“Some of them will face criminal trials for war crimes.”
Given the circumstances of the battle, I don’t see the likelihood of a war crime having been committed by the Ukrainian defenders of the plant.
There are multiple testimonies from civilians saying they were held hostage at the plant against their will.
We know these testimonies are from exactly the people who were at the plant because they were intentionally shown by the military there. There are a lot of other testimonies from civilians in Mariupol of other war crimes as well, many along the same lines of being threatened or shot at when they tried to flee the city.
The Azov units there were singled out by the US congress as being ineligible for direct payments because of their history of atrocities.
They systematically did war crimes on ethnic Russians (ukrainian citizens) for years.
I would be extremely surprised if they are exchanged as prisoners. Some will be prosecuted. Granted there were a lot of other military there who were not Azov also, maybe they will be exchanged.
“Given the circumstances of the battle, I don’t see the likelihood of a war crime having been committed by the Ukrainian defenders of the plant.”
Yes and no: The actual Ukrianians will be held in prisoner of war camps until the end of hostilities.
The Azovs, on the other hand, will be put on trial once processed out of Mariupol - the ones found to have committed war crimes during the 2014 to 2022 (likely all of them, LOL), will be punished per Russian law.
The (foreign) mercenaries will likely be executed, in accordance with the Geneva Convention. The high-value foreigners might be spared, if they can be traded for something of value (Russian prisoners, or ending sanctions, etc.).
“Given the circumstances of the battle, I don’t see the likelihood of a war crime having been committed by the Ukrainian defenders of the plant.”
How do you know this? Are you on Zelensky’s cabinet?
The point is the only people who know this are the people there.
You have an uninformed opinion. That’s all.