The commander of Ukrainian forces trapped by Russian troops under a steel plant in Mariupol issued what he said could be the “last appeal” of his life on Tuesday, begging world leaders, including President Joe Biden, for help negotiating safe passage out of the besieged city in eastern Ukraine.
Maj. Serhiy Volyna of Ukraine’s 36th Separate Marine Brigade posted a video on Facebook saying his men and “hundreds of civilians” are facing their last hours alive underneath the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol. Volyna said Russian troops outnumber his brigade “10 to 1” and that 500 are injured inside the shelter. Volyna implored Biden and other world leaders for help with “extraction” to a third country.
“We very much hope that President Biden will hear us and help resolve our situation,” Volyna said on Tuesday.
“We appeal and plead to all world leaders to help us. We ask them to use the procedure of ‘extraction’ and take us to the territory of a third party state — all of us,” Volyna said in his Facebook video message, in which he tagged Biden, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
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The Ukrainian defenders faced a Tuesday deadline imposed by Russia to surrender and exit the facility.
Volyna said his brigade and Azov Battalion forces garrisoned in the steel plant refused to surrender to Russian forces despite the dire circumstances in the basement of the facility, where he said that “people just rot. There is no medication.”
The defenders are not buying the Russian Ministry of Defense’s guarantee of safe passage.
“We will not lay down our weapons,” Volyna said. “No one believes the Russians.”
Petro Andriushchenko, an adviser to the mayor of Mariupol, claimed in a statement on Tuesday that Russian forces are battering the steel plant.
“[Russian forces] are not only striking Azovstal with bombs but also with artillery and tanks, continuing their chaotic attacks on the residential area of the Left Bank (Livoberezhnyi) district along the line from the Meotidy Boulevard,” Andriushchenko said.
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The Mariupol City Council claimed at least 1,000 civilians, including women and children, are sheltering underneath the Azovstal steel plant alongside the city’s remaining defense forces.
Video released by the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Monday showed women and children purportedly sheltering in the basement of the sprawling industrial complex in Mariupol.
