Ukrainian commander in Mariupol pleads for “extraction”
In a video posted on Facebook, Ukrainian commander Major Serhiy Volyna asked world leaders, on April 19, to conduct an “extraction” in which a third country would assure the security of troops leaving Mariupol.
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Mariupol (Reuters)
The commander of Ukrainian forces’ last stronghold in the southern port city of Mariupol said that his soldiers are facing their last days, "if not their last hours."
Maj. Serhiy Volyna of the 36th Separate Marine Brigade, whose forces have been positioned in the Azovstal Iron and Steel Works against a Russian force that vastly outnumbers them, made a plea, in a video he posted on Facebook on April 19, “to world leaders to conduct an “extraction” in which a third country would assure the security of troops leaving Mariupol.
“Take us to the territory of a third-party state,” Volyna said.
He added that "the enemy is outnumbering us 10 to 1," stressing that Russian troops have an “advantage in the air, artillery in their forces on land, in equipment and in tanks.”
“We are defending one project, the Azovstal plant, “he said.
On its account, the Russian Armed Forces have renewed their offer for nationalist Ukrainian militants and foreign mercenaries remaining at the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol to halt their hostilities and lay down their arms from 11 AM GMT on Wednesday, Russian National Defense Center chief Colonel-General Mikhail Mizintsev said late Tuesday.
Mizintsev cited Moscow's forces' humane principles as the reason behind the offer, underlining to the militants that they were "guaranteed life" if they took the Russian offer and complied with Russia's conditions.
The top Russian military figure recalled how Russia treated the Ukrainian marines who laid down their arms and surrendered, saying it repeatedly and already "confirmed its humane attitude towards prisoners of war" in addition to its full compliance with the international humanitarian law.
Mariupol has been a playground for Ukrainian provocations since the war broke out in the country on February 24. The Russian Defense Ministry had revealed that Ukrainian nationalists in Mariupol used about 150 civilians as human shields and opened fire against DPR fighters from behind the civilians' backs.
Azov battalion militants had also opened fire against civilians during evacuations from the city, resulting in the death of two people and the injury of four others, the Donetsk People's Republic reported last month.
