The photo was taken from the archive. Photo made by: Maks Levin.
The Russian occupiers destroyed Azovstal Iron and Steel Works, Deputy Mayor of Mariupol city Serhii Orlov said in an interview for Forbes.
"Nothing works. The equipment doesn't work. It can’t be run at all anymore. "Azovstal Iron and Steel Works is bombed out. Completely. There have been a huge number of airstrikes on Azovstal," he said.
Azovstal Iron and Steel Works, a full cycle metallurgical plant, is a part of Metinvest Holding Rinat Akhmetov and Vadym Novynskyi. The enterprise produced flat-rolled products, rolled steel, and structural steel. They also had coke production facilities.
On the first day of the full-scale invasion, 24 February, Metinvest Group announced that some of the equipment at Ilyich Iron and Steel Works and Azovstal Iron and Steel Works, had been placed in hot conservation mode to ensure the safety of employees and to protect the equipment.
Media service of the group said that thanks to these measures it is possible to avoid a technogenic catastrophe in Mariupol which can be provoked by the military actions of the Russian Federation. They said that the conservation mode of the facilities was done so that their operation could be resumed even in case of possible damage.
Now that there are no stable connection channels with the city, we can evaluate the level of the infrastructure operability of enterprises only after the acute phase of combat actions.
Earlier, in 2018, Azovstal Iron and Steel Works became one of the largest exporters to Russia.
On average, Russian occupiers drop between 50 and 100 air bombs on Mariupol per day. As a result, according to preliminary estimates, about 80 percent of the city's housing stock is destroyed, of which almost 30 percent is beyond repair. Minister of Foreign Affairs Dmytro Kuleba said that Mariupol, surrounded by Russian troops, is experiencing the worst humanitarian disaster on Earth.
The Russians explain the shelling of hospitals, kindergartens, and residential buildings by the fact that "Azov's base" may be located there.