But for weeks, the world has been gripped by the raging battle for the steel mill on the shores of the Sea of ​​Azov. Yuriy Ryzhenkov, CEO of Metinvest Holding, which owns the plant, is devastated by what he sees happening at the plant and in Mariupol. “The city has been under siege for almost two months now. And the Russians do not allow us to bring food to the city or water to the city,” Rizhenkov said. “They do not allow us to take civilians out of the city in a centralized way. They make people either move in their own cars or even walk through the minefields. It is a humanitarian catastrophe there.” Asked why Russian President Vladimir Putin wants to take Azovstal so much, Ryzhenkov told CNN: “I do not think it is the factory he wants.” “I think this is the symbolism they wanted to conquer Mariupol. They never expected Mariupol to resist.” At least 150 workers have been killed and thousands are missing, he says. “What we do know is that out of the 11,000 employees at Azovstal,” says Ryzhenkov, “only about 4,500 people came out of Mariupol and contacted us to find out where they are.” He seems haunted by the fate of Azovstal’s workforce. “For the last two months, the whole company has been trying to do everything possible to bring people to safety. Unfortunately, at the moment, we are not halfway there.” The staff of the company includes family dynasties that have made steel for as long as they can remember. Ivan Goltvenko, the factory’s 38-year-old human resources manager, is the third generation of his family working at Azovstal. “I hoped to work for Azovstal all my life and contribute a lot to the web and my city,” he says sadly.
“To see your city being destroyed is horrible, you could compare it to a relative dying in your arms … And to see him die gradually, organ after organ and there is nothing you can do.” From the city of Zaphorizhzhia, it is difficult to trace the magnitude of the devastation caused by the Russian airstrikes “because you want your city to remain the same as it was in your memory.” News of what is happening at home is passed on to friends and colleagues who are still trapped in Mariupol.
“Today, for example, they showed me a video of my apartment. Although the house was saved, my apartment was completely looted by Russian soldiers. There was nothing left valuable – they even searched among the children’s toys and many of them. they were stolen “. He says he spoke with a colleague on April 24, who revealed some of the atrocities that residents are facing. “From one of the officials, who is related, we know that he is in the city, he did not have time to leave and has been involved in removing debris and transporting the bodies of dead citizens,” says Goltvenko.
“And yesterday he told me that for one day from a single district of the city, I would say ‘only from one street’ he loaded four trucks of corpses. “He said, ‘I was drawn to volunteering at the morgue to pick up corpses in the city and take them away.’”
“That’s why,” says Goltvenko, “he gets a dry diet. His colleague, 49-year-old Oleksiy Ehorov, deputy chief of repairs, has lived in Mariupol since he was a child. “I studied there, I started working there, there I became the person I am now. And seeing how it has been destroyed … You can not say it without tears, without a knot in the neck,” he said. says. The agony is not over. Russian jets and missiles continue to hit the site despite Putin saying last week that he did not need to invade the industrial area around the plant.
Azovstal defenders have repeatedly refused to surrender their weapons. It is believed that there are still hundreds of soldiers and civilians in the factory.

Before the war

What happened at Azovstal is a mirror image of what happened in a city proud of its history and industrial heritage.
The industrial port city was probably never conventionally beautiful, with stacks of chimneys emitting smoke and steam into the sky above the factory. At the port, blue and yellow cranes were moving heavy objects around the bustling yard. But Mariupol had its charm and was loved by its inhabitants.
In recent years, significant improvements have been made, green spaces have been developed and the quality of life for working communities is finally improving. “We have spent the last eight years building a modern and comfortable city there; a good city to live in,” says Rizhenkov.
“We have completed some major environmental projects and there were still plans to ensure that we have clean air, that we have clean water and so on and so forth. And now we see all of that being destroyed in less than two months.” Maryna Holovnova, 28, says it was “like a living dream” because “we worked to turn the city from a simple industrial small town into a cultural capital”. The local of Mariupol, returned in 2020 after 10 years of absence to find a rising social scene. “It was completely different,” he told CNN, adding proudly that it had even been designated Ukraine’s Capital of Culture by the Ministry of Culture last year. “We had so many festivals and we had so many people coming from other cities and from other countries,” he continues. “We had the opportunity to tell people about the city not only from the perspective of industrial development, but also from a cultural point of view. [and] from a historical point of view – because Mariupol has an amazing history “. A bright smile spreads on her face as the former city tour guide remembers the route that the visitors would follow. It would start from the old centuries-old Mariupol Water Tower, he says, before wandering the city center, taking in many historic buildings and sites associated with local personalities. Holovnova says that with the seaside metropolis still thriving, a sailing tour was introduced last year and plans were underway to embark on an industrial-themed tour, complete with a tour of the plant to present the steelmaking process. “One of my favorite places, which was strange as the locals did not understand me … was an observation point from where you could see the whole Azovstal factory and you could see how big it was, how huge it was, how wonderful it was.” says. “It was nothing special for the locals because we are used to it, but all the foreigners, people from other cities, were surprised by the view.”

City under siege

The prosperity of Mariupol was an incredible story, because it was swallowed up by the violence of the 20th century. It was the scene of fierce fighting in World War II.
This time, the devastation is even greater. Ukrainian officials say less than 20% of the city’s buildings are intact. Russia’s relentless bombing campaign left ruins where landmarks such as the Drama Theater once stood. Ukrainian officials say about 300 of the approximately 1,300 civilians who sought refuge at the cultural institution are believed to have died when it was bombed in a brutal Russian attack on March 16. The same goes for Azovstal. Built in 1933 under Soviet rule, it was partially demolished during the Nazi occupation in the 1940s before being rebuilt. Now it is lost again – its trunk houses Ukrainian soldiers and about 1,000 civilians in a maze of dungeons, according to Ukrainian officials. It is estimated that 100,000 people remain in the city. On Thursday, local authorities warned that Mariupol was vulnerable to epidemics due to the horrific health conditions in much of the city and the fact that perhaps thousands of corpses remain unaccounted for. Oleksiy Ehorov can not bear to think about what has happened in his city – and in his family. His mother-in-law died of injuries sustained in bombings during their first attempt to flee to Zaporizhia. “My feelings have already disappeared there in Mariupol. That’s why there is nothing but hatred,” he told CNN. Ehorov says he enjoyed living by the sea and hoped to stay in the steel industry until he retired.
Now all he can do is watch as Russia continues to block the city and its former workplace.
When asked if he would work for the Russians if they took over the factory, he echoed Rinat Akhmetov, Ukraine’s richest man and the group’s main shareholder behind Azovstal Steel. “No. It’s not going to be. After what they did … never.” CNN’s Tim Lister contributed to this report from Lviv, Ukraine, and Kostan Nechyporenko from Kyiv.