‘Maybe we were living our last days, our last hours’, video calls of a Ukrainian fighter | Ukraine and Russia

“Maybe we live our last days, until our last hours,” said Serhiy Volynsky, commander of the 36th Marine Corps Brigade. Ukraine, after Moscow’s new ultimatum to the surrender of Ukrainian fighters. He called for the soldiers and civilians still in Mariupol, a Ukrainian city besieged by the Russians, to be removed from the Azovtal plant.

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“The enemy is ten times more than us,” he says. We are pleading and pleading with all world leaders to help us. We ask you to use the extraction procedure and transfer us to the territory of a third country. ” According to Commander Volina, the Russian army has “advantages in air, artillery, land, equipment and tanks.”

And the soldier adds: “We defend only one point, which is the Azovstal plant, where, in addition to the soldiers, there are civilians who became victims of this war.”

At least 500 soldiers were reportedly wounded at the site, which includes civilians. Mariupol city council reported on Tuesday that at least 1,000 people, mainly women, children and the elderly, are hiding with fighters “in underground shelters” at the plant. An unofficial toll reveals that more than 20,000 civilians have been killed in the city.

After nearly two months of siege, the strategic Ukrainian port of Mariupol could fall into Russian hands. The Ukrainian Defense Ministry confirmed Wednesday morning that the Russian army “concentrates most of its efforts on capturing the city of Mariupol and continuing its attempts to occupy the area near the Azovstal steel plants.”

Tuesday (19), a Russia And announced that it had carried out a series of air and missile strikes in the eastern region Ukraine. According to Kyiv, this is the beginning of the “Battle of Donbass”, which he has been fearing for weeks. RFI Special Envoys Clea Broadhurst and Gad El Khoury accompanied a battalion to the front line.

Correspondents came 750 meters from the forces of the Russian enemy in the Donbass. As for Alexander, the commander of the Ukrainian battalion, the second stage of the offensive has already begun. “In the past two days, the bombing has become very intense, and more frequent. It is clear that the Russians are using heavy artillery,” says the soldier. “The bombing is approaching and the soldiers are preparing,” he added.

Sergey is the medical officer of the battalion. Teaches how to provide first aid. “I teach dressing and all the medical basics they need to know. But I also show methods of group evacuation if necessary. I control everything. If a soldier is injured somewhere, I take care of him until he is rescued,” he explains.

Even as he prepares for war, this tired soldier regrets the situation he found himself in. “I lost my best friend here a few weeks ago. It’s very hard to realize that I will never see him again. Civilians go through all that, look Kramatorsk, Mariupol. What did they do? They are just people who lived a quiet life.

Under the sound of shelling, soldiers on the front line are waiting for the arrival of the Russians.