‘We will fight. We are unbreakable’: Mariupol survivor tells her story

When Kateryna Polishchuk started her research to develop into an opera singer, she might have by no means imagined that at some point she can be performing surgical procedure with out anaesthesia on a wounded soldier whereas hiding away in a bombed-out metal plant.

However Russia’s battle in Ukraine made the unthinkable attainable.

“The hell I went by means of in Azovstal – it can’t be dreamed by anyone or proven in any motion movie,” Polishchuk instructed Euronews. “Not even (Quentin) Tarantino would know how you can make such a movie.”

The 21-year-ago paramedic was among the many Ukrainian contingent that defended the Azovstal plant throughout the three-month siege of Mariupol. The commercial web site was the final stronghold within the ravaged metropolis and shortly become a global image of Ukrainian resistance.

“We resisted the Russian military with a totally calm understanding of the way it might finish. We understood that we’d all die. However we didn’t hand over,” Polishchuk mentioned, talking by means of a translator.

“From the very first days, once we have been surrounded, we had no provides, we had no medicines, meals, water or ammunition. We had no correct tools, and no air defence means.”

“Sadly,” she went on, “we had very tough circumstances to battle, however we had fighters who wished to defend their residence, who wished to indicate the entire world that Russia cannot take neither Ukraine nor Europe.”

In her interview with Euronews, Polishchuk recalled the intense circumstances that Ukrainian troopers have been pressured to endure all through the relentless Russian assault. Some troopers, she mentioned, spent “three to 4 days” in a row with out sleeping or consuming, because the shelling lasted by means of the night time – solely to proceed within the morning.

After 82 days of gruelling combating, Mariupol fell to Russia and the remaining troopers surrendered. Town, razed to the bottom, was left practically unrecognisable.

“The worst factor was to give up and quit as a result of we understood that so long as Azovstal was standing, so long as they (Russia) spent most of their navy power on Mariupol, it was simpler for our brothers to battle throughout Ukraine,” Polishchuk mentioned.

Polishchuk spent virtually 5 months in Russian captivity, till her launch in late September as a part of a prisoner swap. She now travels throughout Europe to rally help for these on the frontline.

In Brussels, the 21-year-old attended a particular exhibition of photographers taken by Dmytro “Orest” Kozatskyi, a soldier-photographer who was additionally holed up in Azovstal.

The photographs, which went viral after Kozatskyi posted them on social media, depict the resistance, despair and solitude of the Ukrainian troopers throughout the brutal siege.

“These images evoke feelings of satisfaction for the military with which I stood shoulder to shoulder, for the fellows who held on it doesn’t matter what,” Polishchuk defined.

“These images evoke recollections of the heroic battle of heroic folks, a few of whom are in captivity, a few of whom are sadly not with us.”

As a survivor of the Mariupol siege, Polishchuk says she feels a specific duty to talk on behalf of the women and men combating for his or her nation in order that “nobody is silenced.”

Throughout her keep in Brussels, she urged the European Union to stay by Ukraine’s facet till the very finish, arguing the nation’s destiny will decide the bloc’s personal future.

Though she dismissed her opera expertise as rusty, Polishchuk’s voice shone by means of the room, agency and mournful, when she stoop as much as signal the Ukrainian nationwide anthem.

“We are going to battle. We’re courageous, we’re brave, we’re unbreakable. We’re highly effective and we are going to cease this enemy,” Polishchuk mentioned.

“However we’d like help and assist as a result of if we don’t stand, Europe won’t stand.”