Fighters at the Azovstal plant plead for evacuation

“The enemy outnumbers us 10 to 1.” With these words, Serhi Volina, commander of the 36th Marine Brigade of Ukraine, addressed the world in a video message on Wednesday morning. He pleaded to take the last soldiers of the Mariupol garrison, wounded combatants and hundreds of civilians to a safe third country. Wolina told CNN that the rescue could be by ship or helicopter. “This is our appeal to the world,” said Wolina. “This could be the last appeal of our lives.”

People are trapped at the port in the Azovstal industrial complex, the last Ukrainian bastion in the coastal city of Mariupol, which is otherwise largely under Russian control. The Ukrainian side put the number of civilians in the plant at around 1,000. Russia suspects 2,500 Ukrainian fighters and 400 foreign mercenaries under the factory site, which has been heavily bombed for days. According to the Ukrainian General Staff and the Russian news agency Tass, Russian fighters have been advancing on the site since Tuesday.

The Russian side announced a new ultimatum on Tuesday evening: the Ukrainian fighters should have surrendered and the civilians should have been evacuated by Wednesday at 1 p.m. (CET). But by Wednesday afternoon, it didn’t look as if a mass surrender would have happened. The defenders had also ignored earlier ultimatums from the Russian army. Russia threatens to “annihilate” anyone who continues to resist.

In recent days, the bombing of the Azovstal plant – including bunker-busting bombs – has increased again. Footage released by the Russian news agency Ria Novosti shows how badly the ten square kilometer site has already been destroyed:

There is “a city of its own” under the factory premises

What now lies in ruins was once a symbol of progress: the plant dates back to the early Soviet era, and was built and commissioned in the years of the first five-year plan. In the early 1930s, tens of thousands of workers flocked to Mariupol from Russia, Belarus, Georgia and Kazakhstan to set up the industrial plant, one of the largest metallurgical projects in the Soviet Union. In 1933 Azovstal started operations.

During the Second World War, material from the factory was brought further east when the German army advanced. After the German occupation of Mariupol in 1943, the factory was completely in ruins. In the same year, the Azovstal workers began to rebuild under the most adverse conditions. As a consequence of the war, the underground bunkers that now serve as protection were built first. In July 1945 the factory went back into operation.

In the Donbass region, traditionally characterized by coal, Mariupol had a special position. The city had a profitable metals industry before the start of the Donbass conflict in 2014, which employed around 40,000 workers, according to Ukrainian steel company Metinvest, which owns Azovstal. Asowstal was one of the largest steel works in Europe with an annual production of over four million tons of crude steel.

After Russian troops captured the center of Mariupol in late March, the Azovstal Plant became one of the last bastions where militants entrenched themselves. The huge industrial complex has blast furnaces and warehouses. Many buildings are made of thick concrete and can withstand high temperatures.

Ian Gagin, a pro-Russian adviser to the Donetsk People’s Republic, said the «Washington Post», the plant could survive a nuclear war. Below that is “a city of its own below the city”. The sophisticated network of tunnels and communication systems made it difficult for the Russian army to capture it completely. According to Metinvest, the underground passages were used to transport equipment between buildings in peacetime.

According to a spokeswoman for Metinvest, since the first Russian invasion of Mariupol in 2014, the bunkers have been stocked with water and food supplies so that 4,000 people could stay there for three weeks. According to an employee of the Mariupol mayor, new supplies have been delivered to people at the plant in the past few days.

Separatists supported by Russia had already tried to take Mariupol in 2014; the steelworkers then sought refuge in the underground bunkers and defended their city. Although the Ukrainian steel and iron industry has been declining since 2014, it has been able to grow again in recent years thanks to new investments. In March, production had to be stopped completely for the first time since the Nazi occupation because of the fighting.

Putin’s propaganda needs victory over plant and Mariupol

Complete control of Mariupol would allow a land bridge between Russia and Crimea, which it annexed. With the capture of the plant, the Russians would have easier access to the region’s port and rail system. It also plays a role that there are members of the Azov regiment among the soldiers in the steel complex, some of whom are highly controversial because of their sometimes open right-wing extremist positions. The annihilation of the fighters would therefore come in very handy for Putin’s propaganda, which claims to have to “denazify” Ukraine.

It should not be forgotten that the suffering of the people outside Azovstal is immeasurable. In the city, 90 percent destroyed, around 100,000 residents have been struggling to survive for weeks without water and electricity. An escape corridor to Zaporizhia was agreed for Wednesday, which should bring around 6,000 elderly people, women and children out of the city. Nothing is known about the success of the campaign.