while you’re drowning Mariupol is a coastal city in southern UkraineIn massive destruction, the last hours before falling into the hands of the Russian forces, which are now deployed in most of its neighborhoods, with the exception of the last steel factory in it, a Ukrainian military commander launched a distress call.
In a video posted on Facebook early on Wednesday, a commander in the Ukrainian marine force defending the last stronghold of Ukrainian forces in Mariupol, which has been besieged for several weeks, appealed to them to be removed from the scene.
“Maybe we will have our days, if not our last hours,” Sergei Volina of the 36th Marines Separate Brigade, which is holed up in the huge and besieged Azovstal plant, said in the viral video.
The Russians outnumber us
He also added that the Russian forces outnumbered them by ten to one, and called on all world leaders to help them.
He continued, “We ask you to use the procedure of removing the forces and transferring us to a third party area.”
In addition, he stressed that the Russians enjoy “an advantage in the air, artillery, forces on the ground, equipment and tanks,” according to what AFP reported. “We are only defending one target, the Azovstal plant, where, in addition to the military, there are civilians who have fallen victim to this war,” he added.
New alert
This distress message came following Russia called, yesterday, Tuesday, in a new warning, to the Ukrainian forces remaining in the city on the Sea of Azov to lay down their weapons “immediately”, considering that they are facing a “disastrous situation”.
It also gave it a new deadline until today, Wednesday, in order to exit safely through a corridor opened from the steel plant for this purpose.
Russian forces in Mariupol (archive – AFP)
It is noteworthy that he does not know specifically reliable details regarding the situation of the city and the number of holed up in this steel plant due to the lack of communications, but it is believed that the Russian forces penetrated gradually, due to its largeness.
turned into ruins
As for the presence of civilians there, while Kyiv confirms the presence of hundreds of women, children and families of fighters, Moscow denies the matter, noting that those who remained there are Ukrainian fighters and mercenaries, describing them as extremists.
It is noteworthy that the city, which was inhabited by regarding 400,000 Ukrainian citizens, before the Russian operation, was reduced to rubble during weeks of bombing and siege.
A satellite image of the city of Mariupol in southern Ukraine (Archive – AFP)
Since the start of the Russian military operation on Ukrainian territory on February 24, it has constituted an important goal for Moscow, especially since its control would allow it to link the regions of eastern Ukraine and the Crimean peninsula in the south, which were annexed to Russian territory in 2014.
