Ukrainian marines are preparing for a ‘last battle’ to control the southern port of Mariupol after being surrounded by invading Russian forces.
The 36th marine brigade of the Ukrainian armed forces said on Facebook that anyone whose limbs have not been torn off will be ordered to fight, and battles are currently being carried out by cooks, drivers and musicians.
They said today: ‘Today will probably be the last battle, as the ammunition is running out.
‘It’s death for some of us, and captivity for the rest,’ it added, saying it had been ‘pushed back’ and ‘surrounded’ by the Russian army.
It said it had been defending the port for 47 days and ‘did everything possible and impossible’ to retain control of the city.
Ukrainian marines are preparing for a ‘last battle’ to control the southern port of Mariupol after being surrounded by invading Russian forces
Service members of pro-Russian troops drive armoured vehicles during Ukraine-Russia conflict on a road outside Mariupol
Russian forces have said that fighting has recently centred around the city’s Azovstal iron and steel works and in the port.
Pro-Russia rebel leader Denis Pushilin later claimed on Monday that separatist forces in eastern Ukraine have seized Mariupol, saying: ‘Regarding the port of Mariupol, it is already under our control.’ His claims could not be immediately verified.
The Ukrainian marines earlier said that is where ‘the enemy gradually pushed us back’ and ‘surrounded us with fire, and is now trying to destroy us.’
The brigade said around half of its men are wounded.
‘The mountain of wounded makes up almost half of the brigade. Those whose limbs are not torn off return to battle.’
‘The infantry was all killed and the shooting battles are now conducted by artillerymen, anti-aircraft gunners, radio operators, drivers and cooks. Even the orchestra.’
The marines complained over a lack of support from Ukraine’s military leadership: ‘No one wants to communicate with us anymore because we’ve been written off.’
A view shows the building of a theatre destroyed in the course of Ukraine-Russia conflict in the southern port city of Mariupol
Mariupol has seen the most intense fighting since the Kremlin launched its attack on Ukraine, with the city being virtually razed to the ground.
Thousands of civilians are thought to have died in the city.
Evacuees have spoken of harrowing conditions of hunger and cold, with civilians hiding in basements.
Over the weekend, ongoing strikes hampered evacuations in and around Kharkiv in the northeast, and 11 people were killed, including a seven-year-old child, regional governor Oleg Synegubov said.
‘The Russian army continues to wage war on civilians due to a lack of victories at the front,’ he said on Telegram.
In Dnipro, an industrial city of around one million inhabitants, Russian missiles rained down on the local airport, nearly destroying the facility and causing an unknown number of casualties, local authorities said.
The Russian defence ministry said it had destroyed a Ukrainian S-300 anti-aircraft system supplied by ‘a European country’ in a hangar south of Dnipro, as well as 10 Ukrainian tanks, five self-propelled guns and five rocket launchers in the Donetsk region.
Mariupol has seen the most intense fighting since the Kremlin launched its attack on Ukraine, with the city being virtually razed to the ground
Gaiday said a missile strike on a railway station in the city of Kramatorsk on Friday, which killed 57 people, had left many afraid to flee. Russia has denied involvement in the strike.
Gaiday again urged people to leave the region, with five humanitarian corridors agreed for Monday.
‘You are alive because a Russian shell has not yet hit your house or basement – evacuate, buses are waiting, our military routes are as secure as possible,’ he wrote on Telegram.
Over the weekend, nearly 50 wounded and elderly patients were transported from the east in a hospital train by medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF), the first such evacuation since the Kramatorsk attack.
Electrician Evhen Perepelytsia was rescued after he lost his leg in shelling in his hometown of Hirske.
‘We hope that the worst is over – that after what I’ve been through, it will be better,’ said the 30-year-old after arriving in the western city of Lviv.
On Monday, the Chairman of the Board of Ukrainian Railways, Alexander Kamyshin, said another railway station in the east had been attacked overnight.
‘They continue to aim at the railway infrastructure,’ he wrote.