Since the withdrawal of Russian troops from the Kiev region, the most stale and fierce fighting on the Battlefield in Ukraine has been the port city of Mariupol on the coast of the Sea of Azov. Mariupol has been under siege by the Orton Army for more than a month now, and 90 percent of the city's buildings have been completely reduced to rubble under intense artillery fire. Although the Allied Forces of Oton had taken control of most of the city, it would take several days to completely wipe out the dying Ukrainian army. According to Edward Basulin, spokesman for the Donetsk People's Army, the final battle in The City of Malaysia will revolve around the Azovstal Steel Plant, where there are currently about 3,000 to 3,500 Ukrainian armed personnel, and it will be difficult to "gnaw" this hard bone.
▲ Aerial view of the main structure of the Azovstahl Steel Plant, which covers an area of about 11 square kilometers
Built during the Soviet era and covering an area of 11 square kilometers, the Azostahl Steel Plant is one of the largest steel mills in Eastern Europe and is now part of The Metinvest, Ukraine's largest steelmaker, and is owned by Ukraine's richest man, Rinat Akhmetov. In 2020, the Azov Steel Plant produces 3.8 million tons of iron, 4.19 million tons of steel and 1.26 million tons of coke per year, and its total revenue can be ranked third among several major steel mills in Ukraine, in addition to the only high-quality sheet metal manufacturing plant in Ukraine that can produce a thickness of 6 to 200 mm and a width of 1500 to 3200 mm, which are widely used in shipbuilding, energy, special engineering and the manufacture of large-diameter natural gas pipelines. During the War in Donbass from 2014 to 2021, the plant also provided production support for the metal materials needed for ukrainian artillery shells on the front lines.
▲ Exterior view of the Azovstahl Steel Works
The main part of the Aeszov Steel Works (built between 1948 and 1953) was designed on the basis of the standard of "fighting nuclear strikes" and is divided into two parts: above ground and underground. The above-ground industrial buildings were strong and strong, like copper walls, able to withstand the cover of artillery fire; the underground fortifications had entangled passages, some of which even led directly to the coast of the Sea of Azov, and in the case of the supply line being completely cut off, the Ukrainian army, which had become a turtle in an urn, could only store the remaining ammunition and food in these channels.
▲ Interior view of the Azostahl Steel Plant
More and more information shows that the Ukrainian army's will to fight is gradually disintegrating. On April 4, the 503rd Independent Marine Battalion of the 36th Marine Brigade of the Ukrainian Marine Corps was hopeless to break through, and 267 defenders collectively laid down their weapons and surrendered to Chechen troops, setting a new record for the maximum number of surrenders in a single day in the Russo-Ukrainian War. From the end of last month to the beginning of this month, the Ukrainian army successively sent Mi-8 helicopters to venture into the city at an ultra-low altitude in an attempt to take away the important leaders of the defenders, but all of them were invariably hit by the anti-aircraft fire of the Allied Forces of The Oton, and the surviving crew included senior officers of the "Azov Battalion".
▲ On April 5, the 503rd Independent Battalion of the 36th Marine Brigade of the Ukrainian Marine Corps surrendered in formation, and the logo on the map shows the battalion emblem
This kind of "giving away the head" can only explain two points:
First, the command level of the Ukrainian army may be divided, and some commanders believe that it is meaningless to continue fighting, and can only abandon the troops in the city who are unwilling to withdraw, and save their own lives. The aforementioned 503rd Battalion is a typical example, which, unlike the far-right armed "Assyrian Battalion", did not have to worry about giving up resistance because ultra-nationalist ideas were judged after the war.
Second, there may be "big fish" of great strategic value among the besieged personnel, and the rumors to be confirmed point out that there are not only "Azov battalions" and remnants of The Armed Forces of the Ukrainian Army in the steel plant, but also several NATO military advisers from the United States, France, Britain, Germany and Sweden, who have been stationed on the front line of Donetsk since the Donbass War to train the Ukrainian army, and if the Russian army captures them alive, it will sit on the situation of NATO's direct armed intervention in Ukraine, and will fall into great passivity at the level of public opinion. So at all costs I want to save these people.
