On the 56th day of the Russian invasion, Ukraine received warplanes to help counter the Russian offensive in the east of the country, where the last Ukrainian fighters holed up in Mariupol were desperately appealing to the international community for help. In a video message posted on Facebook and released by the Ukrainian press this Wednesday (20), a soldier summarizes what could be “his final appeal”. See the VIDEO above.
“We may be living our last days, even our last hours,” Serhiy Volynsky, commander of Ukraine’s 36th Naval Brigade, said after a new Moscow ultimatum for the surrender of Ukrainian fighters. He demands that soldiers and civilians still in Mariupol, a Ukrainian city under Russian siege, be removed from the Azovtal factory.
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“The enemy outnumbers us ten times,” he says. “We appeal and implore all world leaders to help us. We ask you to use the extraction procedure and take us to the territory of a third country.” According to Commander Volyna, the Russian army has “advantages in the air, artillery, ground forces, equipment and tanks”.
“We are defending only one point, the Azovstal factory, where, in addition to soldiers, there are also civilians who have become victims of this war,” adds the soldier.
Explosions are heard at Azovstal Metallurgical Plant in Mariupol, Ukraine.
At least 500 soldiers are said to have been wounded at the compound, which also houses civilians. At least 1,000 people, mostly women, children and the elderly, are hiding with the militants “in the underground bunkers” at the factory, the Mariupol City Council reported on Tuesday. An unofficial toll shows the number of more than 20,000 civilians killed in the city.
After almost two months of siege, the strategic Ukrainian port of Mariupol could fall into Russian hands. Ukraine’s Defense Ministry confirmed Wednesday morning that the Russian army “is concentrating most of its efforts on taking the city of Mariupol and continuing its attempts to seize the area near the Azovstal Steel Plant.”
On Tuesday (19th) Russia announced that it had carried out a series of air and missile strikes in eastern Ukraine. According to Kyiv, it is the beginning of the “Battle for Donbass” that has been feared for weeks. RFI special envoys Clea Broadhurst and Jad El Khoury escorted a battalion to the front line.
Reporters came within 750 meters of enemy Russian troops in the Donbass. For Aleksandr, commander of the Ukrainian battalion, the second phase of the offensive has already begun. “In the last two days the bombardment has become very heavy, more and more frequent. Obviously the Russians are bringing in the heavy artillery,” says the soldier. “The bombings are approaching, the soldiers are getting ready,” he adds.
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Sergey is the battalion’s medical officer. He teaches how to administer first aid. “I teach dressing and all the medical basics they need to know. But I also show the ways to evacuate the group if necessary. i control everything If a soldier gets wounded somewhere, I’ll take care of him until he’s taken out,” he explains.
Though prepared for war, this tired looking soldier regrets the situation he finds himself in. “I lost my best friend here a few weeks ago. It is very difficult to comprehend that I will never see him again. Civilians go through all this, see Kramatorsk, Mariupol. What they have done? They’re just people who have lived quiet lives,” he says.
Amidst the sound of shells, soldiers on this front line await the arrival of the Russians.