In the port of Mariupol
A team from Agence France-Presse (AFP) was able to go today to Mariupol besieged by Russian forces, during a press trip organized by the Russian army. She was able to see that the port of this city in southern Ukraine is devastated: buildings are burned, ships are sunk and shrapnel is visible.
If no more fighting takes place, the din of the bombardments comes regularly from the industrial zone where the Azovstal metallurgical complex is located, visible a few kilometers away on the other side of the bay, where several hundred soldiers and Ukrainian civilians are entrenched in underground galleries dating from the Soviet era.
AFP was able to hear heavy shelling in Azovstal in the morning and until mid-afternoon. In the early afternoon, the explosions were spaced only a few seconds apart, some appearing particularly powerful. Columns of gray smoke sometimes rose in the sky of the industrial zone.
In the port, demining operations take place. “The harbor waters and the harbor itself have been mined. We carry out demining operations to secure them”explains Sergei Neka, a senior official of the ministry of emergency situations of the administration of the pro-Russian separatists.
At the end of a pier, two men in heavy suits work to neutralize underwater mines brought up by divers, as well as rockets. Once the devices are neutralized, they are taken away by a military truck.
