Russia has 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 Friday.
So desperate is the situation that children holed up inside have started to lose their hair and stutter after seeing so much death around them, according to accounts from inside. Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky promised overnight that efforts to get the children and elderly out of the increasingly dilapidated structure will intensify Friday, but no details have yet emerged to outline exactly how that might possibly happen safely.
The 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, waiting to be rescued as supplies of food, water, and medicine run short.
ADVERTISEMENT
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 the 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 they 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.”
The sister of a Ukrainian soldier who is injured inside told The Times that the children are suffering from watching so many adults around them die. “Many people began to stutter,” she said. “Some are losing hair and teeth.”
Elsewhere across the country, Russia upped its attacks on the capital Kyiv, killing at least one and injuring nearly a dozen people just hours after United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres left the city. Zelensky said the attack on the capital was a “powerful response” to the visit. Guterres had a less than fruitful visit with Putin before going to Kyiv. Ukrainian foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba called the missile strike on the capital a “heinous act of barbarism.”
