Arakhamia and Podoliak are ready to come to Mariupol to discuss evacuation with the Russians

Alyona Mazurenko – Wednesday, 20 April 2022, 20:42

Sviatoslav Palamar, Deputy Commander of the Azov Regiment, said that Mariupol’s defenders are prepared to evacuate the city with the help of a third party. Palamar added that members of Ukraine’s negotiating delegation are also prepared to come to Mariupol to discuss the evacuation with their Russian counterparts.

Source: Azov Regiment, on Telegram

According to Palamar: "Today we talked to the top political leadership, namely, David Arakhamia and Mykhailo Podoliak. They said that they were prepared to come to Mariupol to negotiate with [Russian negotiators -ed.] Medinsky and Slutsky regarding the evacuation of the military garrison that remains here.

We are ready to evacuate from the city of Mariupol with our small arms with the support of a third party in order to save our personnel, to evacuate the wounded, and to be able to bury the bodies of the dead with honour, on territory not controlled by Russia.

We call on the entire civilised world to provide security guarantees.

I am stressing that we do not support Russia’s demands to surrender our weapons and hand over our defenders as prisoners of war."

Details: According to Palamar, Russian vehicles marked with the letter "V" were spotted in Mariupol. Occupying forces marked with such signs have committed atrocities against the civilian population in the Kyiv region.

Palamar added that Russia sent fresh forces to Mariupol: "They have equipment, tanks, planes, naval artillery."

Palamar suggested that this was Russia’s way of redeploying soldiers who had committed atrocities in the Kyiv region.

As for the civilians hiding at the Azovstal plant, Palamar said that they have been afraid and unable to leave the plant due to the constant shelling by the Russian occupying forces.

According to Palamar: "Shelling continues relentlessly; despite the declaration of a ceasefire by the Russian troops, the enemy continues shelling and our civilians have no opportunity to leave the Azovstal plant safely. I call for guarantees to be honoured. With the support of a third party, civilians will be able to leave the plant. We are not holding them back. We are asking that they be released."

Palamar called on the Russian occupying troops to end the bombing and to maintain the ceasefire, not in words but in deed, so that civilians could leave Azovstal and be evacuated from the city.

Background:

• Mariupol has been under siege since 1 March. On 12 April, some of the Ukrainian Marines were able to break through from the Ilyich plant to reach the Azov Regiment at the Azovstal plant; some of them were taken prisoner.
• The Russian army continues to drop heavy bombs on the Azovstal plant. On 19 April, Sviatoslav (‘Kalyna’) Palamar, Deputy Commander of the Azov Regiment, said that the Azovstal plant had been almost completely destroyed and that Ukrainian soldiers were trying to rescue people from under the rubble.
• On 19 April, the Russian Defence Ministry asked Ukrainian defenders stationed at Azovstal to lay down their arms and surrender; this was at least the third such request.
• On 20 April, Pavlo Kyrylenko, the head of the Donetsk Regional State Administration, said that some of the buses with evacuated residents of Mariupol were moving towards Zaporizhzhia along a route designated by the Russians.