▲ On April 5, the Ukrainian Mi-8AMTSh helicopter carrying the top brass of the "Azov Battalion" was shot down
The Russian allies also strengthened the siege of the steel plant in the past two days, and the 5th Infantry Brigade of the Donetsk People's Army, which was experienced in combat, had shifted its focus to the steel plant after taking control of the Mariupol seaport area. The 810th Marine Brigade of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, with the cooperation of the 150th Infantry Division of the Army, has completely eliminated the enemy forces on the outskirts of the factory area. Chechen special operations forces are not idle, they make full use of drones to guide friendly large-caliber artillery to attack Ukrainian targets in the factory area, including the demolition artifact 2S4 "Tulip" 240 mm tracked self-propelled mortar.
▲ Chechen soldiers carrying out a fortified operation in Mariupol on April 10
This powerful land artillery system can carry up to 20 shells and mainly uses two kinds of ammunition: one is a conventional high-explosive flake shell with a weight of 130 kg and a maximum range of 9.6 km; the other is a rocket-boosted artillery shell, weighing 228 kg and with a maximum range of 20 km, which is several times more powerful than a 152 mm high-blast flake shell, which can effectively destroy the strong fortifications of the steel plant, and a single shell can destroy a five-story reinforced concrete building. However, due to poor mobility and the need to launch long-range nuclear shells like the Cold War, the Russian army once sealed this large-caliber equipment in the warehouse and fell to ashes, and it was not reactivated until the 2017 artillery reform (drawing on the experience of the Syrian battlefield). The Russian military has modernized the 2S4 with modern navigation, communications and control devices to make it capable of precision strikes. Since the previous battles were carried out in civilian areas, the Russian army has not been able to release the use of ground artillery, this time the Ukrainian army was compressed into the steel factory area, and the Russian army can finally roll up its sleeves and let go of the fight.
▲ On April 4, the Russian 2S4 "Tulip" self-propelled mortar marched in the direction of the Azov Steel Plant
The Russian Air Force also dispatched the "Orion" airspace long-time aircraft that only entered service this year to participate in the operation against the steel plant. "Orion" UAV is the russian military's first domestically produced Tsatta integrated UAV, the maximum take-off weight of 1100 kg, the maximum payload of 250 kg, the ceiling of 7500 meters, the stay time of up to 24 hours, in various data greatly surpassed the Ukrainian imported TB-2 UAV from Turkey. "Orion" UAV is mainly equipped with Kornet-D anti-tank missiles or UPAB-50 gliding guided bombs, which can carry out targeted clearance of enemy armored targets and artillery positions, not only that, "Orion" can also enrich the Choice of the Russian Army at the tactical level of the campaign through photoelectric reconnaissance and situational awareness capabilities, and improve the battlefield response capability.
▲ On April 9, the Orion Tsatert-UNI drone was shot down on the battlefield in Ukraine
Although the Russian fire suppression was fierce, it was still unable to inflict a substantial blow on the Ukrainian army occupying the underground fortifications, which was one of the reasons why the allied ground forces were slow to advance to the steel plant. In this regard, the Donbass militia has the most say, and in the Battle of Donetsk Airport that year, the Ukrainian army used underground pipelines in all directions to inflict huge losses on the militia through uninterrupted roundabout attacks and the laying of improvised explosives. The "Azov Battalion" had already lost three-quarters of its men in Mariupol, and the commander had fled, and their defensive operations had failed at the campaign level. In the absence of supplies, their ammunition, food, and fresh water are destined to run out at the moment, and this psychological and physiological double torture is more lethal than bullets. Therefore, siege and artillery air raids are the most secure mode of warfare at present, and in this high-intensity siege of the city, the steel plant is expected to be completely liberated in another week or so.
▲ There are rumors that Roger Clautier, commander of a NATO command, is besieged in a steel mill
According to the calculation of Russia's operational intentions, the Orton coalition army will definitely send the main force north after conquering the steel plant to participate in a larger decisive battle in Donbass to annihilate the main Ukrainian forces in eastern Ukraine, while the National Guard will take over the defense of Mariupol and clear the Ukrainian scattered troops entrenched in the remaining areas. The smooth return of Mariupol to the Hands of the Donetsk People's Republic meant that the Crimea-Kherson-Donetsk land corridor was connected to ensure Russia's absolute control over the entire Sea of Azov. Mariupol is not only an industrial city, but also a deep-water port, which Russia can use after the war for sea transportation, revitalize the industrial strength of the Donbass region, and help local residents rebuild their homes.
▲ On April 10, in the area controlled by Mariupol, most of the Ukrainian army was besieged in the steel plant