Surviving In Mariupol Like Twisted Game

A courageous Ukraine army chief, holed up in the Mariupol steel plant for 73 days, has given a harrowing account of how survival is like "some twisted game where you play the role of the target”.

- Andy Lines, Katerina Likhohliad

Ilya Samoilenko, in charge of intelligence and reconnaissance at the Azovstal factory, had already lost an eye and an arm dealing with Russian mines earlier in the war.

The 36-year-old - full of praise for the doctors and his soldiers - told how three colleagues were killed and six wounded the day before his phone call with us.

He said: "We have been in a locked down place without replenishing our supplies.

"You go to brush your teeth in the morning and you know you might get killed. It's like an extreme sport or some twisted game where you play the role of the target.