Azovstal fighters brought to Russian-controlled Olenivka after surrender - witness

Buses carrying service members of Ukrainian forces who have surrendered after weeks holed up at Azovstal steel works drive away under escort of the pro-Russian military in the course of Ukraine-Russia conflict in Mariupol, Ukraine May 17, 2022. REUTERS/Alexander Ermochenko

Seven buses carrying Ukrainian fighters who held out for weeks against Russian forces at the Azovstal steel works in the port city of Mariupol arrived on Tuesday at a former penal colony in the Russian-controlled town of Olenivka near Donetsk, according to a Reuters witness.

The TASS news agency said the Russian Investigative Committee planned to question the soldiers, many of them members of the Azov Battalion, as part of an investigation into what Moscow calls "Ukrainian regime crimes".

Buses carrying service members of Ukrainian forces who have surrendered after weeks holed up at Azovstal steel works arrive 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. REUTERS/Alexander Ermochenko

(Writing by Kevin Liffey; Editing by Edmund Blair)

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. REUTERS/Alexander Ermochenko

Service members of pro-Russian troops stand next to buses carrying service members of Ukrainian forces who have surrendered after weeks holed up at Azovstal steel works, which arrived at a detention facility in the course of Ukraine-Russia conflict in the settlement of Olenivka in the Donetsk Region, Ukraine May 17, 2022. REUTERS/Alexander Ermochenko