Mariupol ekes by amid conflict
Govt-rebel shelling ruins the local economy and cows residents
Scanning the sky for incoming artillery fire has become a force of habit for Ukrainian beetroot-seller Svetlana Kumurzhi, who dived under her wooden stall in government-held Mariupol when shells rained down a month ago.
While a fragile two-week-old ceasefire shows signs of holding, Kiev says pro-Russian separatists are using the truce to regroup their forces, especially around Mariupol, a strategically important port city in Ukraine’s southeast.
Control of the industrial hub would help the rebels form a corridor to the Crimea peninsula which Russia annexed from Ukraine last year.
Since the truce, they have said they aim to win the city through negotiation, not force of arms. Aware there is no provision for that in the latest internationally brokered peace accords, Mariupol’s residents are holding their breath.
“We’re all afraid the fighting will come here again, we can’t leave because there’s nowhere to go. Look, nobody has money here,” Ms Kumurzhi said, gesturing at the crumbling apartment blocks around her.
The shelling on Jan 24 killed 30 people in the district of Vostochnaya where she runs her stall. Plastic sheeting has been taped over many of the windows, blown out by the blasts around the marketplace and a nearby carpark is filled with the burned shells of cars. Shrapnel marks scar the roads.
Government troops and rebels have been vying for control of the nearby village of Shyrokyne, each accusing the other of provoking the other side to attack.
The guns have fallen silent in recent days, but on Friday Ukraine’s military said it had tracked a convoy of Grad missile systems and other military equipment leaving the separatist stronghold of Donetsk in the direction of Mariupol.
Kiev also says military equipment from Russia has been spotted crossing the border by Novoazovsk, east of Mariupol, since the start of the ceasefire, aimed at ending a conflict in which over 5,600 have been killed.
The separatists, who seized Mariupol briefly as they swept through eastern Ukraine last year, say it should be theirs.
“If Putin decides he wants Mariupol, then they will take it, they’re better armed than us,” said national guard soldier Vitaly Mashtabei, stationed near Vostochnaya.
“When we capture fighters from the other side, they have top-of-the-range modern guns and most of our guys only have the old Soviet stuff,” he said.
Kiev and its Western allies say the rebels are funded and armed by Moscow, and backed by Russian military units. Moscow denies aiding sympathisers in Ukraine.
In the centre of Mariupol, only spraypainted signs to the nearest underground bomb-shelters suggest residents are living under the threat of attack.
“We’ve heard no shelling for a few days, so that’s some positive news at least,” said Yuriy Zinchenko the general director of the sprawling Metinvest Ilyich steel works, which together with its sister factory, Azov Steel, employs nearly 10% of Mariupol’s population.
“If fighting breaks out in the city then nothing will be left of it,” he said, his hands clasped in front of him.
The plant is making half as much steel as before the conflict, but has kept working despite nearby artillery strikes.