Photo: Alessandra Tarantino/AP/Shutterstock

Kateryna Prokopenko, wife of Denys Prokopenko, commander of the Azov regiment, right, and Yulia Fedosiuk, wife of Arseny Fedosiuk, another member of Azov regiment show photos on their phones of their husbands during an interview with the Associated Press, in Rome, . Two Ukrainian women whose husbands are defending a besieged steel plant in the southern city of Mariupol are calling for any evacuation of civilians to also include soldiers. They say the troops stand to be tortured and killed if left behind and captured by Russian forces

Wives of Ukrainian soldiers trapped beneath the besieged Ukrainian Azovstal steel plant inMariupolwant the world to know what their husbands are going through — and hope their message will help save the men before they become casualties in thewar against Russia.

“They are really on the last breath,” Kateryna ProkopenkotoldThe New York Timesof the trapped soldiers, which include her husband, Lt. Col. Denys Prokopenko.

Yulia Fedosiuk, whose husband Sgt. Arseniy Fedosiuk is also among those under the sprawling factory, said there could be as many as 3,000 men still alive inside.

“The whole world is advising them to surrender without understanding that it means death for them,” Fedosiuk told theTimes.

Prokopenko, 27, and Fedosiuk, 29, speak almost daily with their husbands via a Starlink satellite communication system, according to the report.

Though “all women, children and the elderly have been evacutated” from the steel plant, Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said,according to NPR, the Ukrainian fighters make up the remaining resistance to a complete Russian takeover of the strategically important— anddevastatingly hard-hit— city of Mariupol, located in southern Ukraine.

AP/Shutterstock

Smoke rises from the Metallurgical Combine Azovstal in Mariupol, in territory under the government of the Donetsk People’s Republic, eastern in Mariupol, Ukraine, . Heavy fighting is raging at the besieged steel plant in Mariupol as Russian forces attempt to finish off the city’s last-ditch defenders and complete the capture of the strategically vital port Russia, Mariupol, Ukraine

Prokopenko said she detected a change in her usually strong husband’s voice as supplies dwindle and the conditions worsen.

“He says warm words to me and asks about ordinary things that many of them have forgotten: what is it like to live in an apartment, eat ice cream, potatoes, some hot dishes, eat fresh bread,” Prokopenko said. “All soldiers dream of warm fresh bread, because they eat moldy bread. They dream of clean drinking water.”

Hearing from her husband about what he and the others are going through is difficult for Prokopenko. “I am ashamed that I live a normal life: I have a bed, a pillow, drinking water, pills,” she said. “He and his comrades do not have it, and I am ashamed and sad about it.”

EyePress News/Shutterstock

Image from drone footage released by the Azov Regiment on May 5, 2022 shows flame billows and smoke rises from the Azovstal steel plant as the assault on plant continues. Hundreds of Ukrainian soldiers and civilians remain in the complex. The plant is under heavy fire as Russia forces uses aircraft, artillery and infantry to storm the last holdout of the Ukrainian forces in the southern port city of Mariupol.

She believes her only option is to share the grim details her husband tells her. “They must not be allowed to die,” Prokopenko said. “We are shouting about it. We cry over it. We tear our souls to save them.”

And the story, she believes, is one that others will want to know.

“I am sure that after the war, Spielberg will make the largest film about Azovstal, and all the directors will fight to make their film the most realistic,” Prokopenko said. “You won’t even have to add fantastic details, because all the horrors that happen in science-fiction films are happening now at Azovstal.”

Russia’sattack on Ukrainecontinues after their forces launched a large-scale invasion on Feb. 24 — the first major land conflict in Europe in decades.

Nearly 6 million have fled the country as refugees — and half are children,according to the United Nations. Millions more have been displaced inside Ukraine.

With NATO forces amassed in the region, various countries are offering aid or military support to the resistance. Zelenskyy has called for peace talks — so far unsuccessful — while urging his country to fight back.

Putin insists Ukraine has historic ties to Russia and he is acting in the best security interests of his country. Zelenskyy vowed not to bend.

“Nobody is going to break us, we’re strong, we’re Ukrainians,“he told the European Unionin a speech in the early days of the fighting, adding, “Life will win over death. And light will win over darkness.”

source: people.com