Besieged Azov Steelworks: Tortured “hero city” Mariupol

Hundreds of defenders of the Azov steel mill go into captivity – Mariupol falls completely into the hands of Russia. In Ukraine, the city is a symbol of immeasurable sacrifice. The Kremlin has only managed a Pyrrhic victory.

The Ukrainian troops entrenched in the Azov steelworks had long seemed desperate – and yet they continued to fight: “We don’t get any support, no help, and meanwhile we’re fighting the whole time, each and every one of us, against the superiority of the Russians,” summarized Lieutenant Ilya Samoylenko during an interview in the daily topics the situation together.

Individual commanders had repeatedly turned to the public via social networks to draw attention to their hopeless situation: “It is a matter of hours before we are destroyed,” Serhiy Volyna told the newspaper “Welt” at the end of April. One message was the same for all: surrender is not an option – well, on May 17, 264 fighters went into Russian captivity. After eleven weeks of siege, Mariupol finally falls into the hands of Russia – a triumph that the Kremlin paid dearly for, which in the eyes of the world is almost tantamount to a defeat.

Mariupol becomes a “hero city”

In Ukrainian perseverance propaganda, Mariupol has been a landmark since the first days of the siege, with artists and activists further contributing to its fame with impromptu graphics. Many Ukrainian celebrities and media figures picked them up and spread them further.

As early as March 6, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy granted Mariupol the status of “hero city” – a title otherwise only held by cities in the former Soviet Union from the Second World War. By that time, water and electricity supplies had already collapsed in Mariupol, food was becoming scarce, and thousands of civilians had died in the shelling.

Russia bombed a maternity hospital – and afterwards spread the lie that the attack was staged by Ukraine. Hundreds of people who had taken shelter there died in the air raid on the Mariupol theater. Many remaining civilians eventually fled to the steel mill’s underground bunker complex, which had existed since 1930 and was held by the Azov Battalion. The Russian ruler Vladimir Putin gave the order on state television to besiege the plant and starve it out – “so that not even a fly comes out”.

Azov fighters do not want praise

The cruel call led to broad solidarity with everyone who was holding out in the Azov steelworks: In the weeks that followed, public perception of the resilience attributed to Mariupol was increasingly transferred to the fighters holding out in the steelworks.

However, it became clear during the siege that they did not want to be taken in by the praise of their President Zelenskyy: the government, which only supported its fighters in the city with words, was responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of civilians in Mariupol, the “Guardian” quoted the Commander Saymolenko: “We do our job – and we do it well. Some of the politicians don’t do it” – when his regiment made the impossible possible.

From a military point of view, the situation of the fighters seemed hopeless from the start: Commander Serhij Volyna stated in his call for help that the ratio of forces to Russia’s troops was 1:10, hundreds of the approximately 2,000 soldiers who were holding out were said to have been wounded. Several evacuation attempts failed. The civilians, who were able to leave the plant in several stages at the beginning of May, are said to have not seen daylight for up to two months – they report hunger, thirst, illnesses and injuries without any care, corpses in the corridors.

Putin’s years of grudges

The fact that a stronghold of the Azov battalion in Mariupol finally fell into Russian hands is also used by the Kremlin for its propaganda: The Russian state media always stylized the ultra-nationalist attitude of the battalion, which was very pronounced in the days of its founding, as proof that the entire Ukraine was “run by fascists governed” who wished all Russians dead.

The Kremlin’s anger at Mariupol’s resistance and the Azov regiment goes back years: When pro-Russian separatists controlled from Moscow occupied the city administration in Mariupol in the spring of 2014 and also attacked a military base, it was the Ukrainian national guard together with the newly founded “Azov battalion ” managed to retake the buildings and drive the Separatists out of the city. In the month-long battle for the nearby village of Shyrokine on the Sea of ​​Azov, the regiment, which has since been incorporated into the National Guard, also helped keep it under Ukrainian control.

According to military experts, this disgrace also triggered “irrational and emotional traits”: In Moscow it was whispered afterwards that Putin was “personally disappointed that Mariupol did not immediately defect to the Russian arms,” ​​explained Gustav Gressel from the European Council On Foreign Affairs on n- tv.de laconically: “So he feels personally offended and that’s why the city belongs away.”

Victory Day parade through the streets

By early May, Putin had long since achieved his military goal – to create a Russian-controlled land route from the Donbass to Crimea. The fact that Mariupol is said to be 90 percent destroyed and only a few of the individual landmarks can still be seen was even a cause for cynical joy: On the propaganda station “RT” a spokesman speculated on drone footage of the devastated city, from whose rubble only the Protection and Intercession of the Virgin Mary was made Church stood out: “Does that mean God is with us?”

On May 9th, which Russia celebrates as the day of victory over National Socialism, Mariupol had to serve as a backdrop for pictures: a group of people carried a gigantic ribbon of St. George through the city. Other footage showed people laying flowers at a memorial in the presence of hooded special forces personnel.

Both Mariupol’s mayor Vadym Bojschenko and people who had escaped from the city had reported for weeks about dead bodies in the streets and Russian atrocities – those who were still alive were cheered by the Russians on “Victory Day” and humiliated once more.

The calls from the Ukrainian exile community to save the soldiers holed up in the Azov steelworks became louder and louder – they demanded that the fighters be handed over safely to a third country. The cries for help from the commanders also became more and more extreme. Azov commander Serhiy Volyna wrote on Facebook that he felt like he was in a hellish reality show – and concluded: “Human cynicism knows no bounds.” He later called on US billionaire Elon Musk to help the regiment: “If not you, then who?” – and that only his love for Ukraine will help him to continue to get through everything. It is not yet known whether Volyna is among the soldiers who have gone into Russian captivity.