Yohann Tritz, edited by Wassila Belhacine
modified to
7:11 p.m., April 24, 2022
The city of Mariupol is under the yoke of Russian attacks. Russia has announced that it has taken control of the port city but not of the Azovstal factory where Ukrainian soldiers and civilians have taken refuge to escape the bombardments.
The war in Ukraine enters its third month this Sunday, but the “second phase of the special operation” launched by Moscow has just begun this week. “One of the objectives of the Russian army is to establish total control over Donbass and southern Ukraine,” a senior Russian military official said on Friday April 23.
The other hotspot of the conflict is the city of Mariupol, a strategic port in southeastern Ukraine largely destroyed by several weeks of bombardment. If Russia announces that it has taken over the port city, 2,000 Ukrainian soldiers are still resisting and civilians remain stranded.
2,000 Ukrainian soldiers in the Azovstal factory
In Mariupol, the Azovstal metallurgical plant is in the sights of the Russian army. 2,000 remaining Ukrainian soldiers in Mariupol would be entrenched there. The factory extends over an area of several square kilometers with many warehouses, railways, but above all long tunnels.
Several sources evoke 20 kilometers of underground corridors plunged up to 30 meters deep. The Russian forces concentrate their bombardments there while the rest of the city would be under the control of Moscow. Russian President Vladimir Putin welcomed this success.
Mariupol is in a critical situation
Nevertheless, according to the regional governor, Pavlo Kirilenko, the battle is not over yet: “There were shelling, airstrikes and artillery fire on an obstacle. But Azovstal holds firm. Russia needs to sow panic among the population by making blockades, constant bombardments which destroyed most of the houses of Mariupol”
Mariupol is in a very critical situation. Satellite images show huge mass graves a few kilometers from the city. Bodies are lined up for more than three hundred meters. According to the deputy mayor of the Ukrainian city, 22,000 civilians have been killed since the start of the war.