Soldiers of the Azov Regiment are being held in satisfactory conditions, said the wife of the regiment commander Denys Prokopenko.
This was reported by The Guardian.
"He said he was ʼOK’ and asked how I was, I’ve heard from other sources that the conditions are more or less satisfactory," Prokopenkoʼs wife Kateryna told The Guardian. However, it is unknown whether the regimental commander could speak freely during the conversation.
According to her, "prisoners are fed, given water."
"The conditions meet the requirements and they have not been subjected to violence during this short period. What will happen next, of course, we don’t know but at the moment there are third parties – the UN and the Red Cross – who are controlling the situation," said Kateryna Prokopenko.
Prokopenko noted that, as far as she knew, none of the fighters were taken to Russia.
- On May 11, the wives of the Azov Regiment, Kateryna Prokopenko and Yulia Fedosiuk, met with the Pope and asked Francis to help save their Azovstal husbands.
- On May 17, the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine confirmed that in the evening of May 16, the process of removing Ukrainian servicemen from the Azovstal plant in Mariupol began. More than 250 fighters were the first to leave.
- The speaker of the State Duma of the Russian Federation called the Ukrainian military from "Azovstal" "war criminals" and said that they should not be exchanged.
- On May 19, members of the International Committee of the Red Cross were able to visit some Ukrainian servicemen who had left the Azovstal plant in Mariupol and were in occupied Olenivka, Donetsk Oblast. The visit was confidential, details of the conditions of detention of Ukrainian defenders are not disclosed.