Ukrainian Commander ‘Doesn’t Regret’ Surrender, Admits Mariupol Views Ukrainian Forces ‘Negatively’

The high-profile Ukrainian POW’s acknowledgement of Mariupol’s Russian loyalties exposes another prong of the mainstream media disinformation campaign around the besieged port city.

The commander of the 501st Battalion of the Marine Corps of Ukraine defended his decision to lay down arms, saying he ”doesn’t regret” surrendering to soldiers of the Russian Federation, in an interview with Russia’s Rossiya-1 news channel that went viral Monday.

In the footage, the officer, Lt. Colonel Nikolay Biryukov, explains that it would have been “senseless to leave troops on the battlefield,” and openly acknowledges the “local population” in Mariupol was “negatively disposed towards the Armed Forces of Ukraine.”

On April 4th, footage began to circulate showing the 501st Battalion marching unarmed through Mariupol with their hands raised. Not long after, a variety of sources confirmed that around 250 Ukrainian marines were taken as prisoners of war. At the time, Biryukov’s decision to ask his men to lay down their weapons represented the largest mass surrender of Ukrainian forces amid the ongoing Russian special operation to denazify and demilitarize Ukraine.

Soldiers in the Donetsk Peoples’ Republic have captured as many as 3,000 Ukrainian militants since the operation began in late February. On Wednesday, 1,026 soldiers of Ukraine's 36th Marine Brigade–162 officers among them–surrendered as well, according to the Russian Ministry of Defense.

In light of the “hopeless situation” Ukrainian forces continue to face, Col. General Mikhail Mizintsev, head of the Russian MoD’s National Defense Control Center, announced a final offer of surrender on Sunday morning to any remaining “militants of nationalist battalions and foreign mercenaries” holed up Mariupol’s Azovstal metallurgical plant. Mizintsev explained that a number of remaining Ukrainian troops are "persistently demanding permission" to yield their arms but the regime in Kiev is "categorically forbidding" them from doing so, and even threatening those who persist with "execution.”