The mayor of the city of Mariupol made a desperate appeal to the international community Friday to save those still trapped at the steel plant that has become the last holdout for Ukrainian fighters and civilians.
His plea came two days after Russian forces reportedly bombed an underground field hospital in the Azovstal plant, where people are sheltering in bunkers.
“If Mariupol is hell, Azovstal is worse,” the mayor, Vadym Boychenko, told a news conference by video link on Friday. He said there were more than 600 wounded — including soldiers and civilians — at the Azovstal complex.
“They have been there for more than 60 days and they are begging to be saved,” he said, reiterating that supplies of water, medicine and ammunition were quickly depleting. “It is not a matter of days, it’s a matter of hours.”
As conditions at the plant worsen, the United Nations secretary general, António Guterres, visited Kyiv on Thursday to try to establish corridors for civilians to escape the plant.Ukraine’s deputy prime minister, Iryna Vereshchuk, said Thursday evening there was “hope” an evacuation from Azovstal would be possible. “This is a top priority,” she said in a Telegram post.
In his ritual overnight address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Russia would need to “actually do” as it had promised and establish a cease-fire in Mariupol that would allow for the evacuation.
Previous agreements to evacuate civilians en masse or bring vital aid into the city have largely failed, at times because Russian units have halted or fired on aid convoys.
“Moscow claimed they had allegedly ceased fire in Mariupol. But the bombing of the defenders of the city continues,” Mr. Zelensky said.
Ukrainian officials said Russian forces had used “bunker buster” bombs in the attack on the plant that hit the underground field hospital. Ukrainian fighters at the plant posted a video they said showed the bombed hospital, but it was not possible to independently confirm the timing or the place.
Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Thursday night that the attack had killed and injured dozens of already wounded soldiers in a violation of the Geneva Conventions.
It reposted the fighters’ video on Telegram, which appeared to show the immediate aftermath of the Wednesday night attack, with bandaged individuals seen on hospital beds, covered in dust and rubble.
President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia claimed victory in Mariupol last week despite persistent fighting there, publicly calling off an assault on the final Ukrainian stronghold in the devastated city in a stark display of the Kremlin’s desire to present a success to the Russian public.
In his address on Friday, Mr. Boychenko, the mayor, accused Russian forces of continuing to indiscriminately bombard civilian infrastructure throughout Mariupol. “The city is destroyed,” he said.
About 20,000 civilians have been killed, he said, but denied that the city had been fully conquered. “Mariupol is holding and continues to hold,” he added.
