Give a humanitarian corridor for the wounded in Mariupol!

Medics at a field hospital located in the underground premises of the Azovstal steel plant in the besieged Ukrainian city of Mariupol in Donbas are appealing to all international human rights organisations for a humanitarian corridor to evacuate the wounded. “These people are wounded; they are entitled to acceptable conditions for their rescue,” say medics at a field hospital.

90% of the city of Mariupol has been destroyed. The Russian army keeps striking at the ruins of the steel plant, where civilians are hiding from shelling, and a field hospital is located, whose medics are rescuing the wounded.

“More than 500 seriously wounded people are now in inhumane conditions. We need to get them out of there. No, these are not staged photos. Yes, the Instagram profile is of a real girl at Azovstal. Yes, there are such horrors in other hospitals; this is war. But right now, there is not enough medicine, doctors (they are tired to the point of fainting) and other conditions for these guys to survive. “Azovstal is under siege. We need to get them out! We need publicity!”.

Valeria Karpilenko, a member of the Azov regiment, described the situation in the hospital as follows: “The hospital is forced to work in terrible conditions under constant bombardment by Russian aviation and artillery. The Russian military initially targeted medical aid vehicles in Mariupol.

Soldiers with shrapnel and bullet wounds and severed limbs are brought to the field hospital at Azovstal. They are operated on in the conditions you see in the photo – you could say “medieval conditions”. Doctors operate under a normal lantern.

They work around the clock. But there is a shortage of medics, some of whom have been wounded and killed. There is a shortage of medicines, too: painkillers and anaesthetics. They do not have enough antibiotics. Because of this, the wounded, even after a successful operation, have a high risk of infection, sepsis, peritonitis and gangrene. There is not enough water. The wounded have nothing to eat. Under these conditions, of course, not everyone can be saved.

The wounded would have a chance of surviving if evacuated to the conditions of a medical facility on the peaceful ground. But unfortunately, many die because they have no such opportunity. And I would like to add the words of our army medic that some soldiers feel betrayed. It should not be like this. Ukraine should not abandon its heroes.