Relatives of Ukrainian Azovstal fighters ask Chinese president for help

Photo released on May 10, 2022 by the Azov battalion shows a wounded Ukrainian fighter inside the Azovstal steelworks in the city and Mariupol – Azov Special Forces Regiment of the Ukrainian National Guard Press Office/AFP

The relatives of Ukrainian fighters stranded at the Azovstal steelworks, the last site of resistance to Russian forces in the strategic port of Mariupol, made an appeal on Saturday to Chinese President Xi Jinping and asked for help to evacuate everyone from the site.

“There is one person in the world that Putin would have a hard time saying no to. We trust that China, strong and noble, can make difficult decisions for a good cause,” Natalia Zarytska, the wife of a fighter, told a news conference in Kiev.

“We ask His Excellency Chinese President Xi Jinping to show great Eastern wisdom and work to save Mariupol’s defenders,” he added, in a room with a photo of the Chinese leader.

Citing messages sent by her husband, she claimed that the Russians are deliberately putting things off, to prolong the “torture” of the fighters.

Almost 1,000 Ukrainian soldiers remain in the underground galleries of the immense steelworks.

One of the commanders stated that nearly 600 are wounded and “targets of all types of weapons fired by land, air and sea, including prohibited ones. It’s not war, it’s a massacre,” said the same source.

China has so far refused to condemn the war.

Family members and some Azovstal fighters have already asked for help from Turkey, the United States and now China.