Mariupol has attracted the attention of everyone in the world who cares about the Russo-Ukrainian War. Because of its loneliness, its fierceness, it blends everything that can be seen in war: glory, tenacity, heroism, cruelty, meanness, and even darkness.
One. Street battles are lonely and cold
When I wrote down what happened in Mariupol between February 25 and March 19, I stopped my pen. I don't think there's anything left for Mariupol anyway: its fate is already predestined and it will eventually be conquered.
The Mariupol Street Battle, coldly taking place far away, I watched its progress:
On 24 March, Russians captured 80 percent of Mariupol.
On 25 March, the local government of Ukraine moved out of Mariupol, allegedly an unknown city on the outskirts of the city.
Battle of the Mariupol Lanes
As for the reason for the evacuation, the Ukrainian side said: "The Russian army deliberately targeted critical infrastructure. Destroy heat, water and electricity, forcing the city government to leave the city..."
It is hard for me to believe the logical truth of this statement — there is really no need for Russia to deliberately destroy the most important infrastructure in the place where it will take over, thereby forcing a group of civilians who are not on combat mission to leave, which is really not necessary.
Battle of the Mariupol Lanes
However, Mariupol is in ruins, and it is said that more than 80% of the buildings have been destroyed
On 26 March, General Kadyrov, who commanded operations in Mariupol, declared that "90 percent of the city had been conquered."
On April 1, the deputy military minister of the "Donetsk People's Republic" said: Only 4,000 Ukrainian troops in Mariupol are resisting.
We looked at the data, the maps, estimated the progress of the attack, hoping that one side would win.
Explosions, broken walls, and ruins can be seen in the video and pictures, but onlookers cannot smell the smoke.
On April 10, the Ukrainian army abandoned the slag mountain, leaving only the steel mill and the port area!
On 14 April, the positions of the 36th Ukrainian Marine Brigade at the Ilyich Metallurgical Plant collapsed, and more than a thousand Ukrainian troops were captured, and some of them retreated to the Azov Steel Plant. This is ukraine's last land on the sea of Azov, about thirteen square kilometers. Similarly, it's a huge steel mill that is said to produce billions of dollars in steel products in peacetime.
But what about being big? Eventually it will collapse as quickly as Ilyich did, I suppose! This is the fate of the besieged. The recent Ukrainian reinforcements were 80 kilometers away, and the Russian side had established strong air superiority in this airspace, and the Assyrian Sea was full of mines laid by the Ukrainian army itself, and it was almost impossible to penetrate various defenses, which was the result of the Ukrainian side's own analysis.
Street fighting lonely city cold!
Mariupol by satellite (March 30)
But I was wrong, and I could hardly describe what happened afterwards. All the strange things in the world have gathered here.
Two. Late spring cannon fire red.
By April 14, spring had gradually deepened in Jiangnan, and the video from the direction of Mariupol, in the picture, between the ruins and broken walls, can also see the new green. Time does not freeze, it carries everything in space, comes from history, and then goes to history.
1 From the history of the Azov stahl Steel Plant.
This is a steel factory built during the Soviet period, a steel stove on the ground, a chimney, an iron tower, a track... Just like other steel mills.
But its secrets are like a labyrinth of tunnels underground, which are relics of the Cold War.
Assyrian Steel Works
During the us-Soviet hegemony, in order to prevent the Nuclear Strike of the United States, the Soviet Union built such nuclear shelters in many places.
At that time, the United States was also building, famous for the huge command post dug up under Mount Nevada in the Terminator series of movies.
And our childhood was also familiar with "digging deep holes, accumulating grain, and not dominating!" ”
The nuclear strategy of mutual destruction, the terrifying nuclear deterrent, made it seem that humanity had learned the reverence for war in that era.
The situation in the movie
The fortress in the Assyrian Steel Works in Mariupol is said to carry small nuclear bombs for direct hits. The fortress black has a huge amount of material and ammunition storage, and has a complete set of life maintenance facilities: water, electricity, ventilation equipment. The Russians estimated that there were still about 2,500 Ukrainian troops there, and the Azov battalion was on the defensive.
With the steel mill for a long time to conquer. Some people even say that it is possible to grow crops in it, and it does not matter if people live for a few years.
This reminds me of the "Biosphere II" experiment that was conducted in the arizona desert in the united states in the last century. In addition to the sunlight being able to enter, in several huge glass houses completely isolated from the outside, the sea, land, wind and rain are simulated... Elements of the entire biosphere. Then a few scientists were sent in, and then the experiment failed.
Biosphere II
I don't believe the environment in a steel mill can be higher than Biosphere One. But all the news that was spread at that time was really magical.
2. A steel mill that goes to history.
The steel mill walked toward history, or history came to him.
On 14 April, after the settlement of all Ukrainian troops at the Ilyich Metallurgical Plant, the Russians surrounded the Azovstar Steel Mill and issued an ultimatum: asking the defenders to lay down their arms and guarantee their humanitarian treatment.
The defenders refused, and the Ukrainian side refused, saying that they would never surrender!
The steel mill was bombed
The Russian army began a fierce attack: tulip heavy mortars, 2A44 203mm howitzers could not withstand shelling, "backfire" strategic bombers dropped several tons of aerial bombs, drilling shells...
The smoke that rose covered the sky, and the large pit that exploded was shocking. However, under such an attack, the underground tunnel of the steel plant seemed to be little damaged.
British media said: The underground fortress has as many as seven floors, which is impregnable and impossible to conquer.
So the fortress map appeared on the Internet, so the online post discussed the attack method: water attack, fire attack, smoke attack... But I couldn't conquer it.
By April 21, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered an attack on steel mills to stop, but to block the plant area so that "not a fly can fly"
New green in Mariupol
Or be trapped, or surrender. This is the choice that the Russian side gives to the defenders!
The Assyrian Steel Mill is in the eyes of the whole world, on the path of its history. Everything about human nature is vividly expressed inside and outside that crypt.
Bacon said that when a disaster fails to affect the viewer, the disaster becomes a party landscape. I think I'm also a spectator. But I want to document some of the truths that have happened recently, perhaps: it's just what I see as truth.
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