As Russian forces step up their assault on Mariupol's Azovstal steelworks, video has emerged which appears to show some of the women and children trapped inside.
The video was released by the Azov battalion, which is one of the Ukrainian military units still holding the area in the face of heavy Russian air strikes.
The footage shows uniformed soldiers handing out food to civilians who appear to be crowded into an underground shelter.
A woman holding a toddler says people in the plant are running out of food.
A boy says he is desperate to get out after being in the plant for two months.
"When our houses are rebuilt we can live in peace. Let Ukraine win because Ukraine is our native home."
Somebody speaking in the video mentions that the date is April 21.
The video also shows some women wearing uniforms with the Azovstal insignia.
On Saturday Ukrainian presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovych said Russian forces were hitting the Azovstal complex with air strikes and trying to storm it.
Earlier this week Moscow said that it would blockade the plant and not attempt to take it.
More than 1,000 civilians are in the plant along with troops defending it, according to Ukrainian authorities.
One woman said she had been sheltering in the steelworks since February 27, just days after Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine.
"We are relatives of the workers. But this seemed to be the safest place at the time we came here, when our house came under fire and became uninhabitable," she said.
There are fears more than 20,000 people have been killed in the siege of Mariupol so far.
A new attempt to evacuate civilians failed on Saturday, an aide to Mariupol's mayor said.
The giant Azovstal plant is the last holdout of Ukrainian defenders of the southern port city.
The Azov battalion, which has played a prominent role in the defence of Mariupol, was set up by Ukrainian far-right nationalists in 2014 and was later incorporated as a regiment in Ukraine's national guard. Its current commanders have denied any links to the unit's former far-right ideology.
Reuters/ABC
