Photo: MSTYSLAV CHERNOV/AP PHOTO/PICTURE ALLIANCE / Deutsche Welle
After the evacuation of almost a hundred civilians, the Russian army resumed “massive attacks” against the Azovstal steelworks, in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol, where hundreds of people are still sheltering, including 20 children, denounced a military chief on Monday (.12.2022).
The commander of the 12.ª Brigade of the National Guard, Denys Schleha, quoted by the local agency Ukrinform, said that every day Russia “presses more and more” to take control of the site.
The military chief clarified that , according to their estimates, there are still several hundred civilians left in the Azovstal bunkers, including up to 20 children.
In addition, he said that there are also some 500 wounded who hope they can leave the steel mill, and that they can take “our fallen comrades-in-arms, which is also a larger number very big”.
The military commander assured that the Ukrainian forces that control the plant will continue to carry out their tasks until the end.
“The guys have been repelling (the enemy) for 67 days and I think they have done their best and the impossible, and continue to do so. And we will fulfill all the tasks that are presented to us and we will defend our homeland”, he added.
With the help of the UN and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC ), the Ukrainian government managed on Sunday to evacuate between 80 and 100 refugee civilians in the Azovstal steelworks, after multiple failures and in what kyiv has described as the most difficult operation since the war began more than two months ago.
This first group of evacuees is headed to territory controlled by Ukraine, according to Ukrinform.
On the other hand, four Lyman civilians were killed on Sunday by the Russia’s shelling of the Donetsk region, while a wounded person from the Luhansk region died in Bakhmut, the press service of the Donetsk regional military administration reported, according to the same local agency.
According to the same report, it is currently impossible to determine the number or exact number of victims in Mariúpol and Volnovakha.
gs (efe, Ukrinform, ap)