The Western operatives in Mariupol

Part I - March 11 to April 25, 2022

Part II

• April 26, 2022

The analysis of videos from Azov, their details, localize some civilians inside the Bunker 18207, at coordinates 47.102558, 37.593167

• April 27, 2022

Major Serhiy Volyna publishes a new plaintive video, requests once more for civilians and fighters an international extraction, which would be like operation Dynamo in Dunkirk, France, late May 1940.

> Since his enemies are Russians and Nazis in his ranks, his situation reminds me rather the Untergang in Berlin Bunker late April 1945 or the fate of Friedrich Paulus’ 6. Armee in Stalingrad. The Ukrainians are often using demagogy toward the US or in this case, UK, their more fanatical support in Europe

• April 28, 2022

As usual, the Russian aerospace forces (VKS) have carried out night operations above Azovstal. Azov publishes a video which is showing the aftermath in a Bunker

Antonio Guterres is secretary general of the United Nations. Two days after a trip to Moscow, he arrives in Ukraine for talks with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. His technical goal is to broker an evacuation of Azovstal, where the United Nations and the International Red Cross would be involved

After his meeting with Guterres, Volodymyr Zelenskyy declares himself and is not even kidding

[summary] ready for immediate negotiations, [believes that] a successful outcome is possible in terms of unblocking Azovstal steel mill [and therefore, evacuating everybody]

• April 29, 2022

A family has managed to escape from the basement of Azovstal and Izvestia interviews the parents. Azov is simply not informing its hostages of the ceasefires. But the father has found a radio

> The father was working in the steel mill, time and war have changed his mind, until he has decided to save his family. Because ten years ago, on social networks, he was a nationalist

The day after, CNN will publish new satellite photos from Maxar Technologies, taken on April 29. The facility is heavily damaged

• April 30, 2022

> Today is an anniversary. 77 years ago, the Red Army had cornered him in his Berlin Bunker and Adolf Hitler, leader of the German Nazi State, shot himself.

After the mediation of Antonio Guterres, a UN and Red Cross convoy passes Bezimenne, on its way to Mariupol, about 30 km to the west

In support to the defenders and civilians in Azovstal, demonstrators in Kiev are displaying the flag of Azov regiment and the posters that its political organization has published since the beginning of the siege

At 5:43 pm, Russian TASS news agency reports that 25 civilians, including six children, have left the steel mill during the daily ceasefire. In a new video published at 8:26 pm, Captain Sviatoslav Palamar, deputy commander, tells that Azov has brought twenty civilians at the meeting point. He seems ready to release all other civilians. Later, Russian reporter Semyon Pegov, from several sources, confirms that two groups got out, the first 25 people on their own and that the other ones were filtered.

• May 1, 2022

> Today is an anniversary. 77 years ago, the last Nazi defenders of the Reichstag, 800 survivors out of 2,000 fighters, surrendered to the Red Army. The garrison of Berlin officially capitulated the day after

Freed and filtered civilians are brought at a temporary accommodation center, under Russia and DPR control, in Bezimenne, about 30 km west of Mariupol

According to the Russian defense ministry, 80 people got out today. Many are speaking to Russian journalists, one thinks that 300 civilians may still be inside the steel mill. A woman reports that a mercenary general is stuck there. She did not see him but he is famous within the garrison because discussion partner of Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

> Such general is so far a rumor. Under police investigation for alleged sexual misconduct in the 90s, lieutenant general Trevor Cadieu has retired from the Canadian military and left for Ukraine on April 5, more than three weeks after the encirclement of Mariupol.

The DPR prosecutor opens criminal cases against three foreign mercenaries taken alive : Aiden Aslin, Shaun Pinner and Morocco national Brahim Saadoun.

