EXCLUSIVE: Ukraine fighter says civilians remain trapped in Mariupol steel plant

Record ID: 1671051

  • Title: EXCLUSIVE: Ukraine fighter says civilians remain trapped in Mariupol steel plant
  • Date: 2nd May 2022
  • Summary: MARIUPOL, UKRAINE (MAY 2, 2022) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (Ukrainian) DEPUTY COMMANDER OF AZOV REGIMENT, 39, SVIATOSLAV PALAMAR, SAYING: “You know, it feels like joy through tears – that’s how I feel about it. Because on the 66th day of the war, the evacuation began. During this period, thousands of people died - women, children. This is a colossal number of casualties of the genocide that Russia is committing here in Mariupol.” WHITE FLASH (SOUNDBITE) (Ukrainian) DEPUTY COMMANDER OF AZOV REGIMENT, 39, SVIATOSLAV PALAMAR, SAYING: “Then I hope there will be another round and those civilians who still remain on the territory of the plant will be taken away. It is around 20 children - we counted - and hundreds more adults - women, elderly people. And we, damn it, need to carry out some kind of special operation, because people are under the rubble. We hear them talking, but we can't lift those slabs. In addition, we were planning to tear up the bunkers, the entrance to which is blocked, but all night (into Monday) naval artillery and barrel artillery were firing. Aviation has been working all day today, dropping bombs.” WHITE FLASH (SOUNDBITE) (Ukrainian) DEPUTY COMMANDER OF AZOV REGIMENT, 39, SVIATOSLAV PALAMAR, SAYING: “If it was possible to provide mechanized equipment, I think it would have made our work easier by 90 per cent. I'm sure it would have saved the lives of some of the soldiers, because unfortunately, guys die, you know? They die when they clear the rubble.” WHITE FLASH (SOUNDBITE) (Ukrainian) DEPUTY COMMANDER OF AZOV REGIMENT, 39, SVIATOSLAV PALAMAR, SAYING: “I think that this situation that has now developed in Mariupol at the Azovstal plant is a great burden on the president and a great responsibility on him. As commander-in-chief and as president, he is responsible not only for the civilians who are left here, but he is also responsible for the military, responsible for those wounded soldiers who are dying here, who need emergency medical care, they need medicine, they need surgery.” WHITE FLASH (SOUNDBITE) (Ukrainian) DEPUTY COMMANDER OF AZOV REGIMENT, 39, SVIATOSLAV PALAMAR, SAYING: “We believe that it is not just one third party should take full responsibility. I think it should be a joint effort. This should be a collegial process, when several powerful politicians take responsibility, guarantee the preservation of the lives of the wounded military personnel who remained, and first of all the civilians who remained.”
  • Embargoed: 16th May 2022 18:09
  • Keywords: Azov regiment Azovstal steel plant ICRC Mariupol evacuation UN civilians evacuation
  • Location: MARIUPOL, UKRAINE
  • City: MARIUPOL, UKRAINE
  • Country: Ukraine
  • Topics: Conflicts/War/Peace,Europe,Military Conflicts
  • Reuters ID: LVA001529602052022RP1
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text:A Ukrainian fighter holed up in the city of Mariupol said on Monday (May 2) that up to 200 civilians remained trapped inside bunkers in the Azovstal steel works after an evacuation operation led by the United Nations to save civilians from the site.
    Captain Sviatoslav Palamar, 39, a deputy commander of Ukraine's Azov Regiment, told Reuters in a Zoom call that his fighters could hear the voices of people trapped in bunkers of the vast industrial complex.
    He said among them are women, children and elderly people, but that the Ukrainian forces there did not have the mechanised equipment needed to dislodge the rubble.
    Reuters was unable to independently verify his assertions.
    An unknown number of civilians and Ukrainian forces have been holed up in the Azovstal steel works in the port city of Mariupol that has been devastated by weeks of Russian shelling and where Moscow has claimed control.
    The south-eastern Ukrainian city of Mariupol is vitally important to Russia's push to secure a land corridor through to the peninsula of Crimea that Russia annexed from Kyiv in 2014.
    Some groups of civilians left Azovstal over the weekend in an evacuation organised by the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross, the first to leave since Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin ordered the plant barricaded.
    Despite that effort, there is no indication of a plan to pull out the Ukrainian forces holed up at Azovstal. These are thought to include members of the Azov regiment, the national guard, marines, border guards and other units.
    (Production: Margaryta Chornokondratenko)
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2022. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
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