Two of Putin’s generals and Ukrainian lawmaker: inside secret talks that ended the siege of Azovstal plant in Mariupol

Azovstal had become a grim but powerful symbol of resistance to Ukrainians, sheltering approximately 2,600 soldiers and civilians while the plant was bombarded by Russian forces for weeks. The vast site was a source of frustration for Moscow, the last defiant holdout in a city that its forces had seized control of weeks earlier.

“Block off the industrial site, so that not even a fly can escape,” CNN recalled Putin’s words, broadcast on state-run television.

But as the Kremlin leader ordered a tightening of the noose around the factory complex, a small group was about to begin secret negotiations to end the siege. They involved two of Putin’s most senior generals and a Ukrainian lawmaker who once served as a Soviet paratrooper, CNN reveals in an exclusive material.

Oleksandr Kovalov, a member of Ukrainian parliament from the Donetsk region and a veteran of the Soviet-Afghan war, told CNN he brokered the early stages of the negotiations. Two high-ranking generals from Russia’s military intelligence agency, the GRU, represented the other side: Lt. Gen. Vladimir Alexseyev, second in command of the GRU, and Maj. Gen. Alexander Zorin, both born in Ukraine.

Alexseyev has been implicated in a number of international incidents in recent years. In 2016, the US Treasury Department sanctioned him for wide-ranging malicious cyber activity aimed at undermining America's democratic processes, including election interference. In 2019, the UK and the EU sanctioned him for the nerve agent poisoning of former Russian intelligence officer Sergei Skripal in England.

Meanwhile, Zorin served as Putin's envoy to Syria, participating in talks between President Bashar al-Assad and the country's opposition and rebels.

Their participation highlights Putin's priority in resolving the Azovstal impasse and seizing Mariupol, securing his long-desired land bridge between Crimea and Russia – one of the biggest trophies of the Russian invasion.

Underground shelter

After invading Ukraine on February 24, Russian forces swept to Mariupol in days but then struggled for months to fully capture it. Azovstal quickly became the main focus of the battle.

The plant is four square miles in size and once employed over 10,000 people. It is now in ruins.

For weeks, Russian forces bombarded the facility day and night. The Ukrainians' final base became increasingly desperate as food and water supplies ran out and hundreds of casualties went untreated. Huddled underground in dreadful conditions, many soldiers and civilians began to doubt they’d escape the plant alive.

According to CNN, it was at that point that Kovalov came in.

Kovalov’s office is in Kyiv, minutes from the Ukrainian Rada, or parliament. The lawmaker represents a constituency of Donetsk region, where he campaigned to repeal a state law enshrining Ukrainian as the official language – an important issue for many Russian-speaking people in the area.

Kovalov’s allegiances have come under scrutiny in the past. In 2014, he was accused of helping with the flight of members of a now defunct special police force division, the Berkut, after their violent crackdown on protesters in Euromaidan. He has denied supporting Berkut and told CNN that he assisted in their escape in order to prevent further bloodshed in Kyiv.

That goal has been central to his work since the war began.

As Russia's assault on Mariupol and Azovstal dragged on, Kovalov recalled thinking that someone had to try to put a stop to it.

Kovalov claimed he used an FSB contact in Moscow, Valentin Kryzhanovsky, to break the siege. Kryzhanovsky, a former Ukrainian Intelligence Services (SBU) agent who defected to Russia and joined the FSB in 2014, is widely regarded in Ukraine as a traitor.

Many others, according to the parliamentarian, had tried and failed to gain access to the Azovstal steelworks. "There had been 11 failed missions before me, and no one believed it was even possible to get there," he explained. CNN was unable to independently verify his claim.

He said that he made his plans clear to Maj. Gen. Kyrylo Budanov, head of Ukraine’s military intelligence agency. Even though Budanov was doubtful of his chances, Kovalov said he gave him his blessing.

Mariupol negotiations are heating up

On April 25, Kovalov made his first trip into Russian-occupied southern Ukraine since the war began, armed with secret passwords and encrypted communication devices from Budanov to facilitate passage through checkpoints and liaise with Azov commanders.

On this brief tour of the city, he was astounded by the devastation he witnessed.

In order to even reach the plant, a ceasefire had to be implemented.