Sergey Lavrov is the Russian minister of foreign affairs. On Italian Rete 4 private TV channel, he says in the evening

[…] Kiev authorities are trying by all means to achieve the withdrawal of the Ukrainian radicals from Azovstal, because Western officers and mercenaries may be among them […]

• May 2, 2022

> Today is an anniversary. 77 years ago, the Nazi garrison of Berlin surrendered and the red banner was raised at the top of the Reichstag, that the Red Army had cleansed the day before

According to the DPR, 214 people, including 33 children, got out Azovstal today. They are mostly civilians, except at least one fighter, who has tried to escape among them, but has been caught. His custody is an opportunity to watch his tattoos

> Many, even among millennials, still know what is the swastika, at right. ROA, at left, means Russkaya Osvoboditel’naya Armiya (Russian Liberation Army), also called Vlasov army (1944-1945). Nazi Germany recruited the members of this military formation among Soviet prisoners of war, Ukrainian, Belarusian or Russian. Soviet Union later tried general Andrey Vlasov, who was hanged on August 1, 1946.

After the daily ceasefire, the military operations resume, as shown in an amateur video from the freed city, where life goes on

• May 3, 2022

Azov fighters take advantage of the daily ceasefire for evacuation of civilians, to get out the Bunker and occupy new firing positions on the surface. The allied forces engage and destroy these new targets, the ceasefire is broken.

According to Ramzan Kadyrov, head of the Chechen republic, about 150 civilians are still detained in the steel mill.

• May 4, 2022

According to Enver Tskitishvili, general director of Azovstal, 36 underground shelters could accommodate there more than 12,000 people. Five of them could withstand a direct hit of nuclear warhead.

In the afternoon, the Ukrainian authorities announce to media that they have lost communication with the garrison of the steel mill. Later, Russian reporter Semyon Pegov gives a probable explanation, a UR-77 mine clearing equipment is used there for denazification

> The UR-77 is launching two line charges, which are accumulating 1,450 kg plastic explosive.

• May 5, 2022

According to Dmitry Peskov, Kremlin press secretary, the survivors of Azovstal garrison are still detaining hostages. They are now proposing an exchange to the allied forces : one ton of food and drugs for 15 civilians. Meanwhile, life goes on in Mariupol, where the name of the city is displayed in Russian

Azov is now playing the Turkish card. In the evening, a new video introduces military medic Hassan, who pleads with Recep Erdogan for extraction

According to senior journalist Elijah J. Magnier, negotiation may be underway for the exfiltration of Western and Israeli operatives to Belarus.

• May 6, 2022

During the daily ceasefire for the evacuation of their civilian hostages, half a dozen defenders have attempted to break the encirclement in a civilian car, but an anti tank guided missile (ATGM) has been faster. Azov is claiming that the allied forces have broken the ceasefire, publishes a video which is showing an injured survivor of the attempt, as a new plea for the evacuation of its wounded. 50 more real civilians have left the steel mill.

• May 7, 2022

Yan Gagin is adviser to Denis Pushilin, head of the DPR. In an interview with RIA Novosti, he confirms that Western operatives, primarily from Europe, are still in Azovstal. The latest information which are fueling his analysis are the testimonies of freed civilians and POWs.

Irina Vereshchuk is the deputy prime minister of Ukraine. She states in the afternoon that all children, women and elderly have left the steel mill.

• May 10, 2022

Azov publishes a pictures set of its wounded members in the basement of Azovstal. In a typically nationalistic mixture of bravado and whine, the Nazi organization pretends to defend the civilized world, calls the United Nations and Red Cross for the evacuation of its fighters

> I do not believe that they will manage to escape, maybe the Western operatives but not the Ukrainian Nazis nor foreign mercenaries. Their probable fate reminds me the parade in Moscow on July 17, 1944, when 57,000 German POWs were displayed

• May 11, 2022

The pope meets two women from Ukraine, who are pleading for the exfiltration of their spouses, currently fighters in Azovstal

More seriously, the Russian investigators have searched two biolaboratories in Mariupol, established so far that since 2014, cholera pathogen was collected there. The strains were sent to the public health center in Kiev, responsible for the onward shipment to the US, which were funding dozens biolaboratories in Ukraine. The personnel started destroying slowly the evidences on February 25, the day after the beginning of the special military operation. Mariupol was encircled on March 11

• May 13, 2022

Here is its first picture on the outskirts of Azovstal. A Tyulpan 240 mm self-propelled mortar is firing a laser-guided precision bomb, which is carrying 21 kg high explosive. In comparison, a common 152 or 155 mm howitzer shell is carrying about 10 kg explosive

> I guess the Tyulpan is sealing tunnels exits, before infantry is gaining ground on surface.

