As Russian forces draw in, Serhiy Volyna, the commander of Ukrainian marines in the besieged city, asks for their release.
As Russia handed a new ultimatum to soldiers holding out inside a steel mill in the besieged city, a commander for Ukrainian marines fighting Russian forces in Mariupol said his men “may be facing our last days, if not hours.”
“The enemy outnumbers us 10 to one,” Serhiy Volyna of the 36th Separate Marine Brigade said in a Facebook post early Wednesday, pleading for evacuation from Mariupol’s final position. Hundreds of civilians are said to be hiding at the Azovstal factory’s basement, a large facility with subterranean passages. 2,500 Ukrainian fighters and 400 foreign mercenaries are said to be holed up in the steelworks, according to Russian media, while Ukrainian reports claim that 1,000 civilians have taken refuge there.
Presented the severity of the battle and the absence of communications in Mariupol, whose harbour was besieged by Russian soldiers on March 1, shortly after the Russian invasion began on February 24, it is impossible to authenticate information given by either side.
The city and harbour are thought to have been severely devastated by Russian bombing and shelling over the course of many weeks. After its soldiers withdrew from Kyiv and the surrounding territories in the last week of March, Russia moved its focus to eastern Ukraine, finishing what Moscow referred to as “the first phase” of the war. Meanwhile, Mariupol’s mayor stated on Wednesday that some 6,000 women, children, and the elderly were being evacuated from the city.
Vadym Boychenko, who has departed Mariupol, expressed optimism that a preliminary deal with Russia on the establishment of a safe corridor will be solidified and maintained.
He said that some 100,000 residents remain in Mariupol and that tens of thousands had died as a result of Russia’s siege of the city on the Sea of Azov. Ukraine’s military have consistently refused to surrender, despite Russia’s repeated demands. Ukrainian soldiers remaining locked up within Azovstal, according to the country’s defence minister, are in a “catastrophic position.” Volyna added in the video, “We urge and beseech to all international leaders to help us.” “We request that they utilise the extraction technique and transport us to the territory of a third-party state.”
Russian soldiers are said to have progressively advanced inside the city, with some Ukrainian officials reporting on Tuesday that a hospital near the Azovstal complex had been attacked. “We are only defending one asset — the Azovstal facility – where, in addition to military people, civilians have died as a result of this battle,” he continued.
