Inside the Azovstal plant, a Ukrainian sergeant prays for rescue.

Staff Sgt. Leonid Kuznetsov of the Ukrainian National Guard is running out of time.

He and his comrades holding out in the Azovstal steel factory in Mariupol have only light weapons to defend themselves against Russian tanks, jets and artillery. They are holed up in a small, reinforced-cement bunker with about two meters of earth over their heads.

Even if the shelling comes to end with Vladimir Putin’s order to end the assault on the factory, his decision to blockade the last bastion of Ukrainian resistance in Mariupol “so that no fly can escape” could be a death sentence.

“I’m alive and healthy for now, but the situation is very difficult,” said Sgt. Kuznetsov, who is 25. “We’re at the end of our food and water. We have about 1,000 civilians at the factory. I can’t say how many soldiers we have. There are many, many wounded and not enough medicine. The smallest injury can be fatal; there are not even simple bandages.” Read more

@nytimes