Russia Preparing 'Colony No 97 In Makiivka' For 'Nazis From Azov,' Says Ukrainian Official

Service members of Ukrainian forces who have surrendered after weeks holed up at Azovstal steel works are seen inside a bus, which arrived under escort of the pro-Russian military at a detention facility in the course of Ukraine-Russia conflict in the settlement of Olenivka in the Donetsk Region, Ukraine May 17, 2022.

A member of the Ukrainian delegation in the former Minsk Trilateral Contact Group has said the Ukrainian soldiers evacuated from Azovstal are in captivity in the Russian-occupied Donetsk People's Republic.

Sergey Garmash, who is also a journalist and a native of Donbas, told Current Time TV said the seriously wounded defenders of Mariupol have been shifted to the border town of Novoazovsk, now under the control of Russia-backed separatists, while another 211 people to Yelenovka.

"I was informed from Donetsk that they began to prepare colony No. 97 in Makiivka specifically, as they said, for 'Nazis from Azov,' from Mariupol, to be more precise," Garmash told the news outlet. He added that the people taken to Yelenovka may have ended up in filtration camps.

Garmash had earlier shared on Facebook his views on the evacuation. He said shifting the soldiers was a good idea, but "let's call a spade a spade."

"The very fact that people were taken out of Azovstal, where they would have simply been killed, is positive. But let's call a spade a spade. The issue of exchange, it seems to me, is not so clear-cut. Today we heard statements from the Russian State Duma on this matter. I want us to be realistic about these things and not make a big win out of a virtually forced move. People were forced to surrender to avoid death," he added.

Russia's parliament speaker said Tuesday that it would consider banning the exchange of Russian prisoners of war for captured members of Ukraine's Azov Regiment.

Though Ukrainian officials have not used the word surrender and claim prisoners exchange will be discussed, Garmash said one must be "critical of everything." "We understand very well that if Russia wanted to immediately take and exchange these people, it would exchange them. But for some reason, our servicemen were taken to the territory of the so-called DPR, in fact, to filtration camps," he added.

He elaborated on the possibility of exchanging of Azov regiment. "I will not say that I do not believe in the possibility of an exchange. I doubt the possibility of exchanging members of the Azov Regiment directly. With the exchange of representatives of the National Police and border guards, there may not be any problems, in principle. But I don't think it will be soon. It was not in vain that they were sent to the so-called DPR," he added.