Leader Of Ukrainian Troops Says Still In Azovstal, Russia Reveals Identity Of Two Wanted Azov Battalion Commanders

Illustration of members of the Azov Battalion. (Wikimedia Commons/Carl Ridderstråle)

JAKARTA - The main leader of the Ukrainian Azovstal steel factory troops is said to be still in the area and has not surrendered, while two commanders of the Azov battalion wanted by Russia have been identified.

Russia has put two commanders of Ukraine's Azov nationalist battalion on a wanted list, Russia's Interior Ministry announced on Thursday.

The wanted persons are two residents of the Kharkiv Region: Sergey Velichko born in 1994 and Konstantin Nemichev born in 1996, according to the ministry's database, TASS reported on May 19.

Russia's Investigative Committee earlier reported that Ukrainian Azov nationalist battalion commanders Velichko and Nemichev were involved in the attempted assassination of at least eight Russian servicemen in the Kharkiv Region. Velichko and Nemichev were pressured on charges in absentia.

Evacuation of Ukrainian soldiers from Azovsta,l Mariupol. (Twitter/@StateOfUkraine)

Meanwhile, Ukrainian troop leaders have not surrendered from the maze of bunkers and tunnels under the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol, says the leader of the Russian-backed Donetsk separatist region.

As the most devastating siege of the Russian invasion draws to a close, the nearly 1,000 Ukrainian fighters who barricaded themselves into the tunnels have so far surrendered to Russian and pro-Russian forces since Monday.

It is unclear whether the troop leader will leave the factory, or perhaps even fight the final deadly battle with the Russian troops, whom they regard as invaders of their homeland.

"There were no high-level commanders (among those who surrendered) m they didn't leave", said Denis Pushilin, head of the breakaway Donetsk People's Republic officially recognized by President Vladimir Putin just three days before the invasion of Ukraine.

Pushilin itself together with Russian troops control Mariupol, as quoted by the Donetsk News Agency, known as DAN.

It is not clear what will happen to the fighters who Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky describes as heroic resistance fighters, but what Russian lawmakers say are "Nazi criminals" who must face the harshest punishments, even death.

Denis Pushilin. (Source: Kremlin.ru)

Pushilin said the fate of the surrendered Ukrainian fighters would be decided by the court.

"As for war criminals as well as those who are nationalists, their fate, if they lay down arms, must be decided by the courts. If the enemy has laid down arms, then his fate will be decided by the courts. If it is Nazi criminals, then it is the courts", he explained.

Moscow says the Azov Regiment, which started as an extreme right nationalist paramilitary organization, is a group of radical anti-Russian nationalist fighters and calls them modern-day Nazi sympathizers.

The regiment, which was formed in 2014 as a militia to fight Russian-backed separatists, denies being fascist, racist or neo-Nazi, and Ukraine says it has reformed from its radical nationalist origins to be integrated into the National Guard.

President Vladimir Putin said what he called special military operations were needed in Ukraine to prevent persecution of Russian-speaking speakers and to prevent the United States from using Ukraine to threaten Russia.

To note, the Kremlin said the fighters would be treated by international norms. Ukraine has said there will be an exchange of prisoners of war.