Azov fighters ‘do the impossible’ to repel storming of steelworks
Footage from inside the besieged steelworks in Mariupol shows utter devastation as Ukrainian fighters launch grenades to force back a Russian attack, in the first direct evidence that Moscow is trying to storm the plant.
The Azovstal steelworks have been the last pocket of Ukrainian resistance in Mariupol since Russian forces bombed the Azov Sea port city into submission and captured it last month.
While all civilians have been evacuated from Azovstal’s network of underground bunkers earlier this month, several hundred troops from the Azov Battalion are still holding what has become a symbol of Ukraine’s resistance against the Russian invasion.
Moscow’s defence ministry previously said it had no intention of storming Azovstal, one of Europe’s largest steel works with dozens of miles of underground bunkers.
Filmed by a soldier’s body camera, the video released this week showed scenes of destruction as Ukrainian troops moved around crumbling buildings on the plant’s grounds, littered with mangled pipes.
Streaks of light from incoming fire were visible in the video filmed by an Azov soldier who was responding to the firing with a hand-held rocket-propelled grenade launcher. Two soldiers were seen shooting rifles at targets in the distance before retreating to one of the plant’s crumbling buildings.
Filmed at what appeared to be either dawn or dusk, the footage showed heavy gunfire among bombed-out concrete buildings, with electricity pylons looming in the distance.
Drone footage from the end of the clip showed buildings, once several storeys high, reduced to rubble and surrounded by broken concrete.
A fire burned near a broken fence, while rows of delivery lorries and cranes stood abandoned and damaged. The defenders of the plant could be seen from above running from building to building.
Azov said in a statement on Thursday that the plant’s defenders were “doing the impossible” to stave off Russian attacks even though they were running low on ammunition and supplies.
“In conditions of complete encirclement, despite the extremely difficult situation… fighters of the Azov regiment continue to knock out the enemy from previously captured positions at the Azovstal plant,” it said.
“The struggle of our soldiers for Ukraine and for the preservation of the lives of personnel continues in spite of everything.”
Wives of two Azov soldiers trapped inside the plant earlier this week pleaded for their husbands’ release at a meeting with Pope Francis in Rome.
Iryna Vereshchuk, the Ukrainian deputy prime minister, last night said negotiations on getting defenders out were “very difficult” but did not give details. “The result may not be to everyone’s liking, but our task is to evacuate our boys. All of them. Alive,” she said in an online post. “God willing we will rescue them all.”
An adviser to the mayor of Mariupol yesterday released screenshots from a video showing a group of men near what appears to be the fence of the steelworks.
“Occupying forces, propped by an air cover, are trying to force their way into the plant,” Petro Andryushchenko said.
‘Fighters of the Azov regiment continue to knock out the enemy from the Azovstal plant’