We know every tunnel, bend, strong room, and shield in the 12 square kilometres of the plant like the back of our hand. Supported by advanced weaponry that we no longer have. We can’t keep up with successive assaults and don’t have time to recover from them.īHL: What do you estimate the strength of the Russian special forces to be? We have the reputation of being the best battalion in Donbas. In the last few days they’ve been diversifying, using special forces to carry out ground attacks. They’re sending in their tanks, using their ships’ guns, their planes, everything.īHL: In the West, we’re hearing that the Russians are attacking mostly from the air. It’s been about a week under mounting pressure from the enemy. I don’t know anymore because we can no longer see time passing, we can’t tell the difference between day and night. IS: The same as yesterday, the day before yesterday and the day before that. In our filmed conversation he tells me he believes that he and his thousand comrades will die in the coming days, perhaps hours.īHL: What is the situation in Azovstal right now? Second in command of the last contingent of fighters holding the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol, he is 30 metres underground on a Zoom call illuminated by a cold, dim light. Ilya Samoilenko, 27, has a handsome, pallid face, one eye that seems to have been wounded and a surprisingly well-trimmed dark beard. This is the most astounding interview I’ve conducted in a long time. Ilya Samoilenko says Ukrainian resistance has frustrated Russia. This extraordinary interview reveals the days before Azovstal's evacuation Mariupol steel plant's second-in-command: ‘We're not heroes – we’re soldiers carrying out orders’
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