Evacuees from Mariupol describe how they survived inside the Azovstal steel plant

Evacuees¹ from Mariupol describe how they survived inside the Azovstal steel plant

Transcript²

ZAPORIZHZHIA, Ukraine — When Russian forces invaded Ukraine, 47-year-old Anna Krylova was working the night shift as a gas purification operator at Azovstal, a massive steel processing plant in the southern port city of Mariupol.

Her 14-year-old daughter, Maiia, came with her — no one was at home to watch her.

"We didn't leave that plant for the next 70 days," says Krylova. "As the bombing got worse, we moved further underground."

How a massive steel plant became the center of Ukraine's resistance in Mariupol

UKRAINE INVASION — EXPLAINED

How a massive steel plant became the center of Ukraine's resistance in Mariupol

Russian forces began bombing Mariupol at the very start of the war. Most of the besieged³ city is in Russian hands now, but reduced to rubble⁴. The Azovstal steel plant, badly hit, is the last holdout.

The Krylovas are among dozens of civilians⁵ who were evacuated⁶ from the plant this weekend, in a joint⁷ effort by the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross, which convinced Russia to hold its fire until some civilians got out. The evacuees arrived in the southern city of Zaporizhzhia on Tuesday. Some are now heading to various cities in Ukraine.

A vast network of tunnels with bunkers lies under the sprawling⁸, Soviet-era plant, reportedly the last Ukrainian-held post in Mariupol. Hundreds of civilians as well as up to 2,000 Ukrainian soldiers sheltered there. But those inside say they never felt truly safe.

"It was really scary because we couldn't go outside," Krylova says. "It was just too dangerous. And inside we kept going from shelter to shelter, because the bombs kept hitting. We were hungry, we were scared, we were under constant shelling."

She calls the experience "like the apocalypse, like a horror film." Her daughter says, "Each day felt like it would be our last one alive."

Osnat Lubrani, the United Nations humanitarian⁹ coordinator¹⁰ for Ukraine, told reporters that the U.N. was already planning another evacuation. But last night, Russian forces reportedly began storming the steel plant.

"It's horrifying¹¹ to think what could be happening there," says English teacher Alex Dybko, who was evacuated along with his wife and young children. "It was already so terrible when we left. The steelworks looked like a mass of stone, iron and dust ... like something out of the Second World War. I never thought I would see this with my own eyes."

Dybko shared an underground bunker with the Krylovas. They pushed together benches to use as beds. The bunker shook, especially at night, when the bombing and shelling was the worst. His kids told him they were afraid to get up and go to the toilet.

"The [steelworks] was hit several times, it was burning several times," he says. "We were trying to manage the fire and not to suffocate¹². So every day was a fight for survival."

The only bright spot, he says, was that a plant worker sheltering with them found a generator¹³, so there was sporadic¹⁴ electricity.

Many others lived in near-darkness for two months, including 57-year-old Oleh Yurkin, a Mariupol native. He used a headlamp to get around, "but only in areas where we were covered because otherwise the drones and fighter jets would spot us."

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He and his wife cooked on a stove made out of bricks blown loose from explosions. Soldiers had stockpiled goods inside the plant and shared them with civilians.

Yurkin is a musician who used to perform in the city's restaurants and cafes. Every single one of those buildings is gone, bombed to rubble by the Russian military.

"Now," he says, "the city is no more."

1 evacuees   

n.被疏散者( evacuee的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Moreover, for multi-exits, evacuees select a exit based on game theory. 在有多个出口时，疏散人员根据对策论选择出口。 来自互联网
• Evacuees wade through flooded area following heavy monsoon rains in Peshawar on Saturday, July 31, 2010. 撤离灾区涉水通过后在白沙瓦沉重的季风降雨在周六，2010年7月31日。 来自互联网

2 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

3 besieged   

包围，围困，围攻( besiege的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Paris was besieged for four months and forced to surrender. 巴黎被围困了四个月后被迫投降。
• The community besieged the newspaper with letters about its recent editorial. 公众纷纷来信对报社新近发表的社论提出诘问，弄得报社应接不暇。

4 rubble   

n.（一堆）碎石，瓦砾

参考例句：

• After the earthquake,it took months to clean up the rubble.地震后，花了数月才清理完瓦砾。
• After the war many cities were full of rubble.战后许多城市到处可见颓垣残壁。

5 civilians   

平民，百姓( civilian的名词复数 )； 老百姓

参考例句：

• the bloody massacre of innocent civilians 对无辜平民的血腥屠杀
• At least 300 civilians are unaccounted for after the bombing raids. 遭轰炸袭击之后，至少有300名平民下落不明。

6 evacuated   

撤退者的

参考例句：

• Police evacuated nearby buildings. 警方已将附近大楼的居民疏散。
• The fireman evacuated the guests from the burning hotel. 消防队员把客人们从燃烧着的旅馆中撤出来。

7 joint   

adj.联合的，共同的；n.关节，接合处；v.连接，贴合

参考例句：

• I had a bad fall,which put my shoulder out of joint.我重重地摔了一跤，肩膀脫臼了。
• We wrote a letter in joint names.我们联名写了封信。

8 sprawling   

adj.蔓生的，不规则地伸展的v.伸开四肢坐[躺]( sprawl的现在分词 )；蔓延；杂乱无序地拓展；四肢伸展坐着（或躺着）

参考例句：

• He was sprawling in an armchair in front of the TV. 他伸开手脚坐在电视机前的一张扶手椅上。
• a modern sprawling town 一座杂乱无序拓展的现代城镇

9 humanitarian   

n.人道主义者，博爱者，基督凡人论者

参考例句：

• She has many humanitarian interests and contributes a lot to them.她拥有很多慈善事业，并作了很大的贡献。
• The British government has now suspended humanitarian aid to the area.英国政府现已暂停对这一地区的人道主义援助。

10 coordinator   

n.协调人

参考例句：

• The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, headed by the Emergency Relief Coordinator, coordinates all UN emergency relief. 联合国人道主义事务协调厅在紧急救济协调员领导下，负责协调联合国的所有紧急救济工作。
• How am I supposed to find the client-relations coordinator? 我怎么才能找到客户关系协调员的办公室？

11 horrifying   

a.令人震惊的，使人毛骨悚然的

参考例句：

• He went to great pains to show how horrifying the war was. 他极力指出战争是多么的恐怖。
• The possibility of war is too horrifying to contemplate. 战争的可能性太可怕了，真不堪细想。

12 suffocate   

vt.使窒息，使缺氧，阻碍；vi.窒息，窒息而亡，阻碍发展

参考例句：

• If you shut all the windows,I will suffocate.如果你把窗户全部关起来，我就会闷死。
• The stale air made us suffocate.浑浊的空气使我们感到窒息。

13 generator   

n.发电机，发生器

参考例句：

• All the while the giant generator poured out its power.巨大的发电机一刻不停地发出电力。
• This is an alternating current generator.这是一台交流发电机。

14 sporadic   

adj.偶尔发生的 [反]regular；分散的

参考例句：

• The sound of sporadic shooting could still be heard.仍能听见零星的枪声。
• You know this better than I.I received only sporadic news about it.你们比我更清楚，而我听到的只是零星消息。