“The enemy is ten times more than us,” said Sergei Volyna, the commander of the Navy’s 36th Brigade, which, together with the Azov battalion, defends the last Ukrainian stronghold in Mariupol, the Azovstal steel factory surrounded by the Russians. . “We call on all world leaders to help us,” the commander said, asking that other countries remove the soldiers from Mariupol and take them to their territory.
According to the commander, who also wrote a letter to Pope Francis earlier, the Russian army has an advantage in all areas: “In the air, in terms of artillery, ground troops, equipment and tanks… The city has been destroyed,” it reads. the. „We only defend one point (the steel factory, ed.)where, in addition to the military, there are also civilians who have become victims of this war,” said Volyna.
‘Wounded rotting away’
In a telephone conversation with CNN, Volyna clarified: “I have a report to the world. It could be my last report as we only have a few days, or even hours left,” he said. “We call on all world leaders to apply the extraction procedure to the soldiers of the Mariupol garrison, to the civilians who are here in our factory. We ask you to take us to the territory of a third country and provide us with security.”
This could be helicopters that pick up people or an international humanitarian mission that accompanies them. The commander hopes in particular for the help of the United States.
Read more below the video
Volyna said the situation at the factory is “critical”. “We are completely surrounded. There are about 500 wounded soldiers, it is very difficult to care for them. They literally rot. There are hundreds of civilians on the property. They also suffer explosions, explosions on them, next to them.”
New ultimatum
Russia had issued a new ultimatum to Ukrainian fighters on the site of the steel plant on Tuesday. They were given until 11 a.m. Belgian time to lay down their arms and surrender, after which their lives would be spared. However, the soldiers did not respond to that call and on Tuesday evening the situation around the factory was very unclear.
The Russian Defense Ministry issued a new ultimatum to Ukrainian troops in besieged Mariupol. A statement released Wednesday morning said Russian troops had opened a humanitarian corridor near the Azovstal plant for Ukrainians to surrender and evacuate civilians. “At 10 p.m. (Moscow time) on April 19, no one has used it yet.” Russia would offer Ukraine “again” the option “to stop fighting and lay down its arms” from 2 p.m. (Moscow time) on Wednesday, April 20.
However, Mariupol police chief Myhailo Vershynin said the terms of the ultimatums were unacceptable. “Those who remain in the factory absolutely do not want to go to the Russians, they want to go to Ukraine. That is why we are asking for a humanitarian corridor to the Ukrainian side.”