For more than seven weeks, invading Russian forces have approached the center of Mariupol as they hit it with bombs, artillery and rockets fired from the Black Sea, turning apartment blocks, hospitals and other buildings into ruins.
Residents of the besieged city, which numbered more than 400,000 before the invasion, have been living without electricity, water, communications or modern medical treatment since early March. Many were left without food and medicine after the shops were looted. Others cook common dishes over an open fire.
All the while, analysts point out that Ukraine’s forces are massively outnumbered by the Russians and predict that the city will fall.
But Ukrainian troops – from the military, border guards and the right-wing, nationalist Azov paramilitary battalion – resisted. They have taken refuge underground in huge Soviet-era Mariupol enterprises, including the Azovstal steel plant and parts of the seaport that have an extensive network of tunnels.
In recent days, the end of the siege seems to be approaching. On Saturday, Russia’s defense ministry said the city had been cleared by Ukrainian fighters, with the exception of some still stranded in Azovstal. After midnight it asked to surrender.
Russian and Ukrainian military claims made during the war cannot be verified independently.
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The conquest of Mariupol will give a huge boost to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s struggling campaign in Ukraine, allowing Moscow to complete a land bridge between Crimea and the cities it occupies in southern Ukraine. It will also free up resources for Moscow’s expected offensive in Donbass.
For Ukrainians, the detention of Mariupol has become a symbol of the nation’s resistance to an invasion that has killed thousands of civilians and caused hundreds of billions of dollars in damage.
Azov’s telegram channel released a video last week in which Denis Prokopenko, commander of the Azov Regiment in the city, said that “the real men who chose the path of war” are still defending the city. He condemned those who surrendered for choosing the “path of shame.”
In the video, shot against a brick wall, Prokopenko was sitting next to Sergei Volina, commander of the 36th Marine Brigade. The two groups have successfully joined forces to protect Mariupol, he said.
Denis Prokopenko, Commander of the Mariupol Regiment Azov, with Sergei Volina, Commander of the 36th Marine Brigade © YouTube
President Volodymyr Zelensky admitted in an interview with Ukrainian media on Saturday that Mariupol’s situation “is definitely not improving”, with the military blocked and many wounded and killed. However, he added: “The boys are defending themselves heroically.
Igor Jaworski, a pensioner who was evacuated from Mariupol by bus to Zaporozhye in the north on Saturday, said the troops were fighting well, “but they need help – military aid”.
Fleeing residents, aid workers and other Ukrainians in contact with people in Mariupol painted a picture of a force still operating in Azovstal and in the port area.
Andriy Biletsky, the founder of Azov, told the Financial Times that he believed that of just under 4,000 soldiers in Mariupol at the start of the invasion, about 2,000 remained active in the city, including those of Ukrainian marines from the 36th Brigade. a large number of Azov fighters, soldiers of the 56th Infantry Brigade, as well as border guards and volunteer fighters.
“As for how they survive, Mariupol is a big city and has a large number of large buildings made of reinforced concrete and steel, and a large number of underground passages,” he said. “All of this together helps a little.”
Andrei Biletsky, founder of Azov, says about 2,000 soldiers remain active in Mariupol © Serhii Nuzhnenko / Reuters
The fighters are struggling with scarce food and drinking water, he said. Ukrainian helicopters dropped emergency measures, including weapons and drugs, through an air bridge, although he did not say whether they were still doing so.
Bilecki said doctors and nurses help, but work underground, as in the whole of Mariupol, with a lack of medicines, including antibiotics and anesthetics. “This causes a large number of people to die or be amputated after gangrene, as in the 19th century,” he said.
Russia’s Defense Ministry and pro-Russian commentators say on April 13 that more than 1,000 Ukrainian Marines have surrendered by releasing a video showing dozens of them holding hands behind their heads.
However, Alexei Arestovich, an adviser at Zelensky’s office, said the number of traitors was “much smaller”, adding that some Marines had joined the Azov forces.
After midnight on Saturday, Russia’s defense ministry called on troops still remaining in Mariupol to surrender, “taking into account the catastrophic situation at the Azovstal metallurgical plant and guided by purely humanitarian principles.” The lives of all those who laid down their arms will be spared, it said.
Part of the Ukrainian troops sought refuge in the Azovstal plant © Anatoliy Zhdanov / Kommersant / Eyevine
In a blocked city with few journalists and badly damaged communications, it is difficult to confirm the facts. The remaining residents, who are estimated to number up to 100,000, share reports and images on social media despite connectivity issues.
In an interview Saturday, Zelenski cited an estimate by the Mariupol regional administration that about 20,000 civilians had died, but noted that the official who made the calculation was not in the city.
The Ukrainian president accused Russia of refusing to abide by the agreement on humanitarian corridors from Mariupol during Turkish-mediated talks. “Honestly, I don’t trust Russian negotiators,” he said.
The International Committee of the Red Cross left Mariupol on March 15th after conditions became “impossible”, said Alena Sinenko, a spokeswoman for the group. The ICRC is struggling to safely evacuate residents along humanitarian corridors due to a lack of agreement between warring parties, but managed to bring more than 1,000 into a convoy on April 6th.
Ukrainian charities have rented private buses and found volunteer drivers willing to risk Russian bombing and rescue trapped people in the city. According to volunteers in Zaporozhye, Russian and pro-Russian separatist troops in Mariupol are misinforming residents who want to flee by warning them not to enter Ukrainian territory.
“They say, ‘Your people will be arrested at checkpoints and taken to the army,'” said Alexander Sosnowski, a volunteer. “They want to evacuate them to Russia.
An evacuee keeps a cat while waiting to get on a bus departing from Mariupol on April 5 © Alexander Ermochenko / Reuters
According to Lyudmila Denisova, Ukraine’s human rights ombudsman, more than 135,000 people from Mariupol have been transferred across the Russian border since the start of the war.
On Ukrainian territory in Zaporozhye suburban megastore and garden center have been turned into a medical facility for the reception of people arriving from the war zone.
Children arriving at the center usually suffer from dehydration, diarrhea and abdominal pain, and adults from post-traumatic stress, depression and anxiety, according to Wilson Bernales, a volunteer doctor from Las Vegas. “Besides, they’re all crying because they lost their homes.”
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