Wounded Ukrainian servicemen are being evacuated from Azovstal
1 Donbass Aleksandr Hodakovsky, the Commander of the ’Vostok’ brigade - which is a part of the DPR forces - stated on-air of the “Russia 1” TV channel that the Russian forces are negotiating with the Ukrainians from the ’Azovstal’ factory. According to him, 9 Ukrainian servicemen have recently showed up from a tunnel leading to the factory. They had white flags. Alexander Hodakovsky clarified that after the DPR forces blocked several significant areas - the Ukrainian forces found themselves in a stalemate. "As it turned out, that group came out to represent the interests of a larger group from the Azovstal factory. Several of our officers went back with the same group of Ukrainian servicemen, who came out of the tunnel with white flags, in order to conduct a negotiation. We don’t know the results yet" - the commander concluded, and called the on-going negotiations to be "active" - the RIA NEWS reported. 2 Donbass "The evacuation of the wounded Ukrainian servicemen from the ’Azovstal’ factory has began’’ - the Russian Defense Ministry said. "On 16th of May, after negotiations with the representatives of the Ukrainian servicemen, blocked on the territory of the ’Azovstal’ factory in the city of Mariupol, an agreement was reached on the removal of the wounded servicemen" - the ministry added. The wounded are being taken to the hospital in the city of Novoazovsk, in the DPR. The Russian military has issued a ceasefire near the factory - the RIA NEWS reported. 3 Ukraine The Ukrainian Foreign Minister, Dmytrii Kuleba, stated during an interview to the ’Bloomberg TV’ that Ukraine doesn’t plan to make concessions to Russia - like in Donbass and with Crimea - in order to achieve a ceasefire. "Instead of asking what Ukraine should do for the truce, you need to ask what Russia should do for the truce. We want everything that belongs to us to remain with us" - Dmytrii Kuleba stated. 4 Russia The CSTO summit took place in Moscow on 16th of May. The organization includes Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan. President of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, stated that without the rallying of the CSTO member-states - "we may not exist tomorrow" - he stated and added that - "is it possible today to assume that we are bound with solidarity and support within our organization? As the recent events show - although I still may be wrong - the answer is ’no’. The ban on the flights by some CSTO partners for the aircraft of national airlines of other members of the organization is concerning. Due to the pressure of sanctions from the consolidated West, the postulate of unity and solidarity doesn’t always work" - Lukashenko stated and added that the West is putting a severe pressure on all CSTO countries. "But for such situations there is a collective mutual support" - Lukashenko concluded. 5 Italy - Ukraine The "Italy-24" reported that the order to transfer weapons to Ukraine has been made by the Italian government. It will be signed soon. The exact list of the weapons, prepared for the shipment, is classified. However, the journalists still managed to find out some details of the document. It is planned to transfer to Ukraine some ’Stinger’ MANPADS, ATGMs, machine guns, mortars, and various ammo. The document also mentioned 155-mm artillery guns ’FH70’, and APCs ’Iveco’. 6 Donbass On 16th of May the Department of Information and Mass Communications of the Russian Ministry of Defense reported that the Russian engineering troops cleared from landmines an empty fortified area of Ukrainian forces, which was located near the Lugansk thermal power plant. "The specialists from the Russian Engineering Troops cleared the territory of a large fortified area of Ukrainian forces near a thermal power plant in the liberated town of Shchastya in the LPR" - the report stated. “The Russian sappers found a system for the remote detonation of landmines at the former positions of the Ukrainian forces. The sappers neutralized dozens of explosive traps. All the explosive items that couldn’t be neutralized were destroyed on the spot” - the ministry reported. In total, since the start of their work on the territory of the LPR, the Russian sappers have checked about 50 hectares of lands, and neutralized more than 500 explosive items. Constantine Reztsov, specially for the ANNA NEWS.
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