Mariupol, Shattered, Holding On

The Azovstal steel plant is seen in Mariupol, Ukraine, on Friday. (Alexander Ermochenko/Reuters)

"The conditions are not great for kids here."

"Children's teeth are getting worse. They're lacking in vitamin D. There's no sun."

Mother of three, Azovstal steel plant, Mariupol

"There are many children [here] of all ages, women, elderly people."

"They found that their only available shelter [was] next to the Ukrainian troops who are still defending the city from Russian invaders."

"Russian occupation forces...know perfectly well about the civilians here, and they keep using bunker-buster bombs, shelling them with missiles and all varieties of artillery."

Denys Prokopenko, commander, Azov Battalion

"The Azovstal factory is an enormous space with so many buildings that the Russians... simply can't find [the Ukrainian forces]."

"[Russians were] considering a chemical attack [to] smoke out [those sheltering in the plant]."

Oleh Zhdanov, military analyst, Kyiv

The Azovstal steel plant, seen above, is the last stronghold of Ukrainian forces in Mariupol. The city's fall would hand Russia its biggest military victory of the war and give it full control of a land corridor from the Donbas to Crimea, a southern region it seized from Ukraine in 2014. (Alexander Ermochenko/Reuters)

 

Video footage recently released was of families struggling to live in Mariupol's vast Azovstal steel plant where approximately a thousand civilians found refuge within the wide network of service tunnels and utility passages carved into the earth beneath the sprawling plant. Aside from the civilians, Ukrainian defenders are also present there. About 500 troops remain.

They are all, militia members and civilians alike, awaiting either death or liberation as powerful bunker buster bombs, capable of penetrating heavy fortification to hit underground targets, were being used by Russian troops to force those in hiding under the plant to surrender. "The world watches the murder of children online and remains silent", stated Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak.

A fresh ultimatum was issued early in the week for Ukrainian troops to save their lives by surrendering, laying down their weapons. Not one Ukrainian soldier had responded in the affirmative to an earlier offer that expired on Tuesday, and the Wednesday ultimatum elicited a similar non-response. The proposal was that Russian troops were prepared to observe a ceasefire while the proposal was in effect beginning April 20. In the event, they failed to.

"But realizing that the commanders of Ukrainian units may not receive such commands from the Kyiv authorities; to stop the senseless resistance, we urge them to make such a decision on their own and to lay down their arms", Moscow's defence ministry stated. The leader of Russia's Chechnya region, Ramzan Kadyrov, predicted Russian forces would take the steelworks completely by Tuesday night. 

 

Pro-Russian troops are seen in Mariupol. Ukraine disputes Russian claims that the city has been captured. Russia is bent on capturing the Donbas after failing to take Kyiv. (Alexander Ermochenko/Reuters)

 

"Today, with the help of the Almighty, we will ... take over Azovstal completely", an audio message repeated on his Telegram channel. But they failed to. The Azovstal plant, built during the Soviet era, is the largest such metallurgical factory in Europe. It spans four square miles in its location along the city's waterfront. The plant was heavily fortified by Ukrainian forces. Without control of the plant with its giant footprint, Russia would find it difficult to hold Mariupol.

The month-long siege saw Russian troops encircle the seaside town with the intention of expanding control along the coast of the Sea of Azov. It was Russia's intention back in 2014, when it annexed the Crimean Peninsula to form a land bridge between the eastern Donbas bordering Russia, by capturing and annexing Mariupol eventually as well. That goal is now within reach.

Residents walk by a destroyed tank and damaged buildings in Mariupol, which has been encircled by Russian troops for weeks and seen some of the worst fighting in the war. The city is located in the Donbas — an eastern region partly held by Moscow-backed separatists. (Alexander Ermochenko/Reuters)