Donetsk, May 18 - DAN. Almost a thousand of Ukrainian militants at the Azovstal steel works have laid down arms, the DPR Territorial Defence HQ said.
"A total of 962 Ukrainian militants at the Azovstal steel works have surrendered," the report reads.
Mass surrender in Mariupol began on May 16 when the first group of Ukrainian militants decided to leave their besieged base at the Azovstal steel works.
Back in April, Russian President Vladimir Putin called off plans for the Russian military to storm the sprawling Azovstal steel plant, and ordered to seal it off. Soon after, humanitarian efforts to evacuate the population of nearby neighbourhoods began. Many of the armed men who set up positions at the Azovstal are members of a Neo-Nazi Azov armed formation (banned in the DPR). *ot