Commander of the Azov National Guard Regiment Denis Prokopenko handed over duties to Major Nikita Nadtochiy. Major Nadtochy told about this in a commentary to Radio Liberty.

Prokopenko is still in Russian captivity and cannot perform his official duties. At the time of the siege of Mariupol, Prokopenko was the commander of the second battalion of a separate special forces detachment "

“It was just a message in a Telegram that “as soon as you are ready to get in line, contact those people, you come and take command into your own hands until the moment I return,” Nadtochy explained..

Major Nadtochy was wounded on the territory of Azovstal during the defense of Mariupol back in March. He tried to take the 200s and 300s to the hospital on the territory of Azovstal, but the attack aircraft of the Russian Federation launched a rocket near him. Shrapnel hit the head, both legs, stomach and left arm. He was evacuated by Ukrainian helicopters on March 21, one of the first, together with other seriously wounded.

First, provisions were unloaded from helicopters, and then they began to bring in bedridden wounded, among whom was Nadtochy.

Earlier, Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine Oleksiy Danilov said that most of the Ukrainian military evacuated from Mariupol are in the occupied territory of the Donetsk region..

As President Volodymyr Zelensky reported, more than 2,500 Ukrainian fighters from Azovstal are in Russian captivity, who were taken out of the city on the condition of their further exchange with the Ukrainian side..