Scottish Daily Mail

Wives of soldiers in besieged steel plant plead for their lives

- From Michael Powell in Lviv

WIVeS of Ukrainian soldiers pleaded for their husbands’ lives to be spared as they faced a Russian onslaught at the Mariupol steelworks last night.

Troops from the Azov battalion were fighting gun battles in the pitch-black tunnels of the Azovstal steel plant where hundreds of civilians – including 30 children – remain trapped.

Kremlin promises of the start of a 72-hour daylight ceasefire for people to leave predictabl­y came to nothing yesterday.

‘We don’t want them to die. They won’t surrender. They are waiting for the bravest countries to evacuate them,’ said Kateryna Prokopenko, the wife of Lieutenant Colonel Denis Prokopenko, who is leading hundreds of Ukrainian troops under siege at the Soviet-era facility.

Soldiers’ wives held up placards pleading for mercy at a United Nations aid centre in Zaporizhzh­ia yesterday. One read: ‘Military are people too.’ Another said: ‘UN save our lives.’

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr

Zelensky also urged the UN to save hundreds of civilians and his soldiers from the siege.

In response, a UN official said a new convoy of Red Cross buses would arrive in Mariupol today in hope that more civilians could escape ‘this hell’.

If Azovstal falls, it would provide the Kremlin with a propaganda boost ahead of the annual Victory Day parade in Moscow on May 9.

Kyiv has claimed that Moscow could be planning to hold a victory parade inside Mariupol, after more than two months of fighting.

One fighter inside the plant messaged to say he feared enemy soldiers storming the plant would try to capture troops and display them ‘in cages’ in Monday’s parade.

he said: ‘The enemy has already broken into the factory, trying to move deeper. They watch our every move with drones. I think they are trying to catch a few of us alive to put us in a cage to send us to the parade on May 9.’

 ?? ?? Appeal: Kateryna Prokopenko in front of an image of her husband Denis, who is leading the steel plant’s defence
Appeal: Kateryna Prokopenko in front of an image of her husband Denis, who is leading the steel plant’s defence

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