After suffering a brutal assault for more than a month, the port city of Mariupol did not surrender on Sunday. The last Ukrainian fighters entrenched in the Azovstal metallurgical complex had been called by the Russians to cease fighting at 6 a.m. Moscow time and to evacuate the premises before 1 p.m. “All those who have given up their arms will be guaranteed to have their lives saved. This is their only chance, ”warned the Russian Ministry of Defense on Telegram. The ultimatum expired and no one surrendered.
Mariupol, the heart of Russian strategy
Moscow is determined: Mariupol is a strategic city for Russia because it would allow Russian forces in the south to connect with troops in the Donbass region, while winning an important industrial port. “The remnants of the Ukrainian army and a large group of civilians are surrounded by Russian forces. They continue their fight, but it seems, in view of the behavior of the Russian army in Mariupol, that it has decided to raze the city at all costs”, deplored on the American channel CBS the Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dmytro Kuleba, Sunday evening.
Moscow accuses kyiv of preventing surrender
kyiv would have, according to Moscow, “prohibited negotiations for the surrender” of its troops, according to the Russian Ministry of Defense. “No, the city did not fall. Our military forces, our soldiers are still there. They will fight until the end. As I speak to you, they are still in Mariupol” and they “will fight to the end”, Prime Minister Denys Chmygal warned in an interview broadcast Sunday evening by the American channel ABC.
The Azovstal complex, a huge guerrilla ground that is running out
Apart from the Azovstal blast furnace complex, which has been a pocket of resistance for eight days, “the entire territory of the city of Mariupol has been cleared of militants of the Nazi Azov formation, foreign mercenaries and military Ukrainians,” says the Russian Defense Ministry.
Édouard Jolly, a researcher at IRSEM, confirmed this situation to France Info on Monday morning: apart from the Azovstal complex, which represents “a few hundred or even a maximum of a thousand” Ukrainian soldiers, tirelessly attacked by the Russian air force, ” the city of Mariupol resembles that of Dresden at the end of the Second World War”, and one can thus consider that it is in the hands of the Russians, “yes”.
What the Ukrainians strongly deny. On Sunday evening, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal declared that Mariupol had not yet fallen. Ukrainian troops trapped in the city are holding out, he says, they are confined to pockets of resistance. Their number is unclear. “Although the occupiers would like to point out that the place of hostilities is limited to the Azovstal factory, this is not true. (Saturday) evening, fighting took place in Taganrog Street, located 5 km from Azovstal,” said Petro Andriouchchenko, adviser to the mayor of Mariupol. According to him, Russian forces continued to shell civilian buildings, in addition to the port area. The houses surrounding the Vocational High School for Motor Transport were reportedly the most damaged.
According to the British Ministry of Defence, the Russian general staff would be concerned about the duration of the siege of Mariupol. “The concerted Ukrainian resistance strained Russian forces and diverted men and equipment, slowing Russia’s advance elsewhere,” British intelligence said.
Civilians, however, are hiding in the territory of the Azovstal plant, according to the city’s police chief, Mykhailo Vershinin. 90% of the city has been destroyed, buildings and houses are falling into ruins. “There are a large number of civilians on the territory of the Azovstal plant: including women, children, elderly people and infants. There, in bunkers where they hid from the shelling, many people – women, old people, children “hide themselves” in terrible conditions, without medicine, food or water, “he said. at Mariupol Television.
A city under a bell
According to the Ukrainians, no one enters or can leave Mariupol on Monday. Russian forces “filter” everything, according to the Ukrainians, and check every person still moving through the city. They have reportedly started issuing passes for movement within the city, Andryushchenko said, adding that citizens will not be able to go out on the streets or move between neighborhoods without one.
“The occupants continue to issue special passes to move around the city, so to get supplies. In fact, such a pass is issued at one place – building 114, 130th street of the Taganrog division, the premises of the Livoberezhnyi tax authority, ”the adviser wrote on Telegram. Hundreds of people would line up. He assures that this issuance of passes, intended to identify the number of people still present in the city, could lead to the delivery of passports to go to Russia. “We are in the process of clarifying” this information, he added.
The catastrophic humanitarian situation
Evacuation operations were so minimal that the deputy mayor of Mariupol Sergei Orlov estimated on Monday morning that 100,000 to 130,000 inhabitants were unable or unwilling to leave the city. “They have no water, food, heat or electricity,” Prime Minister Shmyhal said, calling on “partners” Ukraine “to help stop this humanitarian catastrophe.” In his daily address to Ukrainians, President Zelensky said late Sunday night that Russia’s actions in Mariupol were “simply inhumane”.
“Russia is deliberately trying to destroy everyone there in Mariupol,” he said. According to the mayor’s adviser, “the humanitarian aid, so widely advertised by the occupiers, actually consists of a loaf of bread and a bottle of water a day. They distribute it to the headquarters of the Yedinaya Rossiya party, “United Russia”, the party of Vladimir Putin, “but there is a catastrophic lack”, denounced Andryushchenko.
“Targeting populated areas of Mariupol aligns with Russia’s approach to Chechnya in 1999 and Syria in 2016,” the UK Ministry of Defense said. “This despite the February 24, 2022 claims by the Russian Ministry of Defense that Russia would not strike cities or threaten the Ukrainian population.”
A few hours earlier, on the American channel CBS, the Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dmytro Kuleba, had warned: the situation in Mariupol “could constitute a red line” in the negotiations with Russia.