Up to 200 civilians remain trapped inside bunkers in the Azovstal steel works, despite an evacuation operation led by the UN to save civilians from the site, a Ukrainian fighter in Mariupol has said.
Captain Sviatoslav Palamar, 39, a deputy commander of Ukraine’s controversial Azov Regiment, said his fighters could hear the voices of people trapped in bunkers of the vast industrial complex.
The United Nations had earlier conducted a “safe passage operation” for civilians in the steelworks, which was serving as the last-remaining Ukrainian stronghold in the city of Mariupol.
Up to 1,000 civilians were thought to have been stuck underneath the Azovstal plant with minimal supplies alongside hundreds of fighters – some said to be suffering with festering wounds – after Vladimir Putin told Russian troops to blockade the area last week “so that a fly can’t get through”.
One evacuee from the steelworks said that survivors still trapped inside were running out of food. “Children always wanted to eat. You know, adults can wait,” she said.
