The evacuees from the Azovstal steelworks, the last stronghold of the Ukrainian resistance in the devastated city of Mariupol, in the east of the country, narrated this Tuesday, already safely in Zaporizhzhia, the ordeal they went through in a bunker at the mercy of the bombings and where to go out to look for water could mean your death.
They survived in hidden tunnels under the large Mariupol steel mill, among the Ukrainian troops who still held out, having to remove shards of glass from their food and waiting for someone to pull them out.
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Aboard a caravan of white city buses, they arrived in the Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia, at a makeshift reception center where emotional relatives and dozens of journalists were waiting for them.
“Under constant fire, sleeping on mattresses, hit by shock waves, running with her son and falling to the ground because of an explosion… It was all horrible,” said Anna Zaitseva, who was carrying her baby and crying, thanking the troops they found. milk for your baby and the international rescue effort.
A group of about 100 civilians trapped in their shelters under the steel mill managed to leave the site thanks to an agreement with the invading Russian forces, which took days to materialize. The fate of Ukrainian civilians and troops remaining in the area has been the subject of repeated negotiations at the international level.
Ukrainian officials said some civilians were left behind during the operation, a worrying situation as Kiev announced that Russian forces had launched an offensive with tanks and armored vehicles against the plant.
The Azovstal complex, with an area of 11 km², is a vast area with railway lines, warehouses, coal ovens, factories, chimneys and tunnels considered ideal for guerrilla warfare.
– ‘Everything was shaking’ –
Elyna Tsybulchenko, 54, who worked on site on quality control tasks, was caught up in the conflict. “They bombed almost every second, everything was shaking. Dogs barked and children screamed,” she recalled. “But the hardest moment was when we were told that our bunker would not survive a direct hit. We understood that it would just be a mass grave and that no one could save us.”
Elyna took refuge in the steel mill after the bombings destroyed her home, and because of the water shortage in the city. But inside that place, getting water also posed a great risk.
“To find water, we had to move between buildings. Men did it for us, including my father,” Elyna explained. “He was injured, but thank God it wasn’t fatal.”
Elyna said that about 70 people were sheltering in the same place as her. “It’s even harder in a bunker with no light.”
Mariupol is one of the Ukrainian cities most punished by Moscow’s troops, and Azovstal became the only place where Kiev’s troops were able to resist Russian forces.
The risk to civilians has been repeatedly denounced at the international level, with accusations against Russia having done little to protect the city’s residents.
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