The Azovstal Iron and Steel Plant is located on the edge of the Sea of Azov.
Kyiv:
The vast Azovstal iron and steel plants are the last refuge for Ukrainian forces in the port city of Mariupol, devastated after weeks of heavy Russian attacks.
Russian leader Vladimir Putin on Thursday ordered his military to impose a strict blockade “to the extent that not a single fly can get out” around the plant.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said “about a thousand civilians, women and children” and hundreds of injured are also sheltering at the industrial complex.
The remaining Ukrainian forces refused to surrender but warned supplies were depleted and called for international mediation to help them evacuate.
Giants of the Soviet era
Located on the edge of the Sea of Azov, the plant dates back to the early 1930s when the Soviet authorities ordered the construction of an ironworks in the coastal city of Mariupol.
Production began in 1933 but was hastily halted shortly after Germany’s invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II in 1941.
In 1943, retreating German troops blew up key facilities at the plant, but the plant was reactivated within a few years after Soviet troops took control.
One of the
In 2006, the complex was acquired by the Metinvest group controlled by Ukraine’s richest man Rinat Akhmetov.
Once thought to be close to Moscow, Akhmetov has dropped his weight behind the authorities in Kyiv since a Russian-backed uprising began in 2014.
And he accused the Russian military of committing “crimes against humanity against the Ukrainians” after the Kremlin launched the invasion on February 24.
Before the Moscow attack, the Azovstal plant had a capacity to produce 5.7 million tons of iron and 6.2 million tons of steel a year, Metinvest said, making it one of the largest metal plants in Europe. Europe.
The mammoth factory provided employment for thousands of people and dominated the landscape of Mariupol.
‘City within a city’
Spanning about 11 square kilometers (4.2 sq mi), the Azovstal complex was a complex of railway lines, warehouses, braziers, factories, chimneys, and tunnels considered ideal. for guerrilla warfare.
“It’s a city within a city,” Eduard Basurin, a representative of pro-Russian separatists in the eastern region of Donetsk, said earlier this month.
“There are some Soviet-era underground floors that you can’t bombard from above. You have to go underground to clear them, and that will take time.”
In Putin’s order on Thursday, Mr Putin said an attack was “unrealistic”.
“There’s no need to climb into these catacombs and get underground through these industrial facilities,” he said.
Russia resorted to attacking the complex with giant plane-launched bombs as it sought to break through the resistance of Ukrainian troops hiding there.
Drone images broadcast by Russian state agency RIA Novosti on Sunday showed widespread destruction caused by Moscow’s siege forces.
Footage shows a desolate scene with a series of buildings completely blown up, some still smoldering.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from the syndication feed.)
