Russia strikes one of Europe's largest steel plants in Ukraine's Mariupol; video surfaces

As the Russia Ukraine war intensifies, the Russian armed forces are attacking important infrastructure in various embattled cities in Ukraine. Azovstal, one of Europe's biggest iron and steelworks, is badly damaged as Russian armed forces lay siege to Mariupol, an important Ukrainian port city, officials say.

Lesia Vasylenko, a Ukrainian Member of Parliament, posted a chilling video on her Twitter page. Calling Azovstal one of the biggest metallurgic plants in Europe, she said, "# Azovstal One of the biggest metallurgic plants in Europe was destroyed. The economic losses for #Ukraine are huge. The environment is devastated. "

Vasylenko shared a video of explosions at an industrial location, with towering columns of grey and black smoke rising from the structures of Azovstal. 

'Will return to the city and revive it'

Serhiy Taruta, another MP from Ukraine writes on Facebook that Russian armed forces “had practically destroyed the factory.”

However, Azovstal’s director-general Enver Tskitishvili in his message on Telegram, a messaging app promised to restart Azovstal's operation again after reviving the plant. He said, "We will return to the city, rebuild the enterprise and revive it.” He did not specify the extent of the damage that the plant has suffered.

When the invasion began on February 24, he added, the firm took precautions to minimize environmental harm in the event of a strike. "Coke oven batteries no longer pose a danger to the lives of residents," he wrote. "We have also stopped the blast furnaces correctly." With the extent of the damage not known yet, the fear of environmental effects looms around. 

Mariupol under severe attack

As the Russia-Ukraine war entered the fourth week, Major Denis Prokopenko, from the National Guard Azov Regiment, told CNN that air and ground attacks on the city were now nearly persistent. He said, “Usually, Mariupol is under fire during the whole day and night. Sometimes there (are) 30 minutes of silence, but then the city is again under attack (from) tanks, artillery, multiple rockets, and (aircraft) like bombers and helicopters”.

Pavlo Kyrylenko, the Head of Donetsk Military-Civil Administration, claimed on Sunday that several Mariupol residents who managed to flee the Russian bombings are starving to death in the occupied Manhushi and Melekin. According to a major in Ukraine's army, as long as the city of Mariupol remains besieged and bombardments continue, it is difficult for the residents who are rationing food and water.

Azovstal

Azovstal is one of Europe's biggest iron and steelwork. It is part of the Metinvest group, which is controlled by Ukraine’s richest man, Rinat Akhmetov. Established in 1930 in Mariupol, Ukrainian SSR (Soviet Union) finally entered the production line in 1933. As per its official website, Azovstal production included: Continuous cast slabs, Rolled plates, Bars and shapes, Rails, Metallurgical slag products, By-products (liquid argon, liquid nitrogen, etc.) having a wide range of applications in various industrial sectors, etc.