Accounts from civilians, including children, sheltering with Ukrainian soldiers inside a massive steel mill underscore the depravity of Russia’s ongoing offensive.
Russia intensified its bombing of the Azovstal steel mill in the bombed out city of Mariupol despite assurances that civilians trapped inside the labyrinth of underground tunnels would finally be evacuated on Friday.
So desperate is the situation that the children holed up inside have started to lose their hair and stutter after seeing so much death around them, according to accounts from inside. Ukrainian president Volodmyr Zelensky promised overnight that efforts to get the children and elderly out of the increasingly dilapidated structure will intensify on Friday, but no details have yet emerged to outline exactly how that could possibly safely happen.
Commander of Ukraine’s 36th Separate Marine Brigade Major Serhiy Volyna told CNN that as many as 60 children, including a 4-month-old, are trapped inside, hoping to be rescued as supplies of food, water and medicine run short.
Volyna said the evacuation mission was set up in Zaporizhia, a Ukraine controlled town around 150 miles East of Mariupol, and they were waiting for a rescue team to arrive.
Petro Andrushchenko, an adviser to the mayor of Mariupol, said parts of the city have been blocked off by the Russians, which could interfere with an evacuation attempt. “This may be due to another attempt to storm Azovstal or street fights,” he told CNN.
Since early April, soldiers and civilians have shared the dismal space as Russian bombs rattle the structure nonstop, setting off sporadic fires and crippling what little infrastructure is left. Around 500 wounded people are sheltering inside, many of whom escaped bombing of residential areas in the strategic port city. Electricity and plumbing are compromised across the vast facility after Russian president Vladimir Putin told his military to “Block off this industrial area so that a fly cannot pass through.”
According to several people who sent audio messages to the Times of London, doctors inside cannot perform surgeries so have taken to using dirty rags to wrap wounds, which have caused gangrene. Volyna said a field hospital set up inside the grounds took a direct hit from a Russian missile on Thursday, destroying all the surgical equipment. “We do not have enough medicine. That’s why, to deal with broken bones, we have used old unwashed pieces of cloth and it causes infections,” a doctor told the newspaper. “Some people will probably die there because they will not receive medical help anytime soon. Many people are in agony. The bombing and shelling are non-stop.”