Pope Francis met in the Vatican with the wives of Azov Regiment officers Kateryna Prokopenko and Yulia Fedosyuk, whose husbands, Regiment Commander Denis Prokopenko and fighter Arseniy Fedosyuk, are defending Azovstal in Mariupol.
This was reported by the National Corps.
The women handed the pontiff letters and photographs. They asked the Pope to help rescue soldiers, wounded and civilians in the besieged city.
According to Yulia Fedosyuk, the Pope is the last hope for salvation.
"My husband wrote to me a day ago that even water is running out, and asked me to look for publications on how to live without water for as long as possible," she said.
Earlier the Azov regiment showed conditions in which there are wounded defenders of Mariupol, and urged the UN and RC to rescue people.
The National Guard said that President Volodymyr Zelensky and the state leadership were working to find ways to evacuate civilians from Azovstal and were working on an "extraction" procedure for wounded soldiers, medics and the military, including with the help of the world community.
Minister for Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories Iryna Vereshchuk called on the world community to join the evacuation of wounded Ukrainian servicemen from the territory of the Azovstal plant in Mariupol.