In the Russian Federation, a trial of Mariupol's defenders began: prisoners are threatened with life imprisonment

The publication reports that captured Ukrainian defenders are members of the Special Forces Regiment of the National Guard "Azov", who opposed the Russian invaders in Mariupol. Azov soldiers were then hiding in the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol, but were captured in May 2022. The city of Mariupol, after the grueling fights, which lasted about three months, turned into a smoldering ruins. The Russian authorities recognized the Azov regiment with a terrorist group.

The defendants of Ukrainian defenders were accused of involvement in a terrorist organization and participation in the action on attempting to lose pro -Russian authorities in Donetsk region. In case of their guilty, they are threatened from 15 years to life imprisonment. Journalists noted that of the 24 people who were charged, two were exchanged for Russian prisoners of war as part of the exchange of prisoners.

Of the 22 defendants who remained before the Court, eight are women who worked as chefs in the Azov battalion. In early May 2022, due to the constant shelling of the Russian invaders of the Mariupol plant "Azovstal", Ukrainian defenders lost their connection with the field hospital. On May 10, the Azov Regiment showed the frames of wounded soldiers who were at the Azovstal metallurgical plant in the besieged Mariupol, where they could not be evacuated yet.

The fighters were forced to stay without water, food and unsanitary conditions. On May 16, Roszma began to disseminate information about the capture of the Ukrainian soldiers, who defended Azovstal, and on the same day several buses with wounded soldiers of the Armed Forces left the plant. Some of the soldiers were forced to be captured.