• May 14, 2022

The allied forces have searched a base of Azov in Yuryevka sea resort, about 40 km southwest of Mariupol. Amid historical references and local emblems, they have found Western business cards from Canada, France and Germany. Christophe Boursin is civil servant within the French foreign affairs ministry, first secretary of the embassy in Kiev

In the morning, a Chinese channel reports from Azovstal

Here is a current situation map, Azov is repelled in the depths and the allied infantry is gaining ground on surface

In the evening at Eurovision, the Ukrainian band salutes with the fist on the chest, like the service members of Azov regiment, calls

[…] please help Ukraine Mariupol, help Azovstal, right now

Ukraine wins the song contest

In the US, white supremacist Payton Gendron, 18 years old, drives 300 km from his home to a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, where he assassinates ten Black and Hispanic passersby and customers with his assault rifle. He has already explained himself in a manifesto on the web.

> Gendron used to display the Schwarze Sonne, a historic Nazi symbol, that Azov regiment is also featuring on its publication and badge

> Scary constancy of the Western inconsequence, at least since Syria, where there were good and bad Jihadists, those who were controlling neighborhoods in Aleppo (al Qaeda) and those who were attacking in Europe (the Caliphate). Today, Nazis are good in Ukraine and obviously bad in Buffalo

• May 15, 2022

In the morning, the allied forces celebrate the Ukrainian victory at Eurovision song contest, with incendiary ammunition at Azovstal

• May 16, 2022

On May 20, a retrospective video on social networks will show the last fighting at the exit of the tunnel -the last open, I guess, after artillery has sealed the other ones- where the garrison will surrender in the coming days

According to the fighters of the DPM on the ground, nine representatives of Azovstal garrison have got out with a white flag for negotiation. The issue is the evacuation of the wounded

At 2:50 pm, the Russian defense ministry confirms that a ceasefire has been implemented for the surrender of the wounded enemies, who are taken to a hospital in Novoazovsk, DPR. The day after, the authorities will release a retrospective footage, where able-bodied prisoners appear too

> A strict gag order is enforced amid Ukrainian and Western media. Volodymyr Zelenskyy wishes martyrs, not survivors who may dream of his death after the defeat in Mariupol. The surrender is a local initiative, not an order from Kiev.

At 8:05 pm, Denys Prokopenko confirms on Telegram that the surrender has begun. At 8:55 pm, the first footage of evacuated wounded appears on social networks

Later, the Ukrainian defense ministry, then Volodymyr Zelenskyy, acknowledge the defeat in Mariupol, the evacuation of 264 fighters, including 53 wounded ones. The Ukrainian propaganda suggests that the 211 able-bodied POWs would be soon exchanged. Of course, they won’t

• May 17, 2022

Alexander Khodakovsky is commanding Vostok battalion, DPM. He tells that a new batch is about to surrender from Azovstal. The GRU (Russian military intelligence) is inspecting the Bunkers, where according later to the rumor, between 2,000 and 2,500 alive people are still staying, 200 corpses are lying in refrigerators. Still armed, servicemen of Azov regiment are clearing mines, DPM is monitoring them.

> Look at their shoulder patches : 14. Waffen-Grenadier-Division der SS and a modernized Totenkopf, 3. SS-Panzerdivision

In the evening, Emmanuel Macron says by phone to Volodymyr Zelenskyy that French weapons shipments to Ukraine will grow in the coming weeks.

> I guess that the French operatives are already in or close to custody. Some able-bodied prisoners have been taken from DPR to Rostov, Russia.

