The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) said Tuesday on its social media accounts that its troop located at the Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol have been ordered to surrender.

In a statement, the AFU said that “The garrison Mariupol” has completed the assigned combat mission. The highest military command issued an order to the commanders of the units located at Azovstal to save the lives of the personnel."

Kiev claimed that its troops have prevented Russian forces from operating in other locations, adding that along with the Azov Neo-Nazi battalion, its forces had “prevented the implementation of the [Russian] plan for the quick capture of Zaporozhye, and did not allow access to the administrative border of the Donetsk and Zaporozhye regions.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that “Thanks to the actions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, intelligence, as well as the negotiating group, the International Committee of the Red Cross and the UN, we have hope that we will be able to save the lives of our guys."

It is noteworthy that a huge part of the Ukrainian troops located in the Aovstal steelworks belong to the Azov Neo-Nazi battalion, which its first commander, Andrey Biletsky, believes it is Ukraine’s mission to “lead the white races of the world in a final crusade… against Semite-led Untermenschen [inferior humans]."

According to Russian sources, about 2,200 people have been trapped in the basements of the complex, which is 11 square kilometers long, and its subterranean sections are designed to withstand a nuclear attack. 

Ukrainian Deputy Minister of Defense Anna Malyar and the General Staff of the AFU claimed that surrendering troops will be exchanged for Russian prisoners of war taken captive by Kiev. However, Moscow has not yet made any statements about an exchange.

The withdrawal of Ukrainian soldiers from Azovstal will signal the end of the battle for Mariupol, with Russian troops gaining complete control of the strategically important city.