Russia claims video shows soldiers leaving Azovstal

STORY: More than 260 Ukrainian fighters have surrendered after weeks holed up in the labyrinth of bunkers and tunnels below Mariupol's Azovstal steel works as the most devastating siege of Russia's war in Ukraine draws to a close.

Russia's defence ministry said on Tuesday (May 17) that 265 Ukrainian fighters had surrendered, including 51 who were seriously wounded and would be treated at Novoazovsk in the Russian-backed breakaway Donetsk region.

Russian forces pummelled Mariupol, a major port on the Sea of Azov between Russia and Crimea, with artillery for weeks while some of the fiercest urban warfare of the conflict left much of the city a wasteland.

Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov also announced at a daily briefing that Russian missiles had destroyed a store of arms supplied by the United States and European nations in Ukraine's western Lviv region.

Russia calls its actions in Ukraine a "special military operation".