Top-ranking Ukrainian commanders at Mariupol's Azovstal steelworks are still inside the plant and have yet to surrender, local media quoted pro-Russian separatist leader Denis Pushilin as saying on Wednesday.

DAN news agency quoted Pushilin as saying that the hundreds of fighters who had given themselves up did not include any commanders of the highest level. "They have not left (the plant)" as of now, he said.

Russia said on Wednesday that a total of 959 Ukrainian fighters, including 80 wounded, had surrendered from the bunkers and tunnels below Mariupol's Azovstal steelworks since Monday.