694 fighters will have surrendered today

• May 18, 2022

> Funny how the Western media are supporting for days the grotesque Ukrainian claims of an evacuation operation in Azovstal. Many remain so far at the first step of grief : shock and denial. As for the heroes, Azov appears as a gang of very common nationalists, full of morbid fantasy, cruel when strong, pathetic when defeated. With bravado and whine, they stood two months behind human shields, surrender when alone

Maria Zakharova is spokesperson of the Russian foreign affairs ministry. While the surrender is ongoing in Mariupol, she states that the Ukrainian forces have attempted to destroy the detention center in Yelenovka, Donetsk people’s republic, in order to kill there their detained fellows. The air defense managed to shoot down the missiles.

> As a reminder, the Tochka strike which slaughtered refugees in Kramatorsk, on April 8, was obviously a Ukrainian attack.

771 more fighters surrender today.

• May 19, 2022

At 8:40 pm, the Ukrainian Pravda publishes the last video of Sviatoslav Palamar

According to a new count of the Russian defense ministry, 179 more people have surrendered today, the total is 1,908.

For Reuters, Alexander Ermochenko takes this photo, where in June, British public and media will identify, with a white beard at the center, 59-year-old mercenary John Harding, nicknamed Pops

• May 20, 2022

At 1:18 pm, the Telegram channel of Azov in Mariupol releases a new video of lieutenant colonel Denys Prokopenko, commander of the Nazi formation, the right arm lightly injured. He explains that the surrender is almost completed, will end soon with the exit of the corpses

At 3:57 pm, Russian reporter Irina Kuksenkova witnesses the surrender of major Serhiy Volyna, 36th marine brigade.

> Irina Kuksenkova was injured on April 12, in the vicinity of Azovstal, when the garrison shelled with mortars a group of journalists

At 7:19 pm, she asserts the surrender of captain Sviatoslav Palamar, call sign Kalina, deputy commander of Azov regiment. His superior Prokopenko comes out at 8:21 pm. The evacuation operation [Volodymyr Zelenskyy] is completed in the evening. According to the Russian defense ministry, 2,439 people, 531 today, have laid down their weapons in Azovstal since May 16

About the foreign involvement, journalists interview Serhiy Volyna, who is elusive

[Q :] are there foreigners on the territory of the plant ?

[A :] generally there were…

[Q :] VIPs ? [NOOO, let him speak]

[A :] I don’t know about it…

[Q :] who was, where was they ?

[A :] there are foreigners in the units of the armed forces of Ukraine

[Q :] are the curators foreign ?

[A :] I don’t know any foreign curators who would give any instructions […]

• May 22, 2022

While search and mine clearing are ongoing in the steel mill, Alexander Khodakovsky displays a satellite phone of the OSCE, which has been found in a Bunker.

> The OSCE is the supposed neutral, intergovernmental Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe

The troops from Chechnya are shock formations against Ukraine. Ramzan Kadyrov is head of the Chechen autonomous republic in Russia. On his Telegram channel, he releases a funny fictional video, where he drives himself the POWs from Azovstal

• May 23, 2022

Two new stars are added on the memorial wall of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), US foreign intelligence. Two officers have fallen since the previous ceremony

> The fall of Azovstal may be a coincidence or not. The ceremony is annual, not always in May, stars are added when needed, two in 2021, none in 2020.

• May 28, 2022

Silent more than three weeks, Emmanuel Macron phones once more Vladimir Putin, with the German Kanzler Olaf Scholz. Among other unrealistic pleas, one is

[official report of the French presidency] the president of the Republic and the German chancellor have called for the release of some 2,500 defenders of Azovstal, taken prisoners of war by Russian forces […]

> The allied forces are detaining so far about 8,000 POWs. 5,500 of them, including 1,500 marines captured in Mariupol in April, are not interesting Macron. But the 2,500 last defenders of Azovstal are a major issue. Because of a few dozens French operatives ?

