The fighters in the steelworks endured nightmarish conditions for months as Russia laid siege to the sprawling complex. Ukraine's president says about 2,500 who eventually surrendered are being held prisoner.
Anna Holovko, a spokeswoman for the Azov Regiment, said all the Ukrainians were from Azovstal and that at least 52 are thought to be from the regiment.
A former Azov leader now in Kyiv, Maksym Zhorin, confirmed that bodies from the steel plant were among those exchanged.Russia is now focussed on the Donbas - a region in Ukraine's east that it is determined to capture after failing to seize other areas, such as the capital Kyiv.Ukraine's President Zelenskyy was near the front line earlier this week. In his nightly address on Monday, he said:"Our heroes do not give up positions in Sievierodonetsk.
The battle appears finely poised with"the situation changing from hour to hour", according to Oleksandr Stryuk, head of the Sievierodonetsk administration. Mr Zelenskyy also warned that Russian wanted to take the city of Zaporizhzhia, in the southeast, home to more than 700,000 people, a move that could see the enemy moving closer to the centre of Ukraine.Both the UK and US are
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