April 15 (Reuters) – Explosions erupt and smoke rose this week from a steel district in besieged Mariupol, where dwindling Ukrainian forces are hiding as Russia tries to take full control of its largest city.
The Azovstal Ironworks, one of the largest metallurgical plants in Europe, has become a suitable apocalyptic redoubt for Ukrainian forces that have been surpassed, surpassed and surrounded seven weeks after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
In the eastern part of the southern port, devastated by weeks of shelling, the plant is located in an industrial zone overlooking the Sea of Azov and covers more than 11 square kilometers (4.25 square miles), containing countless buildings, blast furnaces and railways.
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“The Azovstal plant is a huge space with so many buildings that the Russians … just can’t find (Ukrainian forces),” said Oleg Zhdanov, a Kyiv-based military analyst.
“That’s why they (the Russians) started talking about an attempt at a chemical attack, this is the only way to smoke them,” Zhdanov said.
Ukraine has said it is checking unverified information that Russia may have used chemical weapons in Mariupol. Russian-backed separatists have denied using chemical weapons. Read more
In peacetime, Azovstal pumps 4 million tonnes of steel a year, 3.5 million tonnes of hot metal and 1.2 million tonnes of rolled metal.
Like Ilyich’s other steel and metallurgical plant in the city, Azovstal is run by Metinvest, a group controlled by billionaire Rinat Akhmetov, Ukraine’s richest man.
A Russian separatist deputy commander told Russian state television on Monday that Moscow had taken 80% of the port, but resistance continued and that all Ukrainian forces had tried to “get out to the Azovstal plant”.
He described the factory as a “fortress in the city”.
Defenders of the city include Ukrainian Marines, motorized brigades, a brigade of the National Guard and the Azov Regiment, a militia created by far-right nationalists, which was later included in the National Guard.
It was the Azov Regiment, whose destruction was among Moscow’s military targets, that was associated mainly with Azovstal, and one of its founders, Andrei Biletsky, also called it the Azov Fortress.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has called the invasion a “special operation” for “demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine,” but Ukraine and the West say Russia has launched an unprovoked aggressive war.
“Azov is really on the territory of Azovstal … These are huge territories with workshops that cannot be destroyed by air, which is why the Russians are using heavy bombs,” said Sergei Zgurets, a military analyst.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said on Wednesday that more than 1,000 soldiers from Ukraine’s 36th Marine Brigade, including 162 officers, had surrendered in Mariupol, although Ukraine has not confirmed this.
An adviser to Ukrainian President Alexei Arestovich later said that members of the 36th Marine Brigade had managed to break through in a “high-risk maneuver” to join the Azov Regiment.
“The 36th Brigade avoids being torn to pieces and now has serious additional opportunities, essentially getting a second chance,” he said.
The lack of mobile reception and internet in the city means that information is scarce. Ukraine maintains tight control over things like the number of troops that could compromise their defenses.
Biletsky of Azov told Ukrainian news website NV on March 20th that Ukraine has a total of 3,000 fighters defending the city against up to 14,000 Russians.
DIFFICULT TO BORROW
Private US satellite company Maxar was able to peek down into the raging battles from space on Tuesday.
“Smoke and fire are observed coming from a number of buildings in the western and eastern parts of the city, as well as in and near the Azovstal Iron and Steel Plant, the site of ongoing battles between Russian and Ukrainian forces,” the statement said.
An EU security source told Reuters that it was difficult to say how long the Ukrainians would last, and it was also difficult for Russia to occupy the entire city because of the industrial complexes. “There are underground tunnel systems under the steel plant.”
“Mariupol is very important for Putin, because after the victory there (and the capitulation of the Azov troops) he can claim that the process of” denazification “is successful,” the source added.
An aide to the Mariupol mayor said on Wednesday that Russia plans to celebrate the victory in the city on May 9, the date Moscow celebrates victory over Nazi Germany in World War II with an annual parade in Red Square.
Zhdanov, a military analyst, said he saw little chance of Ukrainian forces outside breaking the siege of Russia.
“How many stocks the defenders have and how long they can last can be guessed. But they have no other way out. They are surrounded on all sides, they have to stay until the end. If they surrender, you will not be spared,” he said.
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Report by Natalia Zinets; Additional report by Pavel Polityuk; edited by Grant McCool
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