When SVT reaches Kateryna Prokopenko, it was two hours since she heard from her husband, Denys Prokopenko.
"We are fighting," he wrote in a statement.
- But I can feel in my heart that he is finished, she says.
- Actually, the situation is terrible.
They have no food, no medicine and he only drinks a glass of water a day.
For just over a month, the soldiers from the Azov Battalion have been holding out in the besieged steelworks, Mariupol's last outpost for Ukrainian resistance.
The Azov Battalion was founded by neo-Nazis in 2014. It later became part of the Ukrainian National Guard.
In a statement to CNN, the Azov Regiment claims that it has completely cut ties with right-wing extremism, but the link to anti-Semitism and Nazism still remains, according to observers.
Terrible situation
More than 2,000 Ukrainian soldiers are believed to be at the steelworks, of which 700 were injured.
Prokopenko describes a terrible situation for those who remain.
In addition to the lack of food and water, hundreds of soldiers are injured, without the opportunity to receive care.
Hygiene is lousy, many suffer from blood poisoning and cold sores.
Temporary bandages are made of clothing and the few medicines that remain may be given priority to the most severely injured.
- Many injured people die because they cannot receive care, says Kateryna Prokopenko.
Requires a complete evacuation
Negotiations between Russia and Ukraine on a prisoner exchange are underway.
These are mainly 38 seriously injured soldiers in the steelworks who Ukraine wants to be released free of charge.
But negotiations are slow, according to Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk.
Together with other women wives, Prokopenko is now traveling through Europe and trying to get the outside world to put pressure on Putin to meet Ukraine's demands.
- Our only requirement is a complete evacuation of our soldiers.
All other variants that Russia proposes, such as captivity, are not accepted, says Kateryna Prokopenko.
- We know that captivity means torture and death.