Mariupol falls into Russian hands, Ukraine loses many pilots

MARIUPOL – Mariupol, port city Ukraine which had been surrounded by Moscow troops for 82 days, had fallen into the hands of the army Russia .

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky admitted that many pilots from his military died while trying to defend Mariupol from invading Russian forces.

“Unfortunately, a large number of people, our pilot, died,” he said on Friday, as quoted by the news agency InterfaxSaturday (21/5/2022).

According to him, the reason why Ukraine lost many pilots in Mariupol was because the Russian Air Force did not provide air corridors.

Read also: Ukraine orders troops in Mariupol to surrender, Russia wins

“Really heroic people who know that it is difficult, almost impossible to fly. Fly to Azovstal, take medicine, food, water, pick up the bodies of the injured. All of this happened,” he said.

Azovstal is a steel factory in Mariupol that became the last bastion of Ukrainian troops against the Russian invasion.

Previously, commander of the Ukrainian Azov Regiment; Lieutenant Colonel Denis Prokopenko, said an order had been issued for his troops to stop defending Mariupol.

He continued, now focused on saving lives and removing the dead soldiers.

Hundreds of Ukrainian soldiers, many of them seriously injured, have been hiding in the sprawling Azovstal steel mill and its network of tunnels.

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