Relatives demand safe evacuation for holed-up Mariupol fighters

Record ID: 1671186

  • Title: Relatives demand safe evacuation for holed-up Mariupol fighters
  • Date: 3rd May 2022
  • Summary: KYIV, UKRAINE (MAY 3, 2022) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF PEOPLE WITH POSTERS MARCHING AND CHANTING (Ukrainian): “AZOVSTAL” PEOPLE MARCHING ACROSS DOWNTOWN VARIOUS OF POLICE ON GUARD AS PEOPLE HOLD RALLY POLICE OFFICERS WITH RIFLES PEOPLE HOLDING POSTER AND CHANTING (Ukrainian): “GLORY TO NATION, DEATH TO ENEMY! UKRAINE IS ABOVE ALL!” VARIOUS OF PEOPLE CHANTING (Ukrainian): “MARIUPOL” (SOUNDBITE) (Ukrainian) WOMAN WHO FLED MARIUPOL, 21, NICOLE (NO SURNAME GIVEN), SAYING: “We came to draw the attention of the authorities to the fact Azovstal steel plant is being stormed right now. It is where our defenders, Mariupol defenders, who are protecting the city, have been staying for two months – I lost traction of time. I spent 38 days there and I understand what it feels to be there – when Mariupol is under constant shelling when you sit there and don’t know what will happen tomorrow. Today, I urge the authorities to save Mariupol defenders, to save people who are there because they must live, they have the right to live, they deserve it.” PEOPLE CHANTING (Ukrainian): “UKRAINE IS MARIUPOL” PROTESTERS, SOME WITH CHILDREN (SOUNDBITE) (Ukrainian) WOMAN WHO FLED MARIUPOL, 21, NICOLE (NO SURNAME GIVEN), SAYING: (RECALLING EVACUATION FROM MARIUPOL) “Shells exploded a few meters away from us, but we kept moving forward. We stood up, made two steps and fell down. And it was endless. Then we passed by Azovstal plant, we crawled under the trucks, we found our way out by passing by barbed wire. We did it in order to save ourselves from so-called liberation by the Russian Federation.” PROTESTERS CHANTING (Ukrainian): “SAVE AZOVSTAL”
  • Embargoed: 17th May 2022 16:54
  • Keywords: Azov servicemen Azovstal steel plant evacuation
  • Location: KYIV, UKRAINE
  • City: KYIV, UKRAINE
  • Country: Ukraine
  • Topics: Conflicts/War/Peace,Europe,Military Conflicts
  • Reuters ID: LVA001550803052022RP1
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Hundred of protesters staged a rally on Tuesday (May 3) in Ukraine’s capital calling on the country’s leadership and the international community to evacuate servicemen, including the wounded, and retrieve the bodies of Ukrainian soldiers from besieged Mariupol.
    Protesters, mainly women who are wives and sisters of Ukrainian servicemen, walked across downtown Kyiv to the presidential office on the day when dozens of civilians cowered for weeks in the bunkers of Azovstal steelworks in Russian-occupied Mariupol reached the safety of Kyiv-controlled Zaporizhzhia.
    Carrying posters, some reading ‘Save Mariupol’ and chanting ‘Ukraine is Mariupol,’ protesters asked the international community to join the effort of evacuating Ukrainian military personnel.
    “The situation reached its critical point, they don’t get any aid. There are many wounded servicemen who are simply dying from sepsis, their limbs get rotten. Volunteers cannot get to them for over a month. They are entirely encircled,” Julia, wife of a Ukrainian soldier, told Reuters.
    An unknown number of Ukrainian forces have been holed up in the Azovstal steelworks in the port city of Mariupol which has been devastated by weeks of Russian shelling. In addition to that, more than 200 civilians remain in the Azovstal steel plant, according to Mariupol Mayor Vadym Boichenko.
    (Production: Sergiy Karazy, Margaryta Chornokondratenko)
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2022. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
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