The relatives of the defenders of Mariupol called on Turkey to become a guarantor of security/Photo from Kozatsky's Instagram

The defenders of Mariupol courageously defended the city for more than 80 days. Now they are fulfilling a new order – to save the lives of their brothers. Relatives of the fighters call on Turkey to become a guarantor of the safety of Ukrainian soldiers.

On May 20, a press conference was held in Istanbul for the wives and mothers of the defenders of Mariupol. The women called on the President of Turkey to help take Ukrainian fighters out of the city. Channel 24 reports this.

The evacuation of fighters from Azovstal is currently underway. Ukrainian soldiers are taken to the territories temporarily controlled by the Russians. The wives and mothers of the fighters fear for the safety of their relatives, so they once again asked the Turkish side to act as a guarantor of security.

Our goal is unchanged. We hope that it is the Turkish side that will become the guarantor of the safety and lives of our fighters now, after they leave the territory of Azovstal,” said Natalya, the mother of one of the Ukrainian fighters.

How the evacuation from Azovstal began

On May 16, it became known that, as a result of difficult negotiations, the procedure for the evacuation of the defenders of Mariupol from Azovstal began. On that day, 53 seriously wounded fighters were evacuated to a hospital in the temporarily occupied Novoazovsk, and another 211 Ukrainian fighters were taken by a humanitarian corridor to Yelenovka. The defenders are to be returned home as part of a prisoner exchange.

Minister for Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories Iryna Vereshchuk stressed that the Ukrainian defenders would certainly be returned to the territories controlled by Ukraine, but first their condition should be stabilized.

What is known now:

• 19 May, the deputy commander of the Azov regiment – Kalina – said that the operation to rescue the defenders of Mariupol was still ongoing, but he could not provide other details.
• So far, Ukrainian defenders are being taken to uncontrolled territories of Ukraine. The Institute for the Study of War suggests that the Kremlin could have agreed to the evacuation of Azovstal in order to claim Mariupol as their own.
• It is known that about 1,700 Ukrainian soldiers have already left Azovstal, but that's not all.
• President Volodymyr Zelensky noted that the attention of the whole world was riveted on the evacuation from Azovstal. And he added that the Ukrainian authorities are doing everything so that international partners join the rescue of the fighters of the Mariupol plant.
• On May 20, it became known that the top military leadership ordered the defense of Mariupol to be stopped and everything to be done to save the life and health of the military garrison.
• Note that the defenders of Mariupol completed a very important task – for more than 80 days they held down enemy forces that could be used to capture the Donetsk and Zaporozhye regions. While the soldiers at Azovstal courageously held the line, Ukraine used this time to regroup forces and form reserves.