Azovstal steel factory received 38 air strikes in 24 hours, Ukraine wants to use Russian prisoners of war in exchange for resistance troops

According to Interfax, the Azov Regiment said on May 11 that Russian forces have been trying to attack the Azovstal factory in Mariupol, Donetsk region, on a daily basis and mainly attack from the air.

“In the last 24 hours, there have been 38 airstrikes on the Azovstal plant, which is protected by the Mariupol defenders, of which four times were joined by strategic bombers. Russia did not stop in its efforts. captured the Azovstal fortress and continued to conduct daily air raids combined with infantry-supported attacks,” the Azov Regiment stated.

According to Pravda, the Azov Regiment said the Russians attacked Azovstal with everything they could, from planes, artillery, tanks and infantry. Illia Samoilenko, an officer of the Intelligence Service who is fighting in the Azov Regiment, said that his unit will not surrender to the Russians, because they have orders to continue defending Azovstal and cannot be breached.

Meanwhile, according to Reuters, Ukraine has proposed to Russia to exchange those seriously wounded in the Azovstal factory in the port of Mariupol for Russian prisoners of war, Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said on Wednesday.

“There is no agreement yet. Negotiations are continuing,” Ms. Vereshchuk said.

Earlier, Ms. Vereshchuk said, more than 1,000 soldiers, including hundreds of wounded, were still in the Azovstal factory. Ms. Vereshchuk said that the seriously injured needed urgent evacuation and the situation worsened every day.

Earlier, the Azov Battalion entrenched in the Azovstal factory posted a series of photos of wounded soldiers and called on the United Nations and the Red Cross to evacuate them.

The series of photos posted on the Telegram account of the Azov Battalion show a makeshift, poorly lit “hospital” in the basement of the Azovstal steel plant in the port city of Mariupol. The soldiers in the photo were all injured, some lost their arms, some lost their legs. In completely unsanitary conditions, with open wounds bandaged with unsterilized leftover bandages, without the necessary medicine, not even food,” Azov Battalion’s post said.