Commentary by Russian military journalist Boris Rozhin.
[ColonelCassad] "Volyn" confirmed that the American military was indeed sitting on "Azovstal"
| ...the steel factory in Mariupol in eastern Ukraine... |
The capitulation of Azovstal was exchanged for the withdrawal of the American military from the territory of the plant.
- I would like to start preparing replenishment. My combat experience is limited to the defense of Mariupol, and since then military affairs have moved forward a lot. All this needs to be mastered. I don't want to go straight to the front. Perhaps this would be important for propaganda, but we have already been kept for almost a month in the catacombs under Azovstal, where we senselessly lost hundreds of our soldiers . And, probably, almost everyone would have died there if not for the intervention of the Americans, who agreed with the Russians to withdraw their high-ranking officers from the facility in exchange for the surrender of the garrison ... (c) "
Volyn" in an interview with Turkish media
By "sitting for propaganda," Volyn means Zelensky's order, which is an order not to hand over Azovstal until May 9, in order "not to give rise to an additional holiday." As a result, the remnants of the garrison stayed until May 9, after which they began to gradually surrender a week after the holiday.