A video released by the Azov regiment of Ukraine's National Guard, part of a group currently holed up in the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol, shows women and children sheltering underground. Some of them have been hiding in the plant's tunnels for up to two months.
"We want to see peaceful skies, we want to breathe in fresh air," said one woman in the video that was released on Saturday. "You have simply no idea what it means for us to simply eat, drink some sweetened tea. For us it is already happiness."
Another young girl in the video says she and her relatives left home on Feb. 27. Since then, they have seen "neither the sky, nor the sun." "We really want to get out of here safely, so that no one gets hurt," the girl pleads.
Azov's deputy commander Sviatoslav Palamar told the AP the video was shot on Thursday. Contents of the video could not be independently verified.
According to Ukrainian officials, some 1,000 civilians, including women and children, remain trapped at Azovstal together with the Ukrainian troops holed up there.
