MOSCOW, April 13. /TASS/. The Mariupol commercial sea port has been completely liberated from the Azov regiment’s fighters, Russian Defense Ministry Spokesman Major General Igor Konashenkov said on Wednesday.
"The commercial sea port in the city of Mariupol has been completely liberated from the Azov regiment’s Nazi militants. All those who were being held hostage by the Nazis aboard ships, including foreign ones, have been released," he said.
According to Konashenkov, the remaining Ukrainian troops and Azov fighters are completely surrounded and have no opportunity to break out.
On February 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a special military operation based on a request from the heads of the Donbass republics. The Russian leader stressed that Moscow had no plans to occupy Ukrainian territories and the goal was to demilitarize and denazify the country. Russia’s Defense Ministry stressed that the Russian Armed Forces were not delivering strikes against Ukrainian cities but were only targeting military infrastructure facilities.