The soldiers resisted in the tunnels of the Azovstal facilities, hungry, with almost no light, with serious injuries and without health guarantees
Dirty, wounded and dark or in the semi-darkness. This is how the Ukrainian soldiers who survived the Russian attack on the Azovstal steel factory in Mariupol are resisting. Their faces and living conditions have been made public on the Azov battalion’s Telegram channel, with which the unit has asked for help on Wednesday to be evacuated and receive medical attention.
The situation in the coastal town has been desperate for weeks. The Russian advance has progressed slowly, but in the end all Ukrainian resistance concentrated on the industrial facilities, a gigantic space that adds more than 20 kilometers of tunnels underground. Dozens of civilians and an uncertain number of soldiers took refuge in them as a ceaseless shower of projectiles fell on the surface.
On May 3, the attack on the complex was intensified and Russian troops managed to penetrate the facilities. Last Saturday, after several attempts, all civilians were removed, as confirmed by the Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine, Iryna Vereshchuk. It was not an easy operation, as she herself confirmed, as there were “constant violations” of the ceasefire by Russian forces.
Now that civilians are safe in Zaporiya, today only the soldiers remain, the majority belonging to the controversial Azov battalion, which has ties to Ukrainian nationalism and the far right. With them also fight and survive police officers, volunteers and soldiers of other units that have joined the defense of the coastal city.
The photos show mutilated men, with dramatic scars, supporting themselves with crutches or being treated for their injuries in the makeshift underground hospital. A situation of “total ill health, with open wounds covered with unsterilized bandages, without the necessary medication and even without food,” they describe in the Azov Battalion publication on Telegram.
The desperate circumstances they face have led the leaders of the group to petition for help. “We call on the UN and the Red Cross to show their humanity and reaffirm the basic principles upon which they were created by rescuing the wounded who are no longer combatants.” “The army you see in the photos and hundreds more at the Azovstal plant defended Ukraine and the entire civilized world with serious injuries at the expense of their own health. Can’t Ukraine and the world community protect and care for them now?
The answer from the Ukrainian president himself, Volodimir Zelensky, does not give much hope, as the country “does not have the heavy weapons necessary to liberate Mariupol”. For this reason, it is practically impossible to guarantee the departure of the army with guarantees, since the bombs continue to fall on Azovstal. In the past hours, there have been “38 air strikes, including 4 strategic bombings, cannon artillery, tanks, etc. that continue to operate,” the Azov said. “The enemy does not stop trying to capture the Ukrainian fortress and continues to carry out daily attacks with the support of the infantry,” they describe. The last of Mariúpol are running out of time, but they refuse to disappear in silence. “The whole civilized world needs to see the conditions in which they find themselves and act!”
Source: La Verdad
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