Ukrainian fighters vowed to continue their fighting against the Russian armed forces at the besieged Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol.
"Surrendering is unacceptable for us. And chances of surviving for us if we surrender to Russians tends to zero," Illia Samoilenko of Ukraine's Azov Regiment said at an online news conference, CNN reported.
He said that there are "dozens" of civilians still inside the plant.
The Ukrainian fighters called on the international community to help in evacuating the injured soldiers from the plant, which is the last holdout from Russian forces in the port city, reported CNN.
A day earlier, Mikhail Mizintsev, head of the Russian National Defence Control Center said that the humanitarian operation to evacuate civilians from the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol concluded due to unprecedented measures by Russia with 51 people, including 11 children, having been rescued, Sputnik News Agency reported.
"Thanks to the unprecedented measures taken by the Russian Federation leadership, (and) with the active participation of the United Nations and International Committee of the Red Cross officials, the humanitarian operation to evacuate civilians from the Azovstal steel and ironworks has ended today. For the duration of the operation (from May 5, 2022), we have managed to rescue 51 people (18 men, 22 women and 11 children), including one person on May 7, 2022," Mizintsev said.
On March 7, forces of the Donetsk People's Republic surrounded Mariupol and began a liberation campaign, with the remaining fighters of the nationalist Azov battalion now hiding in the underground tunnels of the Azovstal plant.
Notably, Russia launched a "special military operation" in Ukraine on February 24, which the West has termed an unwarranted war. As a result of this, the western countries have also imposed several crippling sanctions on Moscow.
( With inputs from ANI )
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