• May 30, 2022

Released on social networks, a pictures set is showing, in Donetsk People’s Republic, some POWs from Mariupol

• June 2, 2022

Elena Shishkina is heading in DPR the committee of the people’s council. She states

[…] the international tribunal for Ukrainian neo-Nazis who have committed war crimes in Donbass will become part of the process of denazification of Ukraine […] The first stage of the tribunal will be held in Mariupol, will be called Mariupol tribunal. In addition to the Ukrainian Nazis who have committed crimes in Mariupol, foreign mercenaries and NATO instructors will also be tried there […]

The same day, Dmitro Kuleba, Ukraine foreign affairs minister, writes to Josep Borrell, his counterpart in the European Union, demands, without kidding, the censorship of the European media about the defeated and detained garrison of Mariupol

• June 4, 2022

The investigations are closed and DPR is about to start the trial of some foreigners, who are charged with mercenarism, participation in crimes aimed at the violent seizure and retention of power, training for the purpose of terrorist activities on the territory of the DPR, may face death penalty. Aiden Aslin has spoken to journalists after his capture, has conceded that the nationalist battalions had committed war crimes in Mariupol. DPR is allowing him to publish videos on YouTube.

• June 7, 2022

Aiden Aslin, Sean Pinner and Brahim Saadoun appear before the court in DPR

TASS news agency quotes an anonymous law enforcement source, more than one thousand Ukrainian service members and foreign mercenaries have been transferred from DPR to Russia, after their surrender in Mariupol.

> About 4,000 prisoners have been taken in the city, about 1,500 in April, about 2,500 in Azovstal. Therefore, 3,000 regular service members and Azov rank and files, are still detained in Donbass. I guess that few hundreds prominent Azov members and therefore, several hundreds foreigners, have been transferred. That’s huge. Among hundreds foreigners, I guess dozens are State operatives, not mercenaries.

• June 9, 2022

In DPR, the court sentences to death foreign mercenaries Aiden Aslin, Sean Pinner and Brahim Saadoun, who can appeal or seek pardon. If the head of the DPR pardons, the death sentence may be commuted to 25 years in penitentiary colony.

British foreign secretary Liz Truss comments

[…] this is a sham judgment with absolutely no legitimacy […]

> The legitimacy of Donetsk people’s republic is precisely the point. Truss supports badly the defendant. The British arrogance must be slapped.

On February 27, asked in a BBC interview about the call from Volodymyr Zelensky for foreign fighters, Truss said that these would fight for freedom and democracy not just for Ukraine but for the whole of Europe, that she would support Britons going to Ukraine to fight if that is what they want to do.

But he West is rather looking like an empire of lies. The same day, after six papers since March about war between Ukraine and Donbass, my account on Medium platform is under investigation or was found in violation of the Medium Rules

For my readers, Medium responds Error 410, indicates that access to the target resource is no longer available at the origin server and that this condition is likely to be permanent.

I guess that to be seemly, I should not seek reality but write novels like this one, published in France today. When French chauvinism takes refuge in fantasy : on February 24, beginning of the Russian special military operation, Emmanuel Macron orders the DGSE (Direction Générale de la Sécurité Extérieure, foreign intelligence, military) to SAVE ZELENSKY. But I am obsessed with reality, if la France managed to exfiltrate now via diplomatic ways the operatives who have found themselves stuck in Mariupol, the achievement would be pretty good

• June 11, 2022

According to a RUMOR today, Israel had deployed 21 service members in Mariupol. These officers and ensigns were involved in the training of the Ukrainian forces in communication via Starlink satellite system, aerial reconnaissance and sabotage. They have been taken prisoners when Azovstal garrison surrendered on May 16-20. The investigation has concluded that they were not involved in fighting, did not directly injure civilians or allied service members. The Israeli government has requested their secret liberation, that Russia has negotiated. They have been released in Abu Dhabi.

> Israeli prime minister Naftali Bennett visited the United Arab Emirates on June 9

Part III