‘Surrender is not an option’: Ukrainian forces holed up in Azovstal steelworks pledge to keep fighting despite dwindling supplies in the face of Russian missile strikes
- The steel mill is the last pocket of Ukrainian resistance in the devastated port city
- Ilya Samoilenko added the regiment would not abandon its 200 injured soldiers
- Ukraine said all women, children and elderly civilians have been allowed to flee
- It comes as 60 people are believed to have been killed in a bombing of a school
Ukrainian forces holed up in the Azovstal steelworks in the Russian-controlled city of Mariupol have vowed to fight on and not surrender despite dwindling supplies in the face of Russian missile strikes.
The Azovstal steel mill is the last pocket of Ukrainian resistance in the devastated port city and its fate has taken on a symbolic value in the broader battle since Russia's invasion.
'We, all of the military personnel in the garrison of Mariupol, we have witnessed the war crimes performed by Russia, by the Russian army,' said Ilya Samoilenko, an Azov regiment intelligence officer.
'We are witnesses. Surrender is not an option because Russia is not interested in our lives.'
Ukrainian forces holed up in the Azovstal steelworks (pictured) in the Russian-controlled city of Mariupol have vowed to fight on and not surrender despite dwindling supplies in the face of Russian missile strikes
'Surrender is not an option because Russia is not interested in our lives,' said Ilya Samoilenko (above), an Azov regiment intelligence officer
'All our supplies are limited. We still have water. We still have munitions. We will have our personal weapons. We will fight until the best resolution of the situation,' Samoilenko said during a press conference.
He added that the regiment would not abandon its 200 or so injured soldiers.
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'We can't abandon our injured, our dead - these people deserve fitting treatment, they deserve a burial worthy of the name. We won't leave anyone behind us,' he said.
A wife of one of the Azov regiment's leaders demanded the government acted decisively so that the remaining forces could survive and relive their story with their children and grandchildren.
The Azovstal steel mill is the last pocket of Ukrainian resistance in the devastated port city and its fate has taken on a symbolic value in the broader battle since Russia's invasion
Ukraine has said that all women, children and elderly civilians have been allowed to flee from Azovstal as part of a humanitarian mission coordinated by the United Nations and the Red Cross
'We must not stay here crying, we must do everything to save them,' Kateryna Prokopenko, wife of the Azov regiment's Denis Prokopenko, said by video link.
Ukraine has said that all women, children and elderly civilians have been allowed to flee from Azovstal as part of a humanitarian mission coordinated by the United Nations and the Red Cross.
Ukraine presidential aide, Mykhaylo Podolyak, said on social media on Sunday that Kyiv 'won't stop until we evacuate all our people' from Azovstal.
It was also reported today that at least 60 people are believed to have been killed in a Russian bombing of a Ukrainian school on Saturday evening, in which two people have been confirmed dead with dozens more still missing.
Emergency crew stands amid the burning debris of Belogorovskaya school in the Luhansk region. Sixty people are believed to be trapped under the rubble and are feared dead
Around 90 people were using the Belogorovskaya school basement in the village of Bilohorivka as a bomb shelter when the site suffered a direct hit, Luhansk regional governor Serhiy Haidai confirmed via the Telegram messaging app on Sunday morning. Mr Haidai said emergency crews had found two bodies and rescued 30.
'Most likely, all 60 people who remain under the rubble are now dead,' governor Serhiy Haidai wrote. Russian shelling also killed two boys, aged 11 and 14, in the nearby town of Pryvillia, he said.
Footage and images of the school show the extent of the destruction, with large sections of the building reduced to rubble and a team of firefighters drafted in to combat the resulting blaze.
Rescuers managed to pull thirty people out of the ruins last night, Haidai said, but up to sixty more remain trapped in the basement and are thought to have been killed.
'The fire was extinguished after nearly four hours, then the rubble was cleared, and unfortunately the bodies of two people were found,' Haidai wrote. Rescuers continued to work from the early hours, attempting to clear the remaining rubble and free any remaining survivors.
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