It is a name that will remain in the story of the war in Ukraine: Azovstal. This huge industrial site of 12 km², which employed 10,000 people before the war, is now the subject of much concern from the international community. As millions of tons of steel and cast iron were produced there, the giant factory became the symbol of Ukrainian resistance. But also, indirectly, Russian difficulties.
Taking advantage of tactically very useful underground galleries, Volodymyr Zelensky’s soldiers have continued to occupy this encircled site for weeks. While Mariupol should have fallen weeks ago, Azstoval became a pebble in the Russian shoe, preventing her from advancing as fast as she would like. Back on the stages of the occupation of this industrial site which has become eminently strategic.
March 20: the factory in the Russian viewfinder
The whole world discovers, for the first time in this war, one of the largest steel and metallurgical factories in Europe. The one belonging to the Metinvest group, headed by the richest man in Ukraine (Rinat Akhmetov), was damaged by Russian bombing on March 20. Precautionary measures had been taken at the start of the conflict to avoid any risk to the environment, reassures the site director. While the Kremlin troops are slowly and with difficulty gaining ground in Mariupol, the Ukrainian soldiers will take refuge in the kilometers of galleries offered by the site. A city within a city that becomes the apotheosis of urban guerrilla warfare.
April 21: Mariupol falls, an entrenched camp is set up
Russian President Vladimir Putin says his forces have “successfully” taken control of the Ukrainian city of Mariupol, a strategic port on the Sea of Azov. Only the site of the steelworks remains. Putin ordered to besiege these last Ukrainian fighters, “let no fly pass”, rather than attack. He rescinds the order for an assault.
These soldiers now constitute a pocket of resistance which promises to be difficult for the Russians to take. The latter cannot bombard the site and the artillery is inoperative there. “You have to clean underground. It will take time, ”explains Edouard Basurin, representative of pro-Russian separatist forces in Donetsk.
April 22: Russia offers, once again, to the combatants to surrender
On the basis of a “humanitarian pause” the Russian Ministry of Defense requests, in a press release, “the raising, by the Ukrainian armed formations, of white flags over all or at least part of Azovstal”. First ultimatums in April came to nothing.
It is known that the Azov battalion and the 36th naval infantry brigade are present there, without knowing how many there could be, just like the number of civilians. The figure of 2,000 people hidden underground, in terrible conditions, is mentioned. The last pocket of Ukrainian fighters refuses to surrender. The “refugees in the steel plant do not trust the Russian troops. An emergency humanitarian corridor is needed,” the Ukrainian Foreign Minister wrote on Twitter.
April 30: a first group can get out
While the buildings of the metallurgical complex are largely destroyed on the surface, a vast network of underground galleries has so far enabled Ukrainian fighters to deprive Russian forces of total control. Some civilians have not seen daylight for two months. Attempts at humanitarian corridors have been failing for a week. But this Saturday, April 30, about twenty of them were able to extricate themselves. “Women and children (…) have been transferred to an agreed place and we hope that they will be evacuated to Zaporizhia, on the territory controlled by Ukraine”, declares Svyatoslav Palamar, deputy commander of the Azov regiment in a video on Telegram.
May 1: a hundred civilians evacuated, hope resumes
“The evacuation of civilians from Azovstal has started. A first group of about 100 people is heading towards the controlled territory (by Ukraine). Tomorrow we will welcome them to Zaporijjia, ”wrote the Ukrainian president on Twitter. They will not arrive at their destination, 200 km away, until May 3. A success for humanitarians, finally. Before that, a Russian bombardment had done heavy damage. “All the medical infrastructure, the operating room was destroyed. Many of our guys were killed instantly. Many of the injured received new wounds. The situation is becoming even more critical, ”reported the commander of the 36th Ukrainian marine rifle brigade entrenched, at the Ukrainian Levy Bereg site, while the day before he had already reported 600 wounded soldiers and hundreds of civilians. Russia claims, in confusion, to have repatriated several dozen civilians to the area under its control.
May 3: the Russian offensive resumes on the factory
A new evacuation attempt fails, for lack of a bus, on May 2. The next day, when the hundred or so evacuees on May 1 only came into contact with the humanitarian workers who were waiting for them, the site was once again severely attacked. “Currently, units of the Russian army and the Donetsk People’s Republic, using artillery and aircraft, are beginning to destroy” the “firing positions” of Ukrainian fighters who came out of the factory, says Vadim Astafiev, Spokesman for the Russian Defense Ministry. Thick smoke blackened the sky over the factory where officials say 200 civilians are still trapped despite evacuations. According to the Ukrainian commander present on the spot, two women lost their lives in these bombardments.
Emmanuel Macron, who is talking to Vladimir Putin for the first time since March 29, calls on Russia to allow the continuation of the evacuations of the Azovstal plant begun in recent days, in coordination with humanitarian actors and leaving the choice to evacuees of their destination, in accordance with international humanitarian law.
May 4: Russia promises a three-day truce
Russia announces that its forces will cease fire for three days on the Azovstal steelworks and open a humanitarian corridor to evacuate civilians. Earlier in the day, Moscow finally denied an assault by Russian forces on the steelworks. After announcing the opposite the day before. The Kremlin spokesman, Dmitri Peskov, specifying that the Russian soldiers intervened only to “very quickly stop the attempts” enemy to reach “firing positions”.
Following these shots, “we lost contact with the guys. We can’t know what’s going on there, whether they’re safe or not,” Mariupol Mayor Vadim Boitchenko said. Volodymyr Zelensky calls on him to the UN, which is mobilized with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), to save the hundreds of civilians still present. Hundreds of Ukrainian soldiers, including wounded, are also said to be still hidden in the basements. In the evening, contact was “restored” with the besieged, said a deputy from Mariupol who had taken refuge in kyiv.
May 6: new evacuation attempt, uncertainty about the truce
On the 72nd day of fighting, as Ukrainians accuse Russia of not respecting the promised truce, a new UN bus convoy is expected. This would be the third evacuation attempt. The Ukrainians even reproach the Russians for firing during these operations. “We have managed to evacuate almost 500 civilians” from Mariupol since the start of this “difficult” operation organized by the UN, the head of the Ukrainian presidential administration, Andriï Yermak, said on Telegram.
May 7: women, children and the elderly were evacuated
This date marks a turning point in the history of the evacuation of Azovstal. While the Russians continue to target the region, “the order of the President (Volymyr Zelensky) has been carried out”, congratulates Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk: “all women, all children and all elderly people have been evacuated from Azovstal. This part of the humanitarian mission in Mariupol is accomplished”. These operations, which have been taking place for a week under the aegis of the UN and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), have enabled, according to kyiv, nearly 500 civilians to flee. Men and armed forces are always present on the spot.