KP special correspondent Dmitry Steshin found out what the shelters of the giant Azovstal plant are in reality, who sits in them and how much they have left to hide

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https://www.kp.ru/daily/27383/4578138/

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April 25, 2022 7:00 am
Underground city under “Azovstal”: the whole truth about the bunkers of the Mariupol plant-fortress
KP special correspondent Dmitry Steshin found out what the shelters of the giant Azovstal plant are in reality, who sits in them and how much they have left to hide

Dmitry STESHIN
View of the production buildings of the Azovstal enterprise, Mariupol.

View of the production buildings of the Azovstal enterprise, Mariupol.

Photo: Vladimir VELENGURIN
THIS IS 10% OF UKRAINE’S GDP!

Neither the current Ukraine, nor the oligarch Rinat Akhmetov, have anything to do with Azovstal. Azovstal built the USSR, moreover, twice.

In 1930, concrete was laid in the foundation of the first blast furnace. At the same time, the construction of a port and a navigable canal began – the Sea of ​​\u200b\u200bAzov is shallow in these places. Mariupol, a quiet and sleepy trading town near the Sea of ​​Azov, has turned into a gigantic construction site. Already in 1939, one of the blast furnaces of Azovstal set a world record for iron smelting – 1614 tons per day. A unique swinging open-hearth furnace was put into operation, steel was smelted at the plant.

The Great Patriotic Combine did not survive: in September 1943, the Germans were kicked out of Mariupol, and leaving, they blew up everything: blast furnaces, open-hearth furnaces, coke oven batteries, a power plant. But two years later, Azovstal was not only restored, it launched the production of rolled metal! And further, all the years of Soviet power, production continued to expand, literally, every year.
The blower station of the Azovstal plant destroyed by the Nazis, a chronicle of the Great Patriotic War, 1943. Newsreel TASS

The blower station of the Azovstal plant destroyed by the Nazis, a chronicle of the Great Patriotic War, 1943. Newsreel TASS

To understand what we lost with the collapse of the USSR: in 1996, the German branch of the legendary marine insurer Lloyd recognized the plant as a manufacturer of ship steel. Following, the Americans recognized and certified high-strength steel for drilling platforms – only four world productions have received such recognition, and Azovstal is one of them.
Blast furnace shop of the metallurgical plant “Azovstal”, 1958. Photo: Nikolay Sitnikov/TASS

Blast furnace shop of the metallurgical plant “Azovstal”, 1958. Photo: Nikolay Sitnikov/TASS

And even in the darkest post-Soviet years, Azovstal continued to make a profit – up to about 10% of the GDP of all of Ukraine! Many reasons coincided: the Soviet school of metallurgy, entire working dynasties, a port that reduced the cost of supplying raw materials and exporting products, cheap Donetsk coking coal and cheap Russian gas.

From the first day of the special operation in Ukraine, right from February 24, militants of the Azov National Regiment (a criminal case has been initiated against its fighters in the Russian Federation) began to bring heavy military equipment to Azovstal and mine the workshops. Coke batteries, out of sin, drowned out, filled with liquid glass. Blast furnaces have been stopped, and a new launch of a blast furnace is 80-90% of the cost of its construction. The plant itself has been de-energized for the second month, the employees – 14 thousand people, who could, fled. Someone died right at the plant during shelling, I met the bodies of factory workers in the industrial zone.

Azovstal was again hit by hostilities. And while they stay in its dungeons, they do not leave.
RESERVES HAS BEEN PREPARED SINCE 2015

There is no doubt that it was Azovstal that was considered as the main and last defensive center of Mariupol. For comparison, the neighboring metallurgical plant named after Ilyich, comparable both in size and number of personnel (10 thousand people), was taken a week ago.
At the entrance to the Mariupol Plant them. Ilyich.

At the entrance to the Mariupol Plant them. Ilyich.

Photo: Dmitry STESHIN

Why Azovstal? Perhaps, the size of its industrial zone – 11 square kilometers and two natural barriers – the sea and the wide floodplain of the Kalmius River, which shoots through from the plant, had an effect. And only on the one hand, private buildings and high-rise buildings closely adjoined Azovstal.
Satellite image of the plant “Azovstal”, the city of Mariupol.

Satellite image of the plant “Azovstal”, the city of Mariupol.

