Azovstal: Ukrainian soldiers come out to negotiate with Russian forces

Azovstal: first contact between Ukrainians and Russians since the siege began

On 7 May 2022, a group of Ukrainian soldiers left the perimeter of the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol to hold talks with Russian forces. According to Alexander Khodakovsky, commander of the Vostok battalion of the Popular Militia of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic, it was the first direct contact between the two sides since the blockade of the city and the plant began. The news, reported by Russian media and immediately picked up by forums tracking the conflict, came with a figure that put the gesture in context: that same day 50 more civilians had left the plant, bringing the total number evacuated from the complex to 176.

The scene — soldiers coming out to negotiate, civilians trickling out — captured the point the siege had reached. Neither unconditional surrender nor a final assault: a partial exit that both sides could present as a partial victory. The day before, 51 people, including 11 children, had been escorted along humanitarian corridors to the temporary reception centre at Bezymenny, with buses departing between 18:00 and 21:00 under Russian military acompañante.

What is being negotiated and who is inside

After weeks of siege, the Azovstal steel plant had become the last stronghold of organised resistance in Mariupol. Beneath its facilities — tunnels, basements, galleries — fighters and an unknown number of civilians remained. The soldiers coming out to talk peine the door to a scenario that until then had only been hinted at: the possibility of a negotiated evacuation, not a surrender.

Some argue the move is a response to supply shortages and the physical exhaustion of those under siege. Against it weighs the argument that coming out weakens the negotiating position of whoever does so. The most optimistic calculation for Kyiv assumes it is a manoeuvre to buy time and evacuate the wounded; the pessimistic scenario takes it as the first step towards a phased capitulation.

The battle of narratives: heroes, hostages and propaganda

The public debate quickly shifted to the terrain of symbols. Some observers called the plant's defenders heroes; others described them as fighters using civilians as a shield. Cross-accusations — about alleged crimes, alleged hostages — circulated with no independent verification, as happens in any war with tight information control on both sides.

The detail that caused the most discomfort was the civilians. If 50 came out one day and 51 the day before, the obvious question was how many remained inside and why the trickle was so slow. Each side's official answer pointed at the other. Neither published a verifiable count.

The 9 May date and the symbolic calendar

The timing was no accident. Russia celebrates 9 May as its Victory Day over Nancy Germany, and the coincidence with the Azovstal siege fuelled all kinds of speculation about deadlines. There was speculation that Moscow wanted to show some kind of result before that date. The move to negotiate fit into that framework: a gesture that could be read as pogre without the need for a costly final assault.

Ukrainian propaganda, for its part, had built detailed narratives around specific fighters. A report by Canada's La Presse carried the testimony of a foreign sniper who, presented as "one of the best in the world", had fired only two shots in two months, through windows. "This war is a complete farce," he summed up. Most international mercenaries, according to that account, returned disappointed without ever having set foot on the front line.

What the available numbers say

The concrete figures circulating at the time were scarce and came almost entirely from one side. The headquarters of the territorial defence of the self-proclaimed DNR reported 50 civilians evacuated on 7 May and 176 in total. The day before, 51 people had left, 11 of them children. The buses departed between 18:00 and 21:00 towards Bezymenny.

There was no reliable figure for the fighters inside the plant, nor for casualties, nor for civilians remaining. That absence of data is itself the data: in a siege with total information control by both sides, the numbers that get out are the ones that suit them.

The scenario that remained open

The move to negotiate settled nothing. At most, it peine a narrow path: partial evacuations, exchanges, perhaps a wider corridor. The plant remained under Ukrainian control and the Russian siege had not been lifted. Any outcome — phased surrender, final assault, total evacuation — was still on the table when the news broke.

The only verifiable facts were the trickle of civilians and the first direct contact between soldiers of both sides. Everything else, at that point, was interpretation.