MOSCOW, May 19. /TASS/. The head of the Donetsk People's Republic Denis Pushilin reported that more than a half of the Ukrainian security forces blockaded at the Azovstal industrial zone in Mariupol have left it, and the process is still underway.

"Not everyone has come out yet, the process is still underway. <...> More than a half has for sure already come out, laid down their weapons and came out with a white flag," he said on Thursday on the TV channel Solovyev Live.

He added that medical assistance was being provided to those in need.

Fighting for Mariupol in the special military operation of the Russian Armed Forces in Ukraine began on February 25. After Ukrainian security forces were knocked out of residential areas, the remnants of the group, including fighters of the neo-Nazi Azov battalion, took refuge in the industrial zone of the Azovstal steel plant for some time. On Wednesday, Russian Defense Ministry Spokesman Major-General Igor Konashenkov said that since May 16, 959 fighters of the Ukrainian security forces blockaded at Azovstal have surrendered, including 80 wounded, of whom 51 have been housed in a hospital in Novoazovsk, in the Donetsk People's Republic.