“The fighting is fierce, it’s an urban guerrilla war. It’s a street fight, but there isn’t really a front line.” This is the situation in Mariupol described on Wednesday, April 13, by Ilya Samoylenko, Ukrainian officer of the Azov regiment fighting in Mariupol. About 3,000 Ukrainian soldiers are still in the city, which has been under siege by the Russian army for more than a month.
Ilya Samoylenko, Ukrainian officer of the Azov regiment, tells of the hell of fighting in Mariupol – The account of Omar Ouahmane and Gilles Gallinaro
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On the ground, the Ukrainian armed forces are preparing for the fall of the city, but they do not want to give up and are asking the West for help, which has not supported us militarily for the past eight years. I am very grateful for that. the countries that have been supplying arms to Ukraine since February 24, says Ilya Samoylenko. But we have received nothing in Mariupol, which is besieged by the Russians. The officer specifically asks for heavy weapons, more efficient to face the Russians after killing at least 2,000, he assures.
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He insists: “We fought for more than a month and a half without artillery support and without air support, without supplies.” Ilya Samoylenko describes a bitter fight: We will fight to the end. We will not surrender. We will not fight to the death, but to victory. The fighting is taking place in a field of rubble, the city has already been largely devastated by Russian fighting and bombing.
Ilya Samoylenko, officer of the Azov regiment, stationed in Mariupol. (OMAR OUAHMANE / RADIO FRANCE)
According to this officer of the staff of the Azov regiment, an originally paramilitary group founded at the time of the Donbass war by an ultranationalist leader who still uses SS insignia of the Das Reich division today and has been part of the Ukrainian army since 2014, using the Russians “Planes bombing indiscriminately, bombs falling on houses, civilians, hospitals and theaters”. When he soon runs out of ammunition, he assures us that the Russians are razing the city district by district.
On the ground, the situation is desperate, a living hell for the civilians trapped in the midst of the fighting and deprived of their lives. If the fighters still have limited water and food, says this officer, the residents trapped there have nothing and “suffer from hunger”.
Russia is trying to block any humanitarian aid from the Ukrainian side. A real genocide! And then the Russians kidnap and expel the residents of the occupied areas of Mariupol.
Ilya Samoylenko, officer of the Azov regimental staff
at franceinfo
Ilya Samoylenko claims to have in her hands “leaflets distributed to civilians announcing their ‘relocation’ to the far east of Russia, for example to Vladivostok or Kamchatka”.
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On the spot, while “the civilians are dying in the streets”, the officer fights every day so that the whole city does not fall into the hands of the Russians. He also points out that if “the enemy is already in town, they don’t control everything they claim”. Russia may have taken a third of Mariupol, but now they are engaged in urban warfare. In order to claim total control of an area, they must sweep everything away. What the Russian army is doing with their indiscriminate bombing, he explains. He added that “the Russians are violating all the laws of war and all international treaties”.
They used banned ammunition and even chemical weapons in Mariupol yesterday. We can’t say what it was because we don’t have a lab, but the residents showed unusual symptoms.”
Ilya Samoylenko
at franceinfo
For Ilya Samoylenko, Russia is committing thousands of war crimes here in Mariupol. And it tries to hide its dirty secrets. how does it do that Proof, there is no punishment! When asked what would happen to him if he decided to surrender to the Russians, the officer replied: If I surrendered, they would torture me, they would maim me , that’s what they would do to me.” The impending fall of Mariupol is intended to accelerate the second phase of Russia’s offensive, which aims to annex the Donbass region, which has been disputed since 2014.
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