Summary
A Ukrainian marine commander in Mariupol has made what he described as his troops' "last address to the world" as they try to resist Russian forces in the city.
Victoria Derbyshire, James Landale, and Olga Malchevska speak to Olena Nikulina, whose cousin Maks is among the soldiers still there.
Also on the podcast, The Economist correspondent Oliver Carroll, who’s been speaking to a commander in the city.
And the BBC’s religion editor Aleem Maqbool discusses the Russian Orthodox Church's role in the conflict.
Today's Ukrainecast was made by Estelle Doyle with Osman Iqbal and Chris Flynn. The technical producer was Emma Crowe. The editor was Jonathan Aspinwall.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC sounds, music, radio, podcasts. |
| 0:04.9 | It is the 56th day of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. |
| 0:09.2 | And today we heard a pretty desperate message from a Marine commander in Murray, Paul, |
| 0:15.6 | which has been, as you know, bombarded for weeks and weeks and weeks, and which is surrounded |
| 0:19.3 | by Russian troops. |
| 0:21.2 | And in this video message, he said essentially that he and his men might only have hours |
| 0:27.4 | left. |
| 0:28.6 | This is Major Sergey Volina, who is a commander of the 36th Marine Brigade, and essentially |
| 0:39.0 | he was saying he would not be surrendering. |
| 0:41.6 | His troops would not be surrendering. |
| 0:43.1 | But he was asking for international help, for 500 wounded soldiers, and he said hundreds |
| 0:48.9 | of women and children who were hiding in that steel plant in the city. |
| 0:53.4 | This is our last address to the world. |
| 0:55.2 | It may be our last one ever. |
| 0:57.0 | It is possible that we have just days or hours left, and we call on world leaders to help |
| 1:01.8 | us. |
| 1:02.8 | We urge them to organize an extraction to take us to a third country. |
| 1:15.1 | He was speaking from the Avastyle Island Steelworks, which is this enormous, massive, four square |
| 1:22.6 | mile plant in Marriapal. |
| 1:25.1 | Before the war, it had about 10,000 employees. |
| 1:28.1 | It's almost like a little sort of town unto itself, full of a network of bomb shelters |
| 1:35.0 | and tunnels, and has now become the last bastion of Ukrainian resistance in Marriapal. |
... |
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