President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy spoke about Ukrainian pilots who risked their lives to deliver food and water to the Azovstal plant in Mariupol.
Read here "Azovstal is the place of my life and my death": the defender has posted impressive photos
"A very large number of our pilots died, unfortunately. Absolutely heroic people who knew that it was difficult to fly to Azovstal and bring them medicine, food, water, pick up the bodies of the wounded, it is almost impossible. All this happened. No one could officially comment," – said Zelenskyy on the national telethon.
Helicopter pilots for many weeks, knowing that 90% do not return… Imagine what these people did. They flew there to give them food, water, weapons and take away the wounded. We lost many pilots. They are absolutely heroic, Zelenskyy said.
Earlier, the Ukrainian commander of the Azov Regiment, Lieutenant Colonel Denis Prokopenko, gave the order to stop defending the city of Mariupol and issued a short video message from inside the Azovstal steel plant saying that the top military leadership had "issued an order to preserve the garrison soldiers' life and health and stop defending the city."
