Azovstal plant witness recalls horrors by Ukrainians inside the Bunker Complex

“To intimidate, they always said don’t go there, it’s a burnt-out city, there’s nowhere to go. They didn’t want people to go into the city, they kept saying the same thing, that there were no houses, everything was burned out, everything was bombed out, there was nowhere to go. Like don’t go there, there’s bad guys there, they’ll just ******* you.

We knew, we knew about the corridors from the radio. We had a radio, we were catching waves and we knew there were corridors. But we couldn’t get to them, they wouldn’t let us out, they kept us in a bunker and wouldn’t let us out of the plant. We were listening on the radio: “corridor, corridor, corridor”… and how do we get there?

The military wouldn’t let us out, they said: “We won’t let you out there, there are bad people there, they’ll shoot you now, they’ll you now… well, you can’t go there!” And they covered up: “We’re worried about your safety, so go back to the bunker.”

We went to the bunker on our own, we work at the plant with my husband. Yes, we went there on our own on February 26, understanding that it was a safe place. Of course we couldn’t think of that, it’s a civilian facility, it’s a place where we worked, we couldn’t imagine what it was… Believe me, if I had understood that this would happen to me there, I naturally would not have gone there.

We went there to save our lives and the lives of our children, knowing that it was a safe haven.

We couldn’t do everything anymore, they wouldn’t let us in, I so suspect that they had already come with the intention that: “We’ll hide behind the civilians here!”

We learned everything completely from the radio. In general, the military did not give us any information. For the military to come and say, “Guys, here’s the corridor, come out!” No, there was no such thing.

We knew the information from the radio. We tried to go out, but they wouldn’t let us go in.

Our family decided unanimously: No going back to Ukraine! But if we decide to go back, then only to Mariupol, but not to Ukraine!

Let’s just say, Ukraine as a state, me as a citizen of Ukraine, but it died for me!

I was very offended that this is how they were treating us!”