Extremely rare ammunition and food, extreme living conditions, mediocre care… The last Ukrainian fighters entrenched in the Azovstal factory, in Mariupol, are still fighting, in extremely difficult conditions, at a time when the Russian army is tightening its grip on this last pocket. of resistance in the port city of southeastern Ukraine, almost entirely under the Russian flag.
On Saturday, kyiv announced that all women, children and the elderly, civilians who were holed up with the soldiers, had been evacuated.
Raising questions about the fate that now awaits the fighters.
Read alsoEvacuation of Azovstal: weeks of struggle in the factory that has become a symbol of Ukrainian resistance
“Many soldiers are in serious condition.
They are injured and have no medicine,” explains Yevguenia Tytarenko, a military nurse, whose husband, a member of the Azov regiment, and his colleagues are still in the factory.
"Food and water are also missing," she said, still in contact with her relatives inside.
Her husband's determination is intact.
“I will fight until the end,” Mykhaïlo wrote to him by SMS.
“We will come home no matter what, alive or dead”
For several weeks, Mariupol has been almost entirely under Russian control.
Only the huge steelworks escaped him, which the Russian army relentlessly pounded, in addition to major attacks on the ground at the origin of violent combats.
“The fighters have already said goodbye to their wives.
One of them said to his wife
Don't cry, we'll go home no
matter what, alive or dead
,” said Yevgenia, 34.
According to her, the possibility of seeing them evacuated is very slim.
The nurse describes a chaotic situation inside the tunnels of the factory, soldiers fighting while moving corpses through the maze of underground galleries dating back to Soviet times.
VIDEO.
“We lacked food”: in Mariupol, a hundred civilians evacuated from the Azovstal steelworks
The dead were wrapped in plastic bags and rotting for lack of refrigeration systems.
No question for the members of the Azov regiment that these remains fall into the hands of the Russian forces.
“Almost everywhere they carry dead bodies with them,” says Yevgenia.
For her, the soldiers of Azovstal “deserve to be evacuated.
Those who are alive, the injured and the dead.
Yevgenia fled Mariupol as early as February 24, the city having already been bombarded on the first day of the Russian invasion.
She had just married two days before with Mykhaïlo, also a military nurse, who pushed her pregnant to leave the city from the first fighting.
Hollywood-style escape for Azov fighter Daviti
The Azov regiment was created in 2014 at the start of the conflict against the pro-Russians of Donbass by far-right militants before being quickly integrated into the National Guard.
Daviti Suleimanashvili, is one of his fighters.
His left leg was amputated in the makeshift hospital set up in the factory, when he was injured in March by tank fire during a street fight in Mariupol.
"It's very hard to treat in these conditions," he says, describing on the spot the lack of basic sanitary facilities, medical equipment and heating.
The fighter was evacuated from Azovstal by air, in a scenario worthy of Hollywood: three Ukrainian helicopters managed to thwart the Russian missiles to transport several wounded.
“It was a miracle,” he says.
“I had only seen that in films!
".
"If I died there, it would be with my family."
Despite the horror at the Azovstal site, some find it unbearable not to be there.
Rolana Bondarenko, 54, has a dozen friends from the Azov regiment there.
With her son, she was one of the first to join the battalion in 2014. Since then, Rolana has learned that her boy had been killed in mid-April.
"They put him in a black bag and his body is rotting," she said by phone from Germany, where she has been living for a year for medical reasons.
"And it's not just him who is in his case.
There are hundreds!
".
Read alsoCrisis in Ukraine: Oleksa and Daria, these patriots ready to do anything to defend their country
Even after the loss of her son, Rolana continues to ardently support the remaining Ukrainian fighters who face the firepower of Russian artillery and aircraft, in what feels like a last stand.
Every day, she sends text messages embellished with emoticons to boost the morale of the troops, who, for their part, try to spare her by evoking their pride and their resilience.
Some have lost "between 15 to 20 kilos", while food is sorely lacking, Rolana warns.
“I would like to be by their side right now,” she adds between sobs.
"If I died there, it would be with my family."
