Amid Ruins of Azovstal, Images of Pain and Sacrifice

"We’re soldiers, we have our orders," a Ukrainian officer told French author Bernard-Henri Levy. "The orders were to hold the line, and then hold some more. Another week. Then another." (Dmytro Kozatsky, Azov Regiment, Ukrainian National Guard)

A wounded soldier inside Azovstal. (Dmytro Kozatsky, Azov Regiment, Ukrainian National Guard)

Two soldiers from the Azov Regiment were among hundreds who were wounded in the course of defending Mariupol. (Dmytro Kozatsky, Azov Regiment, Ukrainian National Guard)

A wounded soldier inside Azovstal. (Dmytro Kozatsky, Azov Regiment, Ukrainian National Guard)

Among the defenders of Mariupol and Azovstal were a number of women soldiers. (Dmytro Kozatsky, Azov Regiment, Ukrainian National Guard)

"When our fighters get their third, fourth injury … one lost his finger, the other one got a serious knife injury and they tell me, ‘Commander, I’m ready to continue to fight' - it’s hard to describe with words," Denys Prokopenko told an interviewer in April.

This photo of a wounded soldier taken inside Azovstal was released to the press on May 10, 2022, as the defenders called on the Ukrainian government and the international community to not only hail the defenders of Mariupol as heroes but "do something" to protect the soldiers, their wounded and their fallen comrades.

A wounded soldier inside the Azovstal steel plant. (Dmytro Kozatsky, Azov Regiment, Ukrainian National Guard)

The Russians are "sending in their tanks, using their ships’ guns, their planes, everything," an officer of the Azov Regiment told French author Bernard-Henri Levy. (Dmytro Kozatsky, Azov Regiment, Ukrainian National Guard)

A small Ukrainian flag hangs in a bunker in Azovstal before the Russians took the steel plant. (Dmytro Kozatsky, Azov Regiment, Ukrainian National Guard)