MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 12th July, 2022) A member of the RaHDIt Russian hacker group has blamed the office of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for largely facilitating the encirclement of a large group of Ukrainian forces near Mariupol and their subsequent surrender.
The RaHDIt member told Sputnik that Kiev forbade Ukrainian troops to retreat from Mariupol.
"It was when representatives of the General Staff offered to retreat from Mariupol, to withdraw troops, and when they were forbidden to do this, as a result of which, in addition to the nationalist Azov battalion, marines and territorial defense gathered there at Azovstal, and all of them were surrounded solely due to the fact that the president's office said that there would never be a retreat from Mariupol," the hacker said.
Elena Sirota, a coordinator of a large volunteer group from the Russian city of Taganrog, told Sputnik last month that numerous refugees from the city of Mariupol had confirmed that the Ukrainian military used them as human shields while fighting with the Russian army and in shelling civilians in the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR).
Russia launched its special military operation in Ukraine on February 24, after the Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics (DPR and LPR) appealed for help in defending themselves against Ukrainian provocations. Russia said that the aim of its special operation is to demilitarize and "denazify" Ukraine. In response to Russia's operation, Western countries have rolled out a comprehensive sanctions campaign against Moscow and have been supplying weapons to Ukraine.
Mariupol came under Russian control on April 21, and the remaining Azov-affiliated Ukrainian militants sheltered at the Azovstal plant. Russia offered safe exit to all those who agreed to surrender and lay down arms. The gradual exodus from Azovstal ended on May 20, when a total of 2,400 Ukrainian militants surrendered and the plant went under the control of Russian forces.
