In the end, the battle for the Ukrainian city of Mariupol was fought over a single large industrial plant. Now, it seems likely that the war in Sievierodonetsk in eastern Ukraine will likely play out in a similar fashion.
The bunkers beneath Mariupol’s Azovstal steelwork, a giant factory complex whose chimneys tower over the city’s skyline, provide Ukrainian fighters and civilians with a place to stay. hid – in deplorable conditions – for weeks after the rest of the city fell to the Russians.
The bunkers at the Azot Chemical Society’s plant in Sievierodonetsk, an industrial city on the banks of the Siversky Donets river, appear to play a similar role. When the city was attacked by Russian forces trying to capture the last parts of Luhansk province that they had defiantly grasped, the fighters at the factory, just a few blocks from the river, held out.
Hundreds of civilians were trapped at the plant and a spokesman for the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, Saviano Abreu, said that “people are suffering and experiencing shelling and artillery fire. click continuously.”
Dmytro Firtash, whose company, DF Group, owns the plant, said in a statement this month that among the civilian population there were employees who stayed behind to protect “what remains of the chemicals.” factory explosives.”
Mr. Firtash is Ukrainian Energy tycoon who, in 2019, was facing extradition to the United States of Bribery and fraud fees.
After weeks of shelling, Russian forces entered the city. According to Ukrainian officials, the block-by-block fighting has subsided and the exact number of Ukrainian fighters remaining and how many cities they control remains unclear.
The mill is a collection of long, low buildings located in several blocks on the west side of the city, with two towering chimneys and several smaller ones. Chemicals were a major element of the country’s industrial output, and before the war the plant was a major producer of ammonia, urea, and ammonium nitrate.
Ukrainian officials publish daily images of the latest damage to the shattered city. Most of the civilians have already left.
For those who hold out, the supply of ammunition, food, water and medical supplies is very important. After Mariupol fell in early May, President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine praised the bravery of helicopter pilots who died trying to resupply steel structures. In the case of Sievierodonetsk, bridges connecting the city of Lysyschansk on the west bank of the river are crucial for supplies and evacuations, but Ukrainian officials on Tuesday said the bridge was ultimately destroyed. .
“Russian forces are continuing to fight for control of the Azot industrial plant and have destroyed all the bridges between Sievierodonetsk and Lysychansk, potentially isolating the remaining Ukrainian defenders in the city from critical lines of communication,” said the Institute for the Study of War, a report Wednesday said, Washington think tank.
