ICRC says it has registered hundreds of PoWs from Azovstal
Russia's war against Ukraine - the main events of May 19
It is noted that the ICRC started May 17 to register combatants leaving the Azovstal plant, including the wounded, at the request of the parties.
The operation continued on May 18 and was still ongoing on May 19.
At the same time, it is reported that the ICRC is not transporting POWs to the places where they are held.
Read also: Video of Azovstal evacuation emerges
The registration process that the ICRC facilitated involves the individual filling out a form with personal details like name, date of birth and closest relative.
"This information allows the ICRC to track those who have been captured and help them keep in touch with their families," the report says.
Earlier a representative of the ICRC delegation, Oleksandr Vlasenko, told media that the organization's staff had visited the defenders of Mariupol, evacuated from Azovstal, in the temporarily occupied village of Olenivka, Donetsk region.
Read also: Amnesty International concerned about fate of Mariupol defenders evacuated from Azovstal
Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Malyar on May 18 said that the rescue operation was underway, but "this process is very sensitive and any information we announce in public may harm both the process itself and our defenders."
Evacuation from Azovstal
On the night of May 17, Malyar said that 53 seriously injured defenders of Mariupol were taken to a medical center in occupied Novoazovsk for treatment, and another 211 were evacuated to occupied Olenivka through a humanitarian corridor. They will later return to the territory controlled by Ukraine through an exchange procedure.
Read also: Russia considering blocking swap of Azov fighters
The commanders of the military units stationed at Azovstal received an order from the top military leadership to save the lives of their personnel, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said.
Read also: Photos of wounded Ukrainian fighters at Azovstal emerge
Earlier on Monday, the Azov Regiment issued a statement saying that the defenders of Mariupol had complied with the order and hoped for the support of the Ukrainian people.
According to Malyar, there was no other way to save the soldiers in Azovstal. She said the operation to rescue the defenders of Mariupol will continue until they return to territory controlled by Ukraine. Ukraine will exchange 52 seriously injured soldiers from Azovstal when their condition stabilizes, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said.
Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov said that the defenders of Mariupol carried out the order, held up a group of 20,000 Russian invaders and prevented them from getting into Zaporizhzhya and further into Donetsk Oblast. He added that after that the soldiers received a new order – to save their own lives.
Read also: Mariupol engineer shares his story of spending two months in the Azovstal bunker
Ukrainian defenders at the Azovstal plant in Mariupol held their positions under full encirclement, as heavy fighting took place. Since the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion, they have killed 6,000 invaders, Ukraine's military estimates. Russian forces launched dozens of strikes at Azovstal per day, using aircraft, tanks and heavy artillery.
About 1,000 Ukrainian defenders remained at Azovstal, of whom 600 were injured and 40 were in critical condition. They repeatedly asked for to be evacuated and reported that they were short of food, water, medicine and ammunition.
