Russia Weighs Fate of Ukrainian Defenders in Mariupol

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Russian military vehicles form part of a convoy carrying Ukrainian soldiers from the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol on Tuesday.ALESSANDRO GUERRA/SHUTTERSTOCK

Hundreds more Ukrainian soldiers were evacuated from Mariupol’s Azovstal steel plant after laying down their arms and were taken as prisoners to Russian-held areas of Ukraine, Moscow said Wednesday, as Russian prosecutors called for the regiment that was holed up there to be declared a terrorist organization.

The Russian Justice Ministry said the country’s Supreme Court would hold a hearing on May 26 on the question of outlawing the Azov Regiment, which spent weeks doggedly resisting Russia’s advance alongside other units at the steel plant and has drawn frequent contempt from Moscow.

Russian investigators said separately on Tuesday that they would interrogate all Azovstal fighters as they gather material toward criminal cases for “crimes against the civilian population of the Donbas,” a mostly Russian-speaking part of Ukraine that Moscow has repeatedly asserted, without evidence, is enduring a genocidal campaign by Kyiv.