The remnants of the Azov battalion, who had been trapped underground for many days, made a surprising move, not only drilling out of the ground to launch a counterattack in the face of the encircling Russian army, but even digging tunnels into the Mariupol city government, and attacking the Russian army.
At present, in the Azov Steel Plant in Mariupol, there are more than 2,000 remnants of the Azov battalion surrounded, as well as more than 400 foreign mercenaries, who have chosen to resist or not surrender in the russian encirclement. Due to topographical constraints, the rest of the sea was controlled and blocked by the Russian army, and the loss of all external assistance could only be fought alone, in fact, the Azov Steel Plant had become an "island". When the Azov battalion asked for help from the external video, it also claimed that at present, they have serious shortages of food, drinking water and medicines, and if they cannot get help quickly, there will be a large number of non-combat attritions. Judging from the photos released by the Azov camp, many wounded and sick people are crowded in the basement of the simple conditions, and judging from the condition of body bandaging, whether it is serious or not, they can only get the simplest medical care.
The wounded were crammed into a humble basement
The wounded were crammed into a humble basement
If you are still impressed, just a few days ago, on April 21, the Russian army announced the cancellation of the plan to attack the Azov Steel Plant, and the gang also spent the night in the basement. Smoking and drinking are enjoyable, and each person is full of mental state and does not see the slightest pain, while also celebrating the "defeat" of the Russian army to achieve freedom. In addition, there are a large number of civilian hostages in hand, can hide in the basement as long as they do not go out no one to fight, perhaps they did not expect the situation to be as good as expected, ammunition reserves may not be a problem, but people are iron rice is steel, even if they hide in the basement do not move, they have to eat.
Therefore, although there are two elite presences in the basement of the steel plant, the Azov Battalion and the 36th Marine Brigade, and the commanders of the two sides are also shouting hard slogans, after all, the lack of food and medicine cannot be solved in the basement. And also to face the panic that may be destroyed at any time, after all, being underground for a long time is a psychological and physiological blow, not to mention that it is not strange to think about the risk of flooding and smoking.
Camp Azov revelry
Good mental state
Although there are not many Ukrainian troops who have voluntarily come out to surrender at the Azov Iron and Steel Plant, there are still some people who have escaped and chosen to be prisoners, according to them, because there are many extreme fanatics in the Azov battalion, basically no one dares to run under their death threats. Even in the early days of being driven underground, they repeatedly called Kiev to request contact with the Russian army for negotiations, but they were severely rejected. Under this dual control, the Azov battalion publicly warned that if it wanted to flee or surrender, it would face the direct fire of its own people. At the same time, because the network and electricity are not interrupted, the Azov battalion and the foreign mercenaries mixed in can contact the rear base and even communicate with the Western media. On the one hand, external information and intelligence support can be obtained, and on the other hand, internal propaganda and encouragement can be carried out to tell everyone that foreign aid can be safely evacuated.
The gap between before and after is too large
With the encouragement of the remnants of the Azov battalion, confidence was greatly enhanced, especially with the familiarity with the terrain and the intelligence support provided by the NATO camp, they began to fight counterattacks and even wanted to break out. According to the Russian Today website, on April 26, remnants of the Azov battalion drilled a tunnel in an attempt to sneak into the Mariupol city hall building. Soon the Russian army found that under the hotel next to the city government, there was a tunnel exit used by the hidden Azov battalion, and it was through these tunnels that it was associated with the city sewer system, from the Azov Steel Works all the way to the last node of the city, and then a shift to dig a soil, and then suddenly appeared to carry out a sneak attack.
They dug the tunnel exit into the basement of the hotel, and then formed a number of assault teams to rush out of the tunnel below the hotel to raid the city hall building. However, the operation was soon discovered by the Russian army, and the Russian special forces engaged in a few hours of melee with them, using firepower and numerical superiority to drive these assault teams back to the tunnels. Subsequently, the Russian army blocked the entrances and exits of the tunnels that might appear in the surrounding area, and then patrolled with tanks and armored vehicles to prevent further raids, but the Russians had not yet found the precise location of the passage of the Azov battalion detachment.
