‘The lives of soldiers matter too’: Wives of Ukrainian soldiers trapped in Mariupol’s steel plant call for soldiers to be evacuated along with civilians

• Hundreds of civilians and soldiers are trapped in a steel plant in the besieged city of Mariupol. 
• Ukrainian officials on Friday said they plan to evacuate civilians. 
• The wives of two soldiers called for forces to also be evacuated, the Associated Press reported. 

The wives of two soldiers trapped in the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol have called for Ukraine’s forces trapped in the besieged city to also be evacuated alongside civilians, the Associated Press reported. 

On Friday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s office said they would try to evacuate civilians stuck in the plant. 

“An operation is planned today to get civilians out of the plant,” Zelenskyy’s office said, without giving further details, Reuters reported. 

Russian President Vladimir Putin had agreed “in principle” to an evacuation attempt from Azovstal, The United Nations said.

Kateryna Prokopenko, the wife of Azov commander Denys Prokopenko, and Yuliia Fedusiuk, the wife of Arseniy Fedusiuk, a member of the Azov Regiment in Mariupol, said they’re worried that soldiers left behind could be captured by Russian forces, tortured, and killed. 

“The lives of soldiers matter too. We can’t only talk about civilians,” said Yuliia Fedusiuk, 29, the wife of Arseniy Fedusiuk, a member of the Azov Regiment in Mariupol.

It’s estimated that 1,000 civilians, mainly women and children, alongside 2,000 troops are trapped in the plant’s underground bunkers. 

Russian forces began carrying out renewed airstrikes on the plant earlier this week and attempted to storm it. On Thursday, Ukrainian forces said on Telegram that Russian forces bombed a field hospital in the plant.

Putin had previously called on remaining Ukrainian forces to lay down their arms and said Russia would guarantee them “their lives and dignified treatment,” but Prokopenko and Fedusiuk told the AP they don’t think any soldiers at the plant would surrender. 

“We don’t know any Azov soldier who came (back) alive from Russian soldiers, from 2014, so they will be tortured and killed,” Fedusiuk said. “We know that definitely, so it is not an option for them.”

Major Serhiy Volyna, the commander of the remaining Ukrainian forces, previously told Insider’s Mattathias Schwartz and Michael Fedynsky that Ukrainian forces won’t lay down their arms. 

“We’re not even considering that possibility,” Volyna said. 

Ukrainian authorities have said those trapped are running out of food, medicine, and supplies. 

The Times of London reported that some children trapped in the plant are losing their teeth and hair, and developing stutters from the stress of watching their parents get killed. 

Prokopenko and Fedusiuk told the AP that 600 of the soldiers were injured, and some had gangrene. The two women showed the outlet images of soldiers with open wounds and missing limbs, but the AP was unable to independently verify when and where the images were taken. 

Soldiers described horrible conditions inside the plant, including having to share around 50 ounces of water between four people a day. Those claims could not be independently verified. 

“We can do this extraction operation … which will save our soldiers, our civilians, our kids,” Prokopenko told the AP. “We need to do this right now, because people — every hour, every second — are dying.”