Ukrainian troops surrendering at Mariupol registered as POWs

By OLEKSANDR STASHEVSKYI and CIARAN McQUILLAN
Associated Press

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia says hundreds more fighters have emerged from the Mariupol stronghold where they made their last stand and surrendered. The Red Cross is working to register the fighters as prisoners of war, as the end of a key battle in the conflict draws closer. Meanwhile, in the first war crimes trial held by Ukraine, a captured Russian soldier testified Thursday that he shot an unarmed Ukrainian civilian in the head on his officer’s orders. A monthslong siege of Mariupol that left it in ruins and the drama of last-ditch fighters at a steel plant holding off Russian forces turned the strategic port city into a worldwide symbol of suffering and defiance. The Russian military said Thursday that a total of 1,730 Ukrainian troops at the Azovstal steelworks have surrendered since Monday.