We do not know of a single Azov fighter who has returned alive from Russian soldiers since 2014. They will be tortured and killed. We know this for sure, so it is not a way out for them, “said one of the women, rejecting any option of captivity.
Two Ukrainian women whose husbands are in blockade of the Azovstal metallurgical plant in Mariupol, calls for the evacuation of both civilians and the military. At the same time, they fear that servicemen may be tortured and killed if captured by the Russian army, Nicole Winfield told the Associated Press.
“Soldiers' lives also matter. We can't talk only about civilians, “said Yulia Fedosyuk, 29, the wife of a Azov regiment fighter.
She and Kateryna Prokopenko, whose husband Denis Prokopenko is the commander of Azov, asked in Rome on Friday for international assistance for the evacuation of the Azovstal plant, the last stronghold of the Ukrainian resistance in the strategic but shattered port city. p>
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Approximately 2,000 Ukrainian defenders and 1,000 civilians are in the plant's large underground network of bunkers, which are still able to protect against air strikes. But conditions there have become even worse: food, water and medicine are running out after Russian troops dropped so-called bunker busters in recent days. – ed.).
Secretary General Antonio Guterres agreed during a meeting with Putin in Moscow to organize an evacuation with the participation of the UN and the International Committee of the Red Cross. But the discussions, according to the UN, were about civilians, not combatants.
Extraordinary procedure in the style of the operation in Dunkirk during World War II
Speaking in English, 27-year-old Prokopenko called for a mission in the style of Dunkirk, citing the naval operation of World War II in 1940, during which hundreds of boats were launched water to rescue more than 330,000 British and Allied troops surrounded by the Nazis on the beaches of northern France.
“We can carry out this extraction operation (this is an extraction procedure, which involves removing from the battlefield to a safe zone, usually in a third country – ed.) … It will save our soldiers, our civilians, our children,” she said. Prokopenko. “We have to do it right now, because people are dying every hour, every second.”
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The women reported that 600 soldiers were wounded, some with gangrene. The videos and images they shared show wounded men with contaminated bandages in need of change; there are fighters with open wounds or amputated limbs.
Battalion fighters say they eat only once a day and share only 1.5 liters of water a day for four. Stocks inside the blocked plant are depleted.
‼ ️Attention !!! All night, the Russians dropped many tons of air bombs capable of breaking through any concrete defensive structures on a military field hospital located on the territory of the Azovstal plant in Mariupol and where the wounded defenders are. pic.twitter.com/nMNCevxzCv
– AZOV (@Polk_Azov) April 28, 2022
One shirtless man spoke with obvious pain, describing his wounds: two broken ribs, a pierced lung and a dislocated arm that “hung on the body.” Another said that he stepped on a mine that was dropped from a helicopter, as a result of which he received an open leg fracture.
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The military doctor in the video called herself an anesthesiologist who treats the wounded at the Azovstal plant. She said she was working with a small team of doctors “in extremely difficult conditions, under constant bombardment.”
“Our resources are extremely limited. The boys are dying right in front of our eyes because we can't evacuate them. There is no way to treat them properly, “she said.
She called for the evacuation of wounded soldiers, as well as civilians: “Please, please, give at least the slightest chance to save the lives of these soldiers. They deserve it. “
The roots of the Azov Regiment are the battalion of the same name, formed by nationalists at the beginning of the war in 2014.
Fedosyuk noted that she and Prokopenko are turning to Europe, the United States and international organizations to find a diplomatic way out of the Azovstal confrontation, adding that troops would never surrender to Russia.
We do not know of a single Azov fighter who has returned alive from Russian soldiers since 2014. They will be tortured and killed. We know this for sure, so it is not a way out for them. ”
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