The Azov regiment is not considering the option of surrendering to the Russian occupiers, because they understand that they will not survive even with such a development of events, while they will feel like traitors, intelligence officer of the Azov regiment Ilya Samoylenko said during an online briefing from the occupied Mariupol.

“We have known all this time that the Azov regiment has no high chances of survival, if we are captured, surrendering from us is unacceptable. Every person captured is a resource of political and military pressure, it is a resource to raise the level of negotiations and positions that we can leave on the political stage,” he said..

Samoylenko said that at the end of April, the Russian invaders captured a Ukrainian military man, who at that time was unconscious. In their information space, they passed him off as surrendered, and a few days later his mother received a photo from his phone with a message about his death.

At the same time, no one in the regiment considers their actions heroic, but understands that the situation in which they find themselves is unique..

“The truth is that we are unique. Nobody expected us to be idle for so long. Many say we are heroes.

Many are called heroes. We do our job. ... When the cordon of the city began, we decided to stand here anyway and defend it. We had an order to defend Mariupol. We didn’t have an order to remove the defense,” he said..

" I didn't expect either. We thought that the Russian Federation would overcome everyone, but the Armed Forces of Ukraine resisted,” added Samoylenko..

He said that the Azov people captured several Russian soldiers, who were then exchanged.

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