The commanders of Ukraine Armed Forces (UAF) units holding out in the remains of the Azovstal steel mill in Mariupol warned of an impending final battle against attacking Russian forces, as officials called for all civilians still in the devastated Azov Sea port to evacuate immediately.
Serhiy Volyna, commander of a UAF Marine contingent holding out in the factory, said only intervention by outside forces could save the lives of Ukrainian fighters facing the impending Russian Federation assault, and civilians trapped inside the UAF positions.
“This is our appeal to the world, and this could be my last communication. We have, possibly, only a few days or even hours left. Enemy forces outnumber us dozens of times. They have air supremacy, in artillery, in ground forces, equipment, and tanks. We ask that we be given safe conduct to the territory of a third (neutral) country”, Volyna said in a statement on Wednesday morning, April 20.
According to UAF statements and independent news reports, between one and three thousand Ukrainians are barricaded in the remains of the Azovstal steel factory. Among them are 500 wounded and injured, and “hundreds” of civilians, Volyna said.
RF forces have blockaded Mariupol since the fourth day of the war, bombarded it mercilessly, and blocked humanitarian convoys from entering the city to deliver food and supplies. More than 20,000 civilians have died in the Mariupol siege from shells and firefights, sickness and starvation, Mariupol city officials have said. On Tuesday the RF air force used T-22 strategic bombers to drop bunker-buster bombs weighing three tons on the factory, Ukrainian news reports said.
Sviatoslav Palamar, vice commander of the National Guard Azov Regiment, another key formation in Mariupol’s vicious defense, in a Tuesday evening statement said RF forces are now using air bombs weighing as much as three tons against UAF positions, in an attempt to level Ukrainian defenses. UAF fighters will battle to the end, but civilians inside Ukrainian positions need to be saved, he said.
“We will fight, we will use every cartridge we have left to us, but we call on our Motherland (Ukraine) to save the wounded and injured, the civilians, and to recover the bodies of the dead,” he said.
Fierce defense by Azov Regiment and Marine fighters, and bloody street fighting over the past 50 days threw a monkey wrench into Kremlin plans to capture Mariupol quickly, and tied down major forces the Kremlin has needed to make attacks elsewhere. Margo Grosberg, a spokesperson for the Estonian Defense Ministry, said that Tallin estimates that at least twelve RF battalions, a force of 5,000-8,000 men, are tied down in the Mariupol siege.
In mid-April Mariupol’s defenders withdrew to final defensive positions in and around the Azov factory, a massive Soviet-era structure with underground chambers deep enough to resist, according to unconfirmed news reports, any attack including a nuclear strike. Given sufficient food and ammunition, Grosberg said, Azov and the Marines could hold out for “a long time still”.
Independent news reports citing Kremlin state television said RF forces offered a Wednesday ceasefire for the Azov factory’s defenders and civilians to surrender unconditionally starting at 11 A.M.
Mariupol Mayor Vadym Boichenko in a statement called on Mariupol residents still in the city to evacuate immediately, because there is no chance of even basic services like water or emergency medical assistance being restored soon. The city should be abandoned until the fighting is over, he said. In previous statements, he estimated more than 90 percent of the city’s buildings had been severely damaged or destroyed in fighting and RF bombardments.
