Russia's defense ministry has said 265 soldiers and others surrendered at the Azovstal steel plant in the eastern Ukrainian city of Mariupol.

The ministry made the announcement on Tuesday. Ukrainian Troops at the plant besieged by Russian forces had been fighting fiercely to defend it.

Earlier in the day, the General Staff of Ukraine's Armed Forces announced that they had ended the combat operation aimed at defending the plant.

Deputy Defence Minister Anna Malyar said 53 heavily wounded personnel were taken from the plant to a hospital in a Russian-controlled town in the Donetsk region.
She said another 211 were evacuated to a different Russian-controlled town by way of a humanitarian corridor.

Malyar added that the evacuees could become part of a future prisoner exchange deal with Russia.

The Russian newspaper Izvestia said on Tuesday that Russia was likely to take control of the plant before long.

According to Russia's defense ministry, Russia also destroyed weapons in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv that had been provided by Western countries and were slated to be sent to country's east.

The ministry said Russian forces also destroyed military training facilities in the Sumy region in the northeast and Chernihiv in the north by missile attack.