against Ukrainian forces.
On March 7, the DPR forces surrounded Mariupol, which the republic considers its territory, and the fight for the port city began. On April 16, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said that the entire territory of Mariupol had been cleared of Ukrainian soldiers, with the remaining fighters currently hiding in underground tunnels of the Azovstal plant.
