By Trisha Thomas—
The Associated Press
Two Ukrainian women whose husbands defend a besieged steel plant in the city of Mariupol are calling for any evacuation of civilians to include soldiers as well.
They fear that their country's troops will be tortured and killed if they stay behind and are captured by Russian forces.
“The lives of soldiers also matter. We can't just talk about civilians
,” she told The Associated Press news agency Yuliia Fedusiuk, 29, the wife of Arseniy Fedusiuk, a member of the Azov Regiment in Mariupol.
"We hope we can rescue the soldiers as well, not just the dead, not just the wounded, but everyone," she added.
She and Kateryna Prokopenko, whose husband, Denys Prokopenko, is the Azov commander, called on Friday in Rome for international help to evacuate the Azovstal plant, the last stronghold of the Ukrainian resistance in the strategic and now bombed-out port city. .
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An estimated 2,000 Ukrainian defenders and 1,000 civilians have taken refuge in the plant's vast network of underground bunkers, capable of withstanding air strikes.
However, the situation has become more dire, with
food, water and medicine running out,
after Russian forces have dropped bunker hunters and other munitions in recent days.
Kateryna Prokopenko, wife of Denys Prokopenko, commander of the Azov regiment, right, and Yulia Fedosiuk, wife of Arseny Fedosiuk, another member of the Azov regiment, show photos of their husbands on their phones in Rome, Friday, April 29, 2022. .Alessandra Tarantino/AP
The United Nations has said that Secretary-General António Guterres and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed to organize
evacuations from the plant
during a meeting this week in Moscow, in which the UN and the International Committee of the Cross participated. Red.
But the discussions, as reported by the UN,
concerned civilians, not combatants.
[Russia bombs kyiv just as the UN Secretary General is visiting]
Prokopenko, 27, called in English
for a Dunkirk-style mission,
a reference to the World War II maritime operation launched to rescue British and Allied troops encircled by German forces in northern France.
"We can do this extraction operation ... that will save our soldiers, our civilians, our children," he said,
"we have to do it right now, because people
— every hour, every second —
are dying
. "
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The women said that
600 of the soldiers are wounded and some suffer from gangrene.
They provided lurid videos and photos sent by their husbands of men with
amputated limbs, gunshot wounds and other injuries.
They said that people are eating porridge, raisin cheese and old bread.
The Azov Regiment traces its roots to the Azov Battalion, formed in 2014 by far-right activists at the start of the conflict in eastern Ukraine between Moscow-backed separatists, and which has drawn criticism for its tactics.
Fedusiuk said that she and Prokopenko were seeking help from Europe, the United States and international organizations to find a diplomatic solution to the Azovstal standoff.
And he said that the troops would never surrender to Russian capture.
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"We don't know of any soldiers from Azov who have come back (alive) from Russian soldiers, since 2014, so they will be
tortured and killed
," Fedusiuk said.
"We definitely know that, so it's not an option for them," he added.
With Russia's advance in the east of the country stalled due to fierce local resistance and support from the West, analysts say both sides appear poised to entrench themselves in a protracted conflict that shows increasing signs of spreading beyond the camp. battle, as reported by NBC News.
"We are afraid".
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