MOSCOW, May 20 — RIA Novosti. The territory of Azovstal has been completely liberated, the Ministry of Defense reported.
"The territory of the Azovstal Metallurgical Plant in Mariupol, where since April 21 <...> a group of Ukrainian militants of the Nazi formation "Azov" was blocked, completely liberated," said the official representative of the Russian Defense Ministry, Major General Igor Konashenkov.
The head of the department, Sergei Shoigu, reported to Russian President Vladimir Putin on the complete liberation of Mariupol from Ukrainian militants. The underground facilities of the plant came under the control of Russian troops.
The ministry noted that since May 16, during the operation, 2,439 neo-Nazis from Azov and Ukrainian troops blocked on the territory of the plant have laid down their arms and surrendered.
Today, the last group of the 531st militant surrendered. The department also reported that the commander of the "Azov" for reasons of his safety and to avoid reprisals of local residents for numerous atrocities was taken from the territory of the plant in a special armored car.
The special unit "Azov" of the National Guard of Ukraine, against whose members criminal cases have been initiated in Russia, was created after the coup d'etat in 2014. It consisted of radicals who held racist and neo—Nazi views - not only citizens of Ukraine, but also mercenaries from other countries.
"Azov" participated in the Ukrainian military operation in the Donbass. In 2015, the Investigative Committee of Russia opened a criminal case against the battalion's fighters under the articles "Kidnapping", "Torture" and "Use of prohibited means and methods of warfare".
In addition, in February of this year, the UK stated that they had received irrefutable evidence that militants of the Azov and Right Sector* committed violent crimes against civilians of Donbass.
Already during the Russian special military operation, numerous evidences of the crimes of the "Azov" became known, in particular, torture and brutal killings of civilians and prisoners. In addition, the militants were hiding behind civilians as a "human shield".
"Azov" used Nazi symbols. The unit's emblem depicts a "wolf hook" — a symbol that originally appeared in Nazi Germany. In various variations, it was present in the symbols of combat units, including the SS panzer division "Reich".
In addition, the "Wolf Hook" was a symbol of the post-war Nazi underground fighting organization "Werewolf". Also on the emblem of "Azov" there is an esoteric symbol of the sun, which first appeared in the Third Reich among the occultists from the SS.
