Defenders of Mariupol ask to apply procedure of ‘extraction’ following example of operation in 1940 to save people

Commander of the 36th separate brigade of marines of the Navy of the AFU, Serhiy Volynsky (Volyna), is asking to save Mariupol garrison and conduct the procedure of "extraction", following the example of the operation in Dunkirk in 1940.

"We have been fighting in complete encirclement for 62 days, now we are at the Azovstal plant, performing tasks together with units of the Azov regiment and other units that have been encircled due to hostilities in Mariupol," he said in a video message posted on his Facebook page.

The commander reported that right now "we have more than 600 wounded guys in our group with different levels of difficulty, they really need medical help: there are no facilities, no medicines, no personnel to help them."

He also stressed that there are wounded civilians that they are helping as much as they can.

"There are more civilians here with us, hundreds of them, dozens of children, there are many people with disabilities, many elderly people. The situation is very difficult, there are huge problems with water, food...," Volynsky said.

He noted that he had already made appeals to world leaders and the Pope to have the defenders heard and to apply the procedure of "extraction." As an example, he cited Operation Dynamo (Dunkirk Operation, Dunkirk Evacuation) during World War II.

"After breaking through the Maginot Line on May 10, 1940 and the surrender of the Netherlands on May 14, the German command developed its success. Parts of the British Expeditionary Force under the command of Lord John Gort, French units and formations, which were part of the 16th Corps, and the remnants of the Belgian troops were blockaded in the area of Dunkirk. The Allied troops piled up on the coast were in danger of disaster, but Hitler ordered that the advancing tanks be stopped. Hitler ordered ‘not to approach Dunkirk closer than 10 km’ and not to use tanks against the blockaded group," Volynsky explained on his Facebook post.

He noted that in 1940, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, in his famous speech, called the events at Dunkirk "a miraculous deliverance," and Churchill's praise was meant for the rescue operation in which 338,226 French and British soldiers were evacuated from the beach and harbor of Dunkirk, France.

"Today my main message is to save the Mariupol garrison, carry out the extraction procedure to us. Today is not 1940, it's 2022. People will simply die here. The wounded will die and the living will die in combat, civilians are dying here along with us in bunkers, private houses and apartment buildings, where they are simply shot...A very, very many people have died in the city, the city is practically wiped off the face of the earth," he urged.