Photo: Yandex

About a month ago, before the assault, the DPR battalion “Vostok” cleared private houses along the border of the plant. Moreover, the purge and the battle moved along parallel streets. It was then that I first met people who asked me a strange question: “When will our youth be released from Azovstal? It turns out that since the beginning of March, while cellular communications were still working in Mariupol, subscribers under 20 began to receive SMS invitations: “Come to Azovstal, we have reliable shelters, there is Internet, food, water and good company.” Fortunately, in reality, no relatives have yet been found whose children have gone to the dungeons of Azovstal. It was fake. I interviewed dozens of people living near the plant, looking for relatives of such “outliers” and did not find them. It was important for the Nazis to show that, together with them, urban youth sits at the plant and works as a “human shield”. But, they were not going to waste resources on hostages. Although, they have been preparing for defense since 2015. The usual story of a factory worker from the Levoberezhny district or from the other side of Mariupol, from Metallurgov Street:

• Yes, they drove something, in green trucks, they drove it for many years. All with special passes, they were not inspected at the checkpoint, they were allowed into the plant at any time. I saw that they were carrying water and some green boxes.

There were also curious stuffings that the press and political scientists happily picked up: fairy tales about 6-story shelters, completed and reinforced, almost personally by Akhmetov with armor plates (how?), A mysterious biological laboratory and similar nonsense.

With the dungeons of “Azovstal” everything turned out to be simple and at the same time more difficult.
Neither the current Ukraine, nor the oligarch Rinat Akhmetov, have anything to do with Azovstal.

Neither the current Ukraine, nor the oligarch Rinat Akhmetov, have anything to do with Azovstal.

Photo: Vladimir VELENGURIN
MINUS FIRST LEVEL

Vitaliy, a strong, mobile and very angry pensioner, I met in one of the yards in the very center of Mariupol. He was the informal leader of a small house community, surviving the second month in the basements. For a pensioner, Vitaly seemed too young to me, it turned out – 32 years of “hot experience” in the rolling shop of Azovstal, people of such professions are already “demobilized” from factories by the age of 40. We talked about 2014, about the referendum:

• Of course, I voted for the DPR in the referendum, but like everyone else. But here’s what I remember. We have a police department nearby, which the Nazis shot (because the Mariupol police refused to disperse the rebels). I go out on May 9 in a cafe, I had such cream jeans and a shirt, understand? The holiday is dressed up. And I see how some kind of schmuck, in a Soviet helmet, only rests on his ears, knocks down a fleeing guy with a sweep and point-blank at his head. And the barrel is pointing at me. And I ran up to intervene and everything splashed out on my jeans, I kept them in a bag, did not wash …

“They brought them in,” Vitaly confirmed to me once again:

• My wife worked at Azovstal until the last day, she saw how trucks drove back and forth, tanks drove through the central checkpoint.
• And what about the dungeons at Azovstal?
• Many tunnels, under cables, thermal. Whole city! There was a steam pipeline from a thermal power plant, steam was supplied through it, one and a half meters in diameter! There were also bomb shelters, in our shop for the whole shift, to lower it there – this is 60 people. We also had a small shop. He had air purification, manual and electric.

Is it possible to move through these tunnels?

Of course they need to be served! In cable almost in growth it is possible to walk.

• They said that in 2014 these tunnels were allegedly flooded? Did the Nazis pump them out and drain them?
• Nobody drowned them. The only thing, I remember, was a break in the steam pipeline, then, yes, it flooded.

Vitaly confirmed that there were workers from Azovstal who left the ATO (to fight in the Donbass on the side of Kyiv) – to earn money, they kept good factory salaries. They were often asked: “How did you raise a lot of money?” What is the answer here? It can be assumed that it is these people, as “smeared”, that “Azov” uses as guides through the lower levels of the plant. If they did not have time to escape to the city:

• When the neighboring house caught fire at night after the shelling, people ran to the basement, barefoot, half-naked. Everyone was accepted and dressed. And there was one, I knew him very well, from our factory, “nuclear”. I told him so: “So that I don’t see you here.” And he left.
  Vitaliy confirmed that there were workers from Azovstal who went to the ATO, while they kept their factory salaries.

Vitaliy confirmed that there were workers from Azovstal who went to the ATO, while they kept their factory salaries.

Photo: Dmitry STESHIN
WHERE ARE THE FUERES?

