It’s a desperate plea from a Ukrainian soldier, posted on Facebook on Wednesday. “We may be living our last days, even our last hours,” said this besieged officer in Mariupol, calling on the international community to proceed with their “extraction”.
“The enemy is ten times more numerous than us,” said Serguiy Volyna, a commander of the 36th brigade of the national navy, entrenched in the vast Azovstal steel complex in Mariupol in southeastern Ukraine. “We call on and beg all world leaders to help us. We ask them to use the extraction procedure and take us to the territory of a third country,” he added.
Russia demands end to ‘senseless resistance’
According to Commander Volyna, the Russian army has “the advantage in the air, in artillery, in ground forces, in equipment and in tanks”. “We only defend one point – the Azovstal factory – where in addition to soldiers there are also civilians who have become victims of this war”, he continued.
Russia, for its part, on Tuesday called on the last defenders of the city of Mariupol to end their “senseless resistance”, promising “life will be saved” to Ukrainian fighters entrenched in the Azovstal complex if they surrender.