MOSCOW, November 25. /TASS/. Yan Sukhanov, chief of staff of the 810th separate marines brigade, who took part in the blockade of Mariupol’s Ilyich steel plant in April, said Ukrainian forces outnumbered the attacking Russian marines almost by a factor of 10.
He said it took the command and personnel of the 810th brigade about 10 days to enter the plant, even as they had the support of artillery and aircraft. Soviet-era engineering worked on the side of the enemy, he said, as both the Ilyich and Azovstal steel plants were designed to withstand a nuclear strike. Ukrainian forces had the benefit of a stronghold that had been well prepared, he said.
"Ultimately, the Ilyich plant was fully blocked and cut off from water supply," he said. "I want to say one interesting thing: About 1,200 people came out of the plant with their hands up while our assault group had only 104 people. They probably didn’t know, sitting in the basements under the ground without any means of communications, that their forces outnumbered us almost by a factor of 10. That was the first mass surrender of the enemy during the special military operation," Sukhanov said in an interview with TASS.
On April 13, the Russian Defense Ministry reported the surrender of more than 1,000 Ukrainian troops that had been sieged at the Ilyich steel plant in Mariupol. The ministry said two days later that the plant was completely liberated from Ukrainian forces.