The Azovstal Iron and Steel Plant is located on the shores of the Azov Sea.
Kyiv:
The vast Azovstal iron and steelworks in the devastated port city of Mariupol is the last hold of the Ukrainian military after weeks of brutal Russian offensive.
Russian leader Vladimir Putin on Thursday ordered his army to build a blockade around the plant so tight that “not a single fly could escape”.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said “nearly a thousand civilians, women and children” and hundreds of wounded were also taking refuge in the industrial complex.
The remaining Ukrainian forces have refused to surrender, but have warned that supplies are running out and urged international mediation to help them evacuate.
Soviet-era behemoths
Located on the shores of the Azov Sea, the plant dates back to the early 1930s when Soviet officials ordered an ironworks construction in the coastal city of Mariupol.
Production began in 1933, but was halted shortly after Germany launched an invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II in 1941.
In 1943, retreating German troops blew up major facilities at the plant, but the factory was restarted within a few years of Soviet military control.
one of Europe’s largest
In 2006, the complex was bought by the Metinvest group controlled by Ukraine’s richest man Rinat Akhmetov.
Akhmetov, once considered close to Moscow, has thrown his weight behind officials in Kyiv since the Russian-backed uprising began in 2014.
And he denounced Russian troops for committing “crimes against humanity against the Ukrainians” after the Kremlin launched its offensive on February 24.
Before the Moscow attack, the Azovstal plant had the capacity to produce 5.7 million tons of iron and 6.2 million tons of steel per year, Metinvest said, making it one of the largest metal works in Europe.
The huge factory provided employment to thousands of people and dominated the landscape of the city of Mariupol.
‘City within a city’
Spanning approximately 11 square kilometers (4.2 sq mi), the Azovstal complex is a vast battlefield of rail lines, warehouses, coal furnaces, factories, chimneys and tunnels considered ideal for guerrilla warfare.
“It’s a city within a city,” Eduard Basurin, a representative of pro-Russian separatists in the eastern Donetsk region, said earlier this month.
“There are many underground levels that pre-Soviet times that you can’t bomb from above. You have to go underground to clear them, and that will take time.”
Putin said in his order on Thursday that the attack was “impractical”.
“There is no need to climb into these catacombs and crawl underground through these industrial facilities,” he said.
Russia has resorted to intensifying the compound with giant plane-launched bombs as it sought to break the resistance of Ukrainian troops hiding there.
Drone images broadcast on Sunday by the Russian state agency RIA Novosti showed widespread destruction inflicted by Moscow’s siege forces.
Footage showed a desolate hellscape with a series of buildings that were completely blown up, some still smoldering.
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