Leaving kyiv on April 23, they stopped in the Vatican, Poland and Germany, before arriving in Paris this weekend. Three young women, all in a relationship with fighters from the last pocket of Ukrainian resistance against the Russians in Mariupol, are fighting for at least one country to free their companions from this hell.
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“The more countries we go to, the more chances we have of finding a quick solution,” Olha Andrianova, 30, the oldest member of this group of four women in total (one of them, told AFP). between them did not feel well and could not take part in the interview, editor’s note).
“We don’t know which country can really help us, that’s why we are reaching out to everyone.”
AFP
At the Vatican, they secured a five-minute audience with Pope Francis. In France, a meeting with political figures – starting with President Emmanuel Macron or his wife Brigitte – would obviously be welcome, but “it’s not our main goal, the objective is to attract attention about the situation” in Azovstal, said his comrade Hanna Naoumenko, 25.
Their companions are among the Ukrainian fighters entrenched in the Azovstal steelworks, surrounded and besieged by the Russians, who have been trying for weeks to take this last pocket of resistance in Mariupol, a strategic port city in the south-east largely destroyed by the conflict. .
AFP
The Ukrainian government has entered into difficult negotiations with the Russians to evacuate at least the most seriously injured. But “it’s not that he doesn’t do enough, but he could do more”, explains diplomatically Olha, leader of a network of crèches in kyiv.
All three speak without difficulty of the critical situation of their companions, and of the estrangement which has lasted for months.
Like many wives of fighters from the Azov regiment, they met them through the internet. “We met on the net, we had the same hobbies, the same tastes in music and nature,” explains Kateryna Prokopenko, 27, illustrator for children and wife of Denys, a commander of the regiment.
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Hanna, from Kharkiv, even explains that she has postponed her planned wedding several times since 2014, for lack of seeing enough of her lover, Dmytro. “I wanted the war in the Donbass to end and we could live together like a real couple, because we only saw each other a few days a month,” she said.
They still have regular news from Azovstal, but the situation is so critical that now “every day counts as much as six months or a year”, says Olha, whose husband took two weeks to tell her that, touched leg, he was now among the injured.
Among the approximately 1,000 Ukrainian soldiers trapped under the bombs, nearly 600 would be injured, recently indicated Sviatoslav Palamar, deputy commander of the Azov regiment, also pleading for their evacuation.
There is no more food, and water is so scarce that the cups are shared, at the rate of “one sip every six or eight hours”, further underlines Olha. Since the steel mill’s makeshift hospital was destroyed by the incessant bombardments, “people have been operated on alive, amputated alive, without anesthesia”.
Surrender is excluded. “It would be tantamount to death, there have already been members of the Azov battalion taken prisoner, they were cruelly tortured, and then the Russians sent the pictures of the tortured bodies to their mother,” she said.
The four women recognize that, despite their appeals and those made on social networks directly by some Azovstal fighters – to Turkey, the United States, China – no country has yet offered to release their companions: if Westerners are increasing their military aid to Ukraine, they repeat that they want to avoid intervening directly in the conflict, for fear of a frontal confrontation with Russia.
But they do not despair, and intend to continue their journey – perhaps in Switzerland, Great Britain, or Turkey – until “our men are evacuated, released”, says Hanna.
They have so far financed their trip themselves, they say, but several associations have offered to help them.
On Saturday night, just after winning the Eurovision Song Contest with his Ukrainian band Kalush Orchestra, singer Oleh Psiu called on stage to “help Azovstal”.
The statement gives hope to the three wives of fighters. “It’s fantastic,” says Olha, “after his victory, the #SaveAzovstal hashtags were everywhere.”
As for Hanna, she says she is certain that her companion Dmytro “will survive, that we will get married, and that we will have many children”.
Reference-www.tvanouvelles.ca