One of the last Ukrainian fighters resisting the takeover of Mariupol told the BBC that the exterior of the besieged steelworks where they are entrenched is largely destroyed and civilians are trapped under collapsed buildings.
Captain Svyatoslav Palamar, who is a member of the controversial nationalist Azov regiment, stated from the Azovstal plant – the only part of Mariupol that is not under the control of Russian forces – that the defenders had repelled a wave of attacks .
“I have always said that as long as we are here, Mairoupol will remain under Ukrainian control”, he declared.
Earlier, Russian President Vladimir Putin called off the planned assault on the steel mill -which is a labyrinth of tunnels and workshops- and instead demanded his troops completely surround it.
“Block this industrial zone so that not even a fly escapes”, the president ordered.
A large part of Mariúpol has been destroyed after weeks of intense Russian bombing and street-to-street fighting. Taking control of the port on the Sea of Azov is a key objective of Russia’s war and would free up more troops for Moscow’s offensive in the eastern Donbas region.
Captain Palamar said that the Russians had fired on the metallurgical plant from warships and dropped “bunker buster” bombs.
The BBC has not been able to verify any of the details of that statement. However, it coincides with testimony given earlier in the week by a Ukrainian navy commander who is also inside the steelmaker, who said the fighters were outnumbered and running low on supplies.
“All buildings in the Azovstal territory are practically destroyed. They dropped heavy bombs, bunker buster bombs that cause great destruction. We have wounded and dead inside the bunkers. Some civilians are trapped under the collapsed buildings,” Palamar assured.
The Azov regiment was a far-right neo-Nazi group that was later incorporated into the National Guard of Ukraine. Its fighters, along with the marine brigade, border guards and policemen, are among the last remaining Ukrainian defenders in the city.
When asked how many Ukrainian defenders remained in Mariupol, Captain Palamar simply replied “enough to repel attacks”.
He explained that the civilians were in places far from the combatants, in basements containing between 80 Y 100 people each. However, it was not clear how many civilians there were in total as some of the buildings are destroyed and the fighters could not reach them due to artillery fire.
The entrances of some of the bunkers are blocked by voluminous concrete plates that could only be removed with heavy machinery, he explained.
“We keep in contact with the civilians who stay in places where we can reach them. We know that there are small children, up to three months old”, he said.
The captain urged that civilians be given safe conduct to evacuate the steel plant and asked that a third country or an entity will act as guarantor of their security.
“These people have already been through a lot, for war crimes. They don’t trust the Russians and they are scared,” she said, adding that they feared being tortured and killed by Russian troops or deported to Russia through so-called leak camps.
The elderly civilians inside the steelworks needed medication, while there were also some 500 seriously wounded combatants who were not receiving proper care -including serious surgeries such as amputations.
“After 52 lockdown days and heavy fighting, we are running out of drugs. And there are also exposed corpses of our combatants that need to be buried with dignity in territory controlled by Ukraine”, he asserted.
- “Let not a fly escape”: Putin changes his strategy and now decides to surround the last bastion of resistance in Mariupol
Palamar said that the Ukrainian defenders also wanted to secure their own evacuation, if possible – but that surrender is ruled out.
“As for surrender, in exchange for the safe conduct of our civilians, I think we all know who we are dealing with. We definitely know that any guarantee, any declaration of the Russian Federation is worthless”.
He stated that many of the Azovstal defenders came from Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014, as well as the eastern regions of Dontesk and Luhansk. He himself got married there and his son was also born there.
“I witnessed how this city developed. How this city became the pearl of Azov, and it is also my hometown”, he declared.
” Russia is not renovating or rebuilding anything. His goal is to destroy and terrorize. If we fall, this horde will continue to advance and the entire civilized world will be in danger”.
Ukraine has accused Russian forces of shelling civilian shelters and using weapons banned or restricted by international law – including phosphorous and cluster bombs– in the attacks on Azovstal.
Both Ukraine and the United States and the United Kingdom have announced investigations into the possible use of chemical weapons in Mariupol, something that Russia has denied. The BBC was unable to independently confirm those allegations.
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