Ukrainian fighters in besieged Mariupol steel factory cry out for help: ‘I can only hope for a miracle’ | Abroad

“Looks like I’m on a hellish reality show where we fight for life as soldiers, take every chance to save people and the whole world is watching an interesting story! Such scenarios are used in movies and series. The only difference is that it is not a movie and we are not fictional characters! This is real life! Pain, suffering, hunger, torment, tears, fear, death – all real!”, the leader of the 36th Marine Brigade begins his message.

He added a photo of himself showing him unshaven, with blurry eyes and an apparently broken nose. “I hope that the higher forces (in the broad sense of the word) find a solution to our salvation! So that this hellish reality show will end… Higher powers, we await the result of your actions… Time passes and time is our life!” Volynsky continues.

He ends his call for help with a plea. “White flags have been used in every evacuation of civilians from the steel mill. That also happened with the fourth evacuation, Saturday. The price of the last evacuation is three soldiers killed and six wounded. The Mariupol garrison did everything possible to save civilians. We ask everyone to do their best to evacuate us,” Volynsky said.

Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelensky said on Saturday evening rescuing the resistance fighters will be “very difficult”. He announced negotiations for the evacuation of the wounded, medics and the remaining soldiers. Zelensky hopes that humanitarian corridors will open for this on Sunday. However, Moscow has repeatedly announced its intention to capture the Ukrainian fighters even if they surrender.

Ukraine has asked the organization Doctors Without Borders (AzG) to evacuate the soldiers from the steel factory and to provide medical care. According to Kiev, Deputy Prime Minister Irina Vereshchuk wrote a letter to the MSF leadership. The defenders of the huge industrial complex have been living for 72 days “under constant bombing and attack by the Russian army” and “for lack of medicine, water and food, wounded soldiers are dying of gangrene (dying tissue) and blood poisoning”. The international aid organization must help fighters whose “human rights are being violated by the Russian Federation,” Vereshchuk said.

The evacuation of women, children and seniors who had been sitting for weeks in the corridors below the factory complex was made possible thanks to the mediation of the United Nations and a three-day ceasefire by Russian troops. This truce ended Saturday night. Military experts believe that Moscow wants to clear the Azovstal complex, Mariupol’s last resistance stronghold, which is said to be home to some 2,000 Ukrainian fighters, as soon as possible. Then on Monday, during the 77th celebration of the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany, Russian President Vladimir Putin could announce the capture of the strategic port city.

Air raid sirens sounded in large parts of Ukraine last night. According to the Unian news agency, this was the case in the capital Kiev and the surrounding area, but also in Lviv in the west, Kharkov and Donetsk in the east and Odesa in the south. According to local reports, explosions were heard in Odesa. It is not yet clear whether these were Russian missile strikes or defensive fire from Ukrainian air defenses. Explosions were also heard in the southern city of Mykolaiv.

Ukraine fears particularly heavy Russian air strikes in connection with Monday’s commemoration of the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany.

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