The siege of Mariupol could be entering its final stages amid reports that Russian forces are blockading Ukrainian fighters’ last stronghold in the city. The brutality of the siege is painfully clear in the story of 91-year-old Holocaust survivor Vanda Semyonovna Obiedkova, who lay dying in in a basement in the city, asking her crying daughter: “Why is this happening?”
Nearly two months on from the start of Russia’s invasion, Mariupol has come into sharp focus. What is happening in the south-eastern Ukrainian city, and why is it so important to the war?
What is happening in Mariupol?
Mariupol has been under heavy siege since the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The port city has made headlines after 300 people were killed in the bombing of a theatre and the death of a pregnant woman and her baby when a maternity hospital was targeted.
A spokesperson for the city’s mayor said 90% of the city’s buildings had been damaged, and 40% of them destroyed. Nearly a month on from this, Ukrainian foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba told CBS: “The situation in Mariupol is both dire militarily and heartbreaking. The city doesn’t exist anymore. It seems from the way the Russian Army behaves in Mariupol they have decided to raze the city to the ground at any cost.”
READ MORE: Does Russia have nuclear weapons and what would make Vladimir Putin use them?
The conflict in Mariupol appears to have boiled down to a last stand at the sprawling Azovstal metallurgical plant, where Ukrainian fighters are holding steady in the face of Russian bombardment. Ukrainian forces said they were hoping to evacuate up to 6,000 of the city’s 431,859 residents yesterday with food, clean water, medical care, electricity and phone service becoming increasingly scarce.
Is Mariupol about to fall?
The official line from Russian defence minister Sergei Shoigu is that Mariupol has fallen. But the Guardian reports that around 2,000 Ukrainian fighters are still in control of the Azovstal metallurgical plant – but the Ukrainian side has not confirmed or denied this. The exact number of Ukrainian troops remaining is not known for certain.
According to Reuters, Vladimir Putin has cancelled plans to storm the steel plant, instead opting to continue to blockade it, in order to protect the lives of Russian soldiers. In a televised Kremlin meeting, Putin said: "There is no need to climb into these catacombs and crawl underground through these industrial facilities. Block off this industrial area so that a fly cannot not pass through."
Major Serhiv Volyna, a Ukrainian marine commander, issued this striking message: “This could be the last appeal of our lives. We are probably facing our last days, if not hours. The enemy is outnumbering us 10 to 1. We are only defending one object, the Azovstal plant where, in addition to military personnel, there are also civilians who have fallen victim to this war.”
What does this mean for the war in Ukraine?
The Washington Post reports that Ukrainian forces had been given a deadline of last Sunday to surrender – and when they refused, another deadline of 2pm local time yesterday. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the standoff in the city would either end diplomatically, or if the Ukrainian force was armed with “serious and heavy weapons.”
Eastern Ukraine has been the main focus of the Russian invasion so far, with the Donbas region, which includes Luhansk, Donetsk and Mariupol, coming under heavy fire. Control of the city is part of a wider Russian aim of controlling a stretch of land leading directly from Crimea to the Russian border in eastern Ukraine.
Why is Mariupol so important to Russia?
For Russian forces and Vladimir Putin, Mariupol is all that stands in the way of a land corridor that would have huge symbolic importance, demonstrating Russia’s power. It could change the narrative of an invasion that, despite its devastating impact, has until now been marked by some high-profile military failures.
As well as the impact this would have on optics and morale, the BBC also reports that the fall of Mariupol would give Russia control of over 80% of the Black Sea coast in Ukraine. With Ukraine unable to access the sea of Azov, which leads to the main body of the Black Sea, the country’s export trade will be limited. Ukraine’s export trade before the war was key to its economy, with the UK alone importing £830 million of Ukrainian goods in 2021 – with iron and steel at the forefront of this. Ukraine was the EU’s 15th largest partner for imports of goods.
But President Zelensky told CNN that he would not give up the territory. He said: “In the centuries-old history of Ukraine, there is the story that Ukraine has either taken some territory or needs to give up some territory. We don’t want anyone else’s territory and we are not going to give up our own.”
The next few hours could be key to the outcome of the siege – and the fall of Mariupol would be a major turning point in Russia’s invasion and the fate of Ukraine.
