In the basement of the Azovstal plant in Mariupol, about 1,000 people are hiding from russian bombs. They are civilians, mostly women and children. All of them have not seen sunlight for many weeks and desperately want to return home.
Soldiers of the Azov Battalion are helping them survive these difficult times of war. Defenders of Mariupol brought sweets to the children and talked to them and their mothers. The video was published on “Azov” YouTube.
One of the mothers said that she had been in the basement of Azovstal since March 2. Her husband works for the company. So she took her little daughter with her to save her life. The woman said she hoped for a humanitarian corridor as food supplies ran low.
Another woman said she had spent more than 50 days in the plant’s basement. She is also a relative of one of the company’s employees.
“Here, we thought, was the safest when we got here. There was shelling, and our houses were no longer fit for life. So we decided to move here. And since February 25, we are there all the time,” she added.
The children themselves say they dream of getting out of the plant safely. They became friends and said that they would be friends after the evacuation.
Earlier, one of Mariupol’s defenders, Deputy Commander of the Azov Regiment Svyatoslav Palamar, said that the russian military fired at the Azovstal plant from ships and dropped bombs capable of destroying even that bunker.
The Azovstal plant houses the Azov Regiment, Marines, law enforcement officers, border guards, and civilians, including the wounded. Enemies hinder the normal evacuation by constantly shelling and storming the city. This week, the commander of the 36th Marine Brigade, who, together with the Azov Regiment, is defending Mariupol, Major Serhiy Volyna, appealed to world leaders to apply the extraction procedure to the military of the military Mariupol garrison and civilians hiding at the plant.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy mentioned two ways to save people from Mariupol: force if Ukraine has enough weapons or negotiations. However, russia is not yet capable of using a diplomatic solution.
On April 21, russian president Vladimir Putin ordered Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu not to storm the Mariupol industrial zone. At the same time, Putin ordered to continue the blockade of the Ukrainian city. According to Russian media, he said that the occupiers should save their lives and not “drag themselves into the catacombs.”
But on the same day, the russians began dropping bombs on Azovstal.