A woman from Mariupol has revealed that militants from the neo-Nazi Azov Regiment took hostages among the civilian population and used them as human shields.
"I tried to avoid them due to their poor behaviour, so it was better not to encounter them, since they sometimes took people hostage", the woman said. "Like, people are sitting in their own yard, they [the Azov troops] come and take these people hostage, just like that".
She added that when forces from the DPR arrived, Azov troops were hiding behind hostages, and some "accidents" occurred.
Ukrainian radicals are now encircled in Mariupol, the second-largest city in the DPR. The Donbass militia forces have already seized control of the port and downtown, but fighting in the industrial zone has yet to cease.
Azov was created from a group of neo-Nazi volunteer paramilitaries, which was formed in late 2014, taking part in hostilities in Donbass. Since then it has evolved into a regiment, integrated into the Ukrainian National Guard.