Report
Mariupol: the testimony of Olga, nurse at the city hospital
Audio 01:31
The entrance to Mariupol Hospital.
© RFI / Anissa El Jabri
Text by: RFI Follow
2 mins
According to official information from the Russian Defense Ministry, the Russian army and the Donbass separatist forces have since Thursday morning been 200 meters from one of the last pockets of resistance in Mariupol, and undoubtedly the most important: Azovstal steelworks.
In the city, the humanitarian situation remains precarious, but is beginning to stabilize.
Our colleague Anissa El Jabri went there, accompanied by pro-Russian separatist soldiers.
Hospital report.
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With our special correspondent in Mariupol,
Anissa El Jabri
Barely the door crossed with the pro-Russian separatists who accompany us, two other soldiers in the entrance.
They scan the passports of two women.
They are the ones who check the comings and goings in the hospital;
them, who now ensure the supply.
Olga is a nurse.
They brought medicine, but not everything, of course.
The main thing is for the surgical department anyway, since that's where most of the work is.
Doctors are running everywhere.
Most of it is staff coming from Donetsk now.
And it's very good that they came.
Because there, our poor doctors were falling from exhaustion
Olga has not moved from her post since the beginning.
Even if painkillers and anti-coagulants are still lacking.
We worked under the bombardments, gave birth to babies, performed caesarean sections... There is no longer anyone in the gynecology department.
Only me is left.
But I don't just treat women and the sick: now I also take care of wounds.
I do all
“
There, now, it's calm,
adds Olga,
but there were huge shots, just now.
And at the beginning of the fights, it was incredibly difficult.
The windows are broken in the operating rooms, there is breakage everywhere.
We have a lot of injuries.
All the halls, all the rooms are filled.
And we, the medical staff, we are all mixed up in all services.
We do everything.
»
►Read also: Meeting with residents of Mariupol
A month that Olga sleeps in this hospital with her children.
The nurse still does not know, moreover, if her house in an area plagued by still violent fighting is still standing, or destroyed like almost the whole city.
I haven't been home for a month, it's impossible.
With my family we live near the sea, in Novoslobodka.
We can't go there, because there are always fights, not far in the factory.
We don't have the right to go home, so I don't even know if we still have a house or if it's gone.
I plan to take my other children to Russia, because my son is already there.
I will take them there as soon as possible.
We are entering our second month without a home, we live in the hospital.
I found clothes here.
We were given rations to help the medical staff once a month.
So we are not hungry.
Girls make us soup.
There is food, thank God.
Then, how are you doing.
Anyway, we're used to everything now
Audio: Olga, nurse at Mariupol hospital
Anissa El Jabri
Taking the city longer than expected?
Taking full control of Mariupol, its port and the steel industrial zone of the Azovstal group “
will take time
”, declared this Thursday Eduard Basurin, representative of the separatist forces of Donetsk, on the antenna of the Russian channel Pervyi Kanal.
“
How to represent the industrial zone?
It's a city within the city, and there are several underground levels dating from the Soviet period, it's not possible to bomb from above, you have to clean underground
, "he justified to destination of the Russian public.
A little earlier, Mr Basurin had estimated at 3,000 or 3,500 the number of Ukrainian soldiers potentially mobilized, plus an unknown number of inhabitants who had taken up arms.
The number of elements, opposite, could therefore according to him "
be much more important
".
The Ukrainian forces "
have prepared themselves, they know the terrain better than us, it makes no sense to mention a date or a timetable
", he insists, specifying that it was necessary to find, to block all the access to underground arteries, and to await surrender.
Finally, the separatist representative indicated that pockets of resistance also remained in downtown Mariupol.
The Russian army and its separatist allies have been besieging the city for weeks and are, in fact, facing fierce resistance.
RFI with agencies
►Slideshow: Mariupol, a devastated city
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