The two sides fought fiercely in the tunnel
Russian army
Due to the special geographical location of Mariupol, air raid shelters, underground drainage systems, underground passages and so on were dug extensively in the Soviet era. Not only including the Azov Steel Plant, but also the unit building facilities have basements, as well as underground parking and other networks, and since 2014, the Ukrainian army has been operating the city for a long time. The city defense underground defense system is constantly reinforced and expanded, who knows how many of these underground tunnels are already connected to each other, it is possible that any building has become an entrance and exit, a bit of the feeling of tunnel warfare in the past is only a larger scope, and the Azov battalion has no fear of taking advantage of this at any time to enter the city to play raids.
Steel mills are more complex inside
Of course, from the overall situation point of view or the Russian army is dominant, at present, due to a large number of civilians hiding in the basement easy to be injured, coupled with the avoidance of unnecessary strong attack casualties, the Russian army temporarily stopped or reduced the attack on the Azov steel plant. But for the liquidation of the remnants of the enemy and the complete occupation of Mariupol, the Russian army has been working hard and has not let it go unchecked, and has carried out the final preparations before the final battle through various resources.
At present, the Russian army has obtained some information from the surrendered personnel of the 36th Marine Brigade, including the distribution of cabins in the underground passage of the steel plant, and at the same time, with the help of old workers and engineers of the steel plant, more appropriate tactics have been formulated against the structural diagram. Find the entrances and exits of the suspected tunnels in the steel plant and mark them, and then deploy special guards to block the openings according to the map, and organize commandos to carry out experimental clearance operations. With the guidance of the structure map, the Russian army can raid the underground area from workshop to workshop, and even some targets that are not easy to attack can be destroyed or blocked by combined air-ground firepower.
plan
Fight district by district
Fight district by district
Therefore, at present, inside the steel plant, the Azov battalion has almost no way out, such as many of the wounded mentioned above are directly concentrated in the basement, and the serious lack of medical assistance can only be resigned to fate. Of course, under the organization of die-hard fanatics, they still choose to attack, but it is difficult to succeed when the Russian army has a large number of underground passages and entrances, deploys a large number of personnel and drones on duty. Moreover, Russian fighters and artillery are on standby at any time, although they cannot use extremely powerful ground drilling shells, thermobaric shells, etc., but conventional ammunition can still accurately block the counter-impact of the Azov battalion.
Excluding the Azov steel plant, Mariupol should be said to have decided that the new mayor said that two of the three most important factories in the area will be restored and rebuilt, including the Ilyich Metallurgical Plant and the Aeszov Machinery Plant. These two sites can be resumed with light damage, but the Azov Steel Plant has been devastated after a long period of contention, at least in the current state of war, there is no need to repair, which also means that the Russian army does not have to consider the damage to the building in the next battle, and can bombard the ground with large-scale fire to clear the enemy and the entrances and exits.
Russian military drones
Drone reconnaissance surveillance
The external pressure is getting bigger and bigger, and the internal is not allowed to surrender, if you stay underground for a long time and lack of food and doctors, it is estimated that you will suffocate yourself alive after a long time. Therefore, the diehards of the Azov battalion in the basement decided to fight to the death, and only the outlaw chose to counterattack and break through the road, and in recent days, the armed forces of the Azov battalion have continuously rushed out of the tunnel to harass the operation. However, with the continuous exposure of tunnel entrances and exits, and the increasingly tight monitoring of aerial drones, the Azov battalion forces can only be divided into hundreds of squads, leaving only more than 100 people on the ground to serve as surveillance and vigilance tasks, as long as the Russians are found to be negligent, they will take the initiative to attack or even break through, but there is not much time left for them.
Closely monitored
I can't afford to eat the pie any longer