Ukraine evacuates steel plant soldiers and says it has stopped fighting in an apparent surrender of Mariupol

• The soldiers holding a steel plant in Mariupol, southern Ukraine, were being evacuated Monday.
• The troops resisted Russia for weeks, but were surrounded and vastly outgunned.

Ukraine evacuated its soldiers from the steel plant in the pivotal city that had become a last holdout against weeks of attacks, effectively ceding the city to Russia.

The soldiers had been in the Azovstal steel plant for weeks, with many of them wounded and without adequate supplies of food and water.

The steel plant was the last major point of resistance in the Mariupol, which was surrounded by Russian early in its invasion of Ukraine and subject to relentless attacks.

The city offers Russia a strategic advantage, giving Russia control over the land route from Russian-controlled Crimea and the eastern Donbas region.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said last week that the city was technically not able to fall to Russia because it had been so totally destroyed that there was no city left. He also pledged to retake the area, and rebuild.

General Staff of Ukraine's Armed Forces said on Tuesday that it ordered the soldiers at Azovstal leave in order to save their lives.

It did not describe the withdrawal as a surrender, though it conceded that the soldiers would be taken to an area under Russian control, where they would be exchanged for captured Russians.

Ukraine's troops had long been outnumbered and had few options for resisting aerial and artillery bombardment from Russia soldiers surrounding the steel works.

The armed forces said that the evacuation of 53 "seriously wounded" soldiers had begun, and that they would be brought to a medical facility in Novoazovsk, a Russia-controlled town.

It said 211 more soldiers would be removed from the plant and ultimately exchanged for Russian prisoners.

"Mariupol defenders are heroes of our time. They are forever in history," the armed forces said.

The armed forces praised the troops for holding Azovstal so long, tying down Russian troops who were less able to attack other parts of Ukraine.

Hundreds of civilians, whom Ukraine said were mostly women and children, were also sheltering in the plant. They were evacuated earlier this month.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba also said last month, before anyone was evacuated from the plant: "The city doesn't exist anymore. The remaining of the Ukrainian army and large group of civilians are basically encircled by the Russian forces."

There were still Ukrainian civilians in the city as of Monday. Ukraine has been trying to evacuate them, and says they have not been able to access food and water.