Our aerial reconnaissance monitors Azovstal non-stop. But, according to my comrades who fly over the plant every day: “We haven’t seen people on the surface, equipment for a long time, they still climb in the industrial zone.” The rest are underground. In general, the entire defense of Azovstal is built on two fortified areas – Bastion and South, and smaller strongholds. At the heart of each opornik is a legacy of the Soviet Civil Defense system, a bomb shelter. After the Great Patriotic War, the restoration of Azovstal was completed only in the 50s, when the atomic war already smelled strongly. Therefore, there are bomb shelters and simply large basements even under secondary administrative buildings, as I was convinced during the last assault on Azovstal (see CP dated 22.04).
Soldiers of the Vostok battalion of the DPR in the Azovstal industrial zone.

Soldiers of the Vostok battalion of the DPR in the Azovstal industrial zone.

Photo: Dmitry STESHIN

I managed to get a comment from a person who is well acquainted with the system of factory bomb shelters. According to him, the information that the shelters are interconnected is nonsense, which contradicts the concept of protection against atomic and chemical damage. But, there is a tunnel for people at the plant, one:

• It leads from the monument with a tank, in the center of the territory, to the main entrance, designed to evacuate engineers and managers from the plant. Another of his tasks is to make the movement of work shifts around the plant, large masses of people, secretive. In Leningrad, at the Kirov Plant, they made the same tunnel, after the German artillery covered the entrance in the fall of 1941, 400 people were injured and died.
  Smoke clouds over Azovstal and adjacent residential areas.

Smoke clouds over Azovstal and adjacent residential areas.

Photo: Vladimir VELENGURIN

I asked directly:

• Where is Azov sitting?

According to my interlocutor, most likely, these are two shelters – under the large-section rolling shop and under the converter shop. They can accommodate 1780 people.
Location of bomb shelters at Azovstal.

Location of bomb shelters at Azovstal.

• These are 1st and 2nd class shelters. They are buried by 6-10 meters, covered with a concrete mattress. The air filtration system is designed for a month of work. There are rooms for a diesel generator, an infirmary, for headquarters and command staff, a well with water and sewerage …

It can be assumed that it is there that the whole color of Azov is hiding, and with it Western advisers and mercenaries. All the rest, including factory workers, take refuge in class 3 shelters – there are 24 more of them at Azovstal. These shelters can be identified by their low ceilings, those videos where the Nazis bring some food to these unfortunate people in blue garbage bags.
MUSK GIVES MILIANTS “INTERNET FOR COMPLAINTS”

Judging by the whole stream of complaints from the starving “Azovites”, unofficial information that our artillery “unwound” their food warehouses is indirectly confirmed. And there is also a problem with the wounded – there are hundreds of them, fewer and cannot be with such intensity of fighting and shelling. Medicines have been running out for a long time. The Nazis are also running out of ammunition, as one fighter from the Vostok assault group rightly noted – “no matter how many cartridges you stock up, everything is not enough.”

But there is the Internet – Elon Musk presented 200 satellite modems to Ukraine and its army. You can transfer to the worldwide network what the Easter cake of “Azov” looks like – a piece of bread with a drop of jam. Or another request from “pidtrimke” and “help”.

What will happen next? The transformation of Azovstal into ruins was stopped by Putin. This was not spoken aloud, but if Azovstal is destroyed, the existence of Mariupol and its restoration may lose all economic sense. So far, the degree of destruction of the plant has not come to a critical point. Because the massive artillery raids stopped.

According to the commander of the Vostok battalion, Alexander Khodakovsky, ours are now “cutting their tails” around the plant in order to reduce the radius of the territory from which “a fly should not slip through”:

• We are withdrawing units to other directions and leaving just enough forces around Azovstal to keep the enemy pinned down from all sides.
  Commander of the “Vostok” battalion of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the DPR Alexander Khodakovsky.

Commander of the “Vostok” battalion of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the DPR Alexander Khodakovsky.

Photo: Viktor GUSEYNOV

How long will they stay THERE? Not for long. I can judge only on the basis of my own experience, as a participant in the “Slavic seat” (the defense of Slavyansk in 2014 – Ed.) from beginning to end: we did not send such plaintive messages as the “Azovites” now have on the air.
Rumors and rumors about Azovstal in Mariupol

https://www.kp.ru/daily/27383/4578138/

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