A Ukrainian teacher who spent 65 days as a refugee underground with her six-month-old baby at the besieged Azovstal steelworks has talked about life in the last outpost of the Ukrainian resistance in Mariupol.
In a startling account given in The Village, a Ukrainian website, Anna Zaitseva tells the story of her two months of ordeal trapped in the “fortress within a city.”
For months, defenders hiding at the Azovstal plant clashed with Russian forces, trapping invaders in Mariupol and gaining crucial time for Ukrainian forces elsewhere to organize and secure Western weapons.
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Image: Azovstal steel plant destroyed in the southern port city of Mariupol
The bombing began as soon as you went outside
Mrs. Zaitseva’s husband, a former sailor, had left the army and was working at the steel plant. Ms. Zaitseva was a French teacher at a school in Mariupol.
When Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, they decided to go to Azovstal with her son. Her husband joined the Azov regiment.
The first air raid shelter where the family lived was only to be their home for several hours. There were no places to sleep, only benches to sit on.
“We spent a week on the benches and almost without food,” Ms. Zaitseva told The Village in Ukrainian.
“It was very dangerous to go outside, because the bombing started immediately.
“My son and I went to the surface five minutes a day to stand and breathe at the entrance to the building.
“Even in prison, they walk more.”
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Image: Mrs. Zaitseva’s husband had left the army and was working at the steel plant. Image: The village
Unsuccessful evacuation attempts because the food ran out of food
Food supplies were depleted and had to be distributed among more and more people.
Mrs. Zaitseva and her son moved to a second shelter, where they would live for the next 58 days.
He says it was the size of a three-bedroom apartment.
“We were 75 living in this air raid shelter, 17 of them children.”
During his stay in Azovstal there were numerous unsuccessful evacuation attempts.
In one of these efforts, on April 25, Ms. Zaitseva and her son came to the surface with several Ukrainians and two Russian prisoners of war.
“But the Russian soldiers broke the silence again,” he said.
“Four of our soldiers were wounded and one of the prisoners died. We had to quickly hide in the bunker.
“An enemy drone flew over the building where our shelter was located 24 hours a day. It was impossible to get out.”
Later that day, a three-ton bomb struck a building above its shelter, trapping them until morning, when the military dug one of the exits.
Image: Buses carrying members of the Ukrainian forces service who surrendered after weeks locked in Azovstal steel
“Everyone was interrogated”
Finally, the time came for Ms. Zaitseva and her son to leave Azovstal after more than two months.
“Five meters from the bus, two Russian soldiers came in with a machine gun, which accompanied us to the filtration camp,” Ms. Zaitseva said.
When he reached the filtration camp, he saw that men and women were divided. He says the women were searched by Russian women.
The newcomers had their phones so that the data could be downloaded.
“After that, everyone was questioned.”
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1:02 The video states that Ukrainian soldiers surrender
“I was surrounded”
“In addition to the regular military, I was also questioned by an FSB officer,” he recalled.
“When it became clear that I would not tell them anything, another soldier appeared behind me, a third.
“They surrounded me and told me I’d better answer them.”
The pressure grew until a French representative of the Red Cross passed by and asked what was going on.
“I replied in French. The FSB officer immediately stopped talking to me, snorted, ‘Tell him we’re not eating you here,’ and he pulled away from me.”
Ms. Zaitseva is now with her son in Ukrainian territory, reports The Village.
She is awaiting the safe return of her husband, who is believed to be in Russian captivity.