Request International Help, Commander Of The Ukrainian Marines In Mariupol: We Only Have A Few Hours, Enemy Units Are Much Bigger

Illustration of Russian soldiers in Ukraine. (Wikimedia Commons/Mil.ru)

JAKARTA - A commander of the Ukrainian marines in the besieged city of Mariupol said his troops may only last a few hours longer as the evacuation of 6,000 women, children and the elderly took place on Wednesday.

In a video posted online hours earlier, Serhiy Volyna, commander of the 36th Ukrainian marine brigade still fighting in Mariupol, urged the international community to help evacuate the wounded Ukrainian fighters and their families.

"This is our call to the world. This may be our last. We may only have a few days or hours left," he said, wearing a camouflage jacket.

"The enemy units are tens of times bigger than ours, they have dominance in the air, artillery, ground troops, equipment and tanks," he continued.

Reuters was unable to independently verify the videos posted on the messaging app Telegram.

It is known, Russia has again issued an ultimatum to the Ukrainian troops who are still surviving and hiding in Mariupol, to lay down their weapons and surrender today.

Meanwhile, Mariupol Mayor Vadym Boichenko urged civilians to leave, saying 90 buses were waiting to make their way to what was left of the city destroyed under the initial agreement with Russia, the first in weeks, to build a safe corridor.

Mayor Boichenko, who has left Mariupol, said about 100,000 civilians remained in the city on the Sea of Azov. Meanwhile, tens of thousands more have died there since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24. The number could not be verified by Reuters.

"Dear residents of Mariupol. Ukraine is waiting for you. We are waiting for you," he said in an appeal to residents to flee.

Russia denies deliberately targeting civilians. There was no immediate word from Moscow about whether a humanitarian corridor would be established in Mariupol.

Civilians have been able to flee to other parts of Ukraine in their own vehicles alone, while tens of thousands have been bused to Russia in what Moscow calls a humanitarian evacuation and Kyiv calls forced deportations illegal.

Both Boichenko and Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine Iryna Vereshchuk underlined that the agreement to build a humanitarian corridor in and out of Mariupol was only a preliminary arrangement.

Previous deals have collapsed, with each side blaming the other. Attempts by the International Committee of the Red Cross to evacuate civilians also failed.

"Given the humanitarian disaster situation in Mariupol, this is where we will focus our efforts today. Security is very difficult, change can occur during corridor action," Vereshchuk wrote on Facebook.

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Mariupol, home to more than 400,000 people before the war, is an important port for industrial and agricultural exports and the location of some of Ukraine's largest metal factories.

Taking control of Mariupol would give Russia complete control of the coast of the Sea of Azov, and a secure land bridge to link the Russian mainland and pro-Russian separatist territories in the east, with the Crimean peninsula which Moscow captured and annexed in 2014.