Ukrainian armed forces posted a video on Saturday about the mothers trapped in the tunnels deep under the Mariupol Azovstal steel plant. These mothers have been pleading for evacuation routes to open for them and their children.
A mother said that they have been in the tunnels since February 25, and they are on the brink of starvation as their food reserves are running out. Aside from food, they are also begging for safety guarantees for their kids.
According to Foxnews, Ukrainian soldiers were seen in a video bringing supplies down to a group of mostly women and children trapped in the Azovstal steel plant earlier in the week.
"We want to go home; we want to see the sun!" Excitement can be seen on the kids' faces as they could not stop asking when they could reunite with family members.
1,000 Ukrainians Trapped in the Tunnels For More Than Eight Weeks
The Azovstal steel plant is the last part of Mariupol that is not under Russian control, as per BBC News.
Some workers at the plant brought their families to the tunnels while others fled to the site to hide from the barrage of missiles and rocket fire.
After their building was shelled on March 5, a woman said they decided to run towards the plant and counted on a relief corridor but got stuck there.
According to Ukrainian authorities, roughly 1,000 civilians and soldiers have taken refuge in the tunnels. This is something that alarms Ukraine as Russia reportedly increased its bombing campaign on the plant to pressure the Ukrainian soldiers to surrender.
One girl told the soldiers, "On February 27, my grandma, mom, and me left home," describing that they had been separated from her brothers. "After that, we haven't seen either sun or sky. We badly want to get out of here," she added.
Ukrainian officials call for humanitarian corridors
Pressured to grant the victims' pleas, Ukrainian officials are constantly calling for humanitarian corridors to ensure the safe evacuation of women, children, and the elderly who have been trapped in the tunnels for months.
"No day is quiet here. We have no choice but to hear the shooting and bombings," one woman said, noting that they are afraid to leave. Faced with so much fear, using the bathroom is not even an option for them.
For weeks, Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereschuk has been attempting to facilitate evacuation corridors from Mariupol, allegedly with an agreement being reached Saturday, according to PolishNews.
Amidst this, Vereschuk continuously warns Ukrainians to "be careful." He asserted that Russian soldiers were running "parallel" evacuation routes headed for Russia and not regions to the west of Donetsk.
There is still no specific information regarding the evacuation efforts planned to be pulled off on Saturday. It is also unclear if any of the civilians in the tunnels were able to reach these corridors.
