The Russian Defense Ministry and Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov both claimed on Wednesday that over 1,000 Ukrainian marines had surrendered in the city of Mariupol.
A statement from the Russian Defense Ministry said on Wednesday that 1,026 members of Ukraine’s 36th Marine Brigade, including 162 officers, had laid down arms near an iron and steel mill in the eastern Ukrainian port city. Earlier Wednesday, Vladimir Putin ally Kadyrov said more than 1,000 Ukrainian marines had surrendered in Mariupol, and he urged the remaining holdouts to surrender.
“In the town of Mariupol, near the Ilyich Iron and Steel Works, as a result of successful offensives by Russian armed forces and Donetsk People’s Republic militia units, 1,026 Ukrainian soldiers of the 36th Marine Brigade voluntarily laid down arms and surrendered,” the ministry said.
The Russian Defense Ministry’s claim could not immediately be verified, and Ukrainian officials have yet to comment on the claim.
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However, in a Facebook post on Monday, members of the 36th Marine Brigade had said they were “running out of ammunition” and expected to be captured or killed very soon by Russian forces.
“We were bombed from airplanes and shot at by artillery and tanks. We have been doing everything possible and impossible. But any resource has the potential to run out,” the Ukrainian military unit said.
According to Russian officials, 151 Ukrainian soldiers were found to be wounded and taken to a hospital in Mariupol.
Kadyrov urged Ukrainian forces refusing to surrender to lay down arms quickly in a message posted to the social media platform Telegram.
“Within Azovstal at the moment, there are about 200 wounded who cannot receive any medical assistance,” Kadyrov said. “For them and all the rest, it would be better to end this pointless resistance and go home to their families.”
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Kadyrov reportedly traveled to Mariupol last month and met with a contingent of Chechen troops supporting Russian forces in their “special operation.”
On Sunday, Kadyrov vowed that Putin’s army would not only “liberate” cities in Ukraine’s Donbas region but also take the capital city of Kyiv and “all other cities.”
