Evacuees from the besieged Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol, Ukraine, recalled the terror of cowering for weeks from Russian shelling, as they traveled to friendly …
Evacuees from the besieged Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol, Ukraine, recalled the terror of cowering for weeks from Russian shelling, as they traveled to friendly territory Monday. The first civilians are expected to arrive in the Ukrainian-controlled city of Zaporizhzhia later Monday, following a coordinated effort by the UN and the Red Cross to secure their safety. “The soldiers came and escorted the first 11 people out [of our bunker], those who were seriously ill, had asthma or needed insulin and also three of us, randomly,” Yelena Aytulova,44, said Monday during a stopover in Russian-occupied territory. “More than 40 people, including little children, are left there.” “For a month we were eating — over 40 of us — six tins of food. We boiled two buckets of soup out of them and that was it for the whole day,” Aytulova said. More than 100 civilians are reported to have left the sprawling steel plant Monday, where Ukrainian defenders planned to make their final stand.
