The desperate call for help from women and children trapped in the tunnels of the Mariupol steel factory, besieged by Russian forces

The civilians who are inside the Azovstal steel factory in Mariupol are neighbors of the plant and relatives of the workers who know the intricate corridors in various subfloors. They arrived there fleeing heavy Russian bombardments that have been going on for more than a month and after being prevented from leaving Mariupol to the west of the country.

They've been without food, heat or medicine for weeks. Images uploaded to the Telegram network show rooms full of boys, women and old people with depressed faces after so many days of confinement.

This Saturday, a video was released from inside the factory, showing women and children who say they are “running out of strength” and urgently need to be evacuated to Ukrainian-controlled territory.

According to the Guardian, the images were taken on Thursday. The women say that 15 children live in tunnels under the plant, whose ages range from babies to teenagers. They are trapped along with their families and other civilians, including factory workers.

The video shows several children, one apparently doing homework in a coloring book, surrounded by makeshift clothes and beds. A girl in a hood says she is desperate to see the sunlight again and breathe fresh air after weeks living in lockdown: “We were playing with the phone but we want to go home, we want to see the sun,” she said.

Meanwhile, a little one said: “Hello, I see you came and I want to say something. Really, what we all want is to go home. We want to come back alive to see our parents. Oh, not our parents... our families”; while another boy wearing a hat added: “We really miss them.”

There is also a soldier who stresses: “We are all friends now, and once we leave here, they will continue to be our friends.”

An unidentified woman said she has spent 50 days underground, since February 25, the second day of Vladimir Putin's army invasion of Ukraine. Others say they took refuge in the plant in early March, while Russian forces hit their apartments with artillery and air strikes.

“Food and water are almost finished,” the woman continued, with the people “on the verge of hunger.” “All the supplies we brought are running out. Soon we won't have enough food even for the children,” he stressed.

He added: “We are here and we need help. We are at the epicenter of events and we cannot get out. My son needs to be evacuated to a peaceful area and so do others. We ask for safety guarantees for our children.”

“We care about the lives of our children and elderly parents who require medical attention. They are running out of strength and vital power. There is not a single day without bombing. They are afraid to even go to the bathroom,” he concluded.

The Ukrainian government is trying to establish a humanitarian corridor that will allow civilians inside the plant to leave safely, but Putin's forces are preventing it for now.

Azovstal has a long history related to the industrialization of the Soviet Union. It was created in 1930 by decision of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the National Economy of the USSR and entered the production line in 1933 when its blast furnace took out the first iron sheet. In January 1935, steel production began when the first 250-ton tilting kiln began to operate, a significant technological advance for the time.

Six years later, with the Nazi occupation, the plant was deactivated and despite the efforts of the Germans to re-ignite the ovens, they were unable to do so. Only in September 1943, when the Red Army regained control of Mariupol, did reconstruction begin. With the fall of the Soviet Union, the plant returned to very low levels of production and its kilns caused terrible pollution throughout the region. Until it was privatized and the plant began to produce nearly 6 billion tons of steel a year, an absolute record and a huge success for Ukraine independent of Moscow's power.

Azovstal Iron and Steel Works is an integrated company, subsidiary of Italian company Metinvest. Until the Russian invasion, it produced rolled profiles and sheet metal semi-finished products used in shipbuilding, electrical engineering, bridge construction and the production of large-diameter pipes for gas and oil pipelines. It is also the largest manufacturer of railway rails in Eastern Europe. Sell to everyone. The owner of this plant and the entire holding company is Rinat Akhmetov, the richest man in Ukraine.

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