On April 27, Kovalov was pictured in a photograph that resembled a scene from a spy movie. The image captured Kovalov with Kryzhanovsky and Lt. Gen Andrey Sychevoy, of the 8th Guards Combined Arms Army of Russia’s Southern Military District, sitting in the middle of the road around a small table.

The civilians were a priority, their desperate pleas and worsening health having gripped the world’s attention.

Oleksandr Kovalov, left, meets with Russian Lt. Gen Andrey Sychevoy, middle, and his FSB contact Valentin Kryzhanovsky, right, on a deserted road in Mariupol on April 27.

Kovalov played up his role in their eventual release, telling CNN he helped convince “the other side that saving, first of all, children, women and the wounded, will be an act of sanity, an act of humanism.”

In early May, the UN and the Red Cross evacuated hundreds of civilians from Azovstal and other areas of the port city. 

But the soldiers remained and Russian shelling of the plant started up again.

Kovalov returned to Mariupol and the negotiating table on May 9, celebrated as “Victory Day” in Russia. This time the negotiations from both sides were kicked up a gear, he said.

By this point, Budanov had insisted on his representatives being at the meetings and dispatched top deputy Dmitrii Usov. The Russians decided they needed to up their game too.

Kovalov said he wasn’t surprised to see Russian generals Alexseyev and Zorin at the negotiating table. “This process was counted as a special operation,” outside of the war, Kovalov said. These talks needed a special touch.

On May 9, Russia's "Victory Day," Kovalov returned to Mariupol and the negotiating table. Negotiations on both sides were stepped up this time, he said.

Budanov had insisted on his representatives attending the meetings by this point, and had dispatched top deputy Dmitrii Usov. The Russians decided they, too, needed to step up their game.

Kovalov stated that the presence of Russian generals Alexseyev and Zorin at the negotiating table did not surprise him. Outside of the war, "this process was considered a special operation," according to Kovalov. These discussions required a special touch.

‘A moment of trust’

As negotiations progressed further, a third visit to Mariupol was arranged and one of the more remarkable scenes of the war unfolded – a meeting between Russian generals who were directing the bloody war and the Ukrainian officers who Moscow have depicted as “neo-Nazis.”

On the morning of May 16, Kovalov recorded a video approaching one of the entrances to Azovstal. Zorin and Alexseyev are visible on the walk up to the battered plant. 

Kovalov was part of several negotiations including a meeting between Ukrainian and Russian delegations conducted at one of the entrances to Azovstal.

“These are the moments that we were worried about,” Kovalov said. “A moment of trust. When we did everything so that the two sides came together, looked into each other’s eyes, the Russian side promised that there would be a civilized exit for our soldiers.”

Kovalov said that the terms were simple: the Ukrainian fighters would stop fighting, give up the plant and be taken into Russian custody.

“Here were conditions for a mutual ceasefire, a civilized surrender of Azovstal, civilized conditions for our prisoners of war, and an exchange,” he said.

That evening, Ukraine’s deputy defense minister announced that the evacuation of Ukrainian soldiers from Azovstal had started. Hanna Maliar said 53 injured soldiers had been taken to a Russian hospital, and 200 had been moved to a detention center in Olenivka, in the self-declared Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR).

From Azovstal into Russian hands

The following day, May 17, a seemingly endless stream of soldiers began their procession into captivity – gaunt and pale, many on crutches or stretchers, others limping and some seriously maimed.

Kovalov said it was deeply unpleasant to see the Ukrainian troops in that condition, but it also underscored the necessity of the deal.

Kovalov was able to gain access to the soldiers on May 18 in the DPR. This was the last time he saw them.

Two months later, on July 29, an explosion at the Olenivka detention center left more than 50 prisoners of war dead, including fighters who had surrendered at Azovstal.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called it a “deliberate war crime by the Russians.” A CNN investigation found that the Russian version of events was very likely a fabrication, and that there was almost no chance that a HIMARS rocket destroyed the warehouse where the prisoners were being held.

Today, about 2,000 Azovstal fighters remain in Olenivka prison camp, according to another Ukrainian interlocutor who took part with Kovalov in the negotiations. Kovalov says he is still working to get them home, perhaps through one of the prisoner swaps that happen regularly.