The wives of two Ukrainian soldiers defending the Mariupol steel mill met with Pope Francis on Wednesday and begged him to intervene to arrange for a third-party evaluation of the troops before Russian soldiers capture or kill them.
“You are our last hope. We hope you can save their lives. Please don’t let them die,” said a weeping Kateryna Prokopenko as she greeted Francis at the end of his weekly general audience in St. Peter’s Square.
Standing by her side, Yuliia Fedusiuk told Francis that food and water were running out in the mill, some soldiers were injured and dead, and those who were alive were ready to lay down their arms if they could be evacuated to a third country.
“They will not go to Russian captivity because they will be tortured and killed,” Fedusiuk told Francis, according to a video of the encounter shot by another member of their entourage, Pyotr Verzilov, a prominent member of the Russian protest group Pussy Riot who is working on a documentary about Ukraine.
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