Reportage

In Mariupol, trip to the basements and tunnels of the Azovstal complex

Western weaponry presented to the press by the Russian army.

© RFI / Anissa El Jabri

Text by: Anissa El Jabri Follow

4 mins

kyiv announced five days ago a new exchange of bodies of Russian and Ukrainian soldiers, among them those of some defenders of the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol, while bodies returned to Ukraine in the previous exchange had arrived in kyiv .

In Azovstal, the Russian army for the first time, this Monday June 13, took away a group of journalists, including our correspondent in Moscow.

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From our special correspondent in Mariupol,

The first image is that of a calendar, abandoned on a makeshift shelf, above a cup, where a tea bag is still lying around in a fund of black water.

The last sheet, torn off, marks May 14.

Three days later, the first fighters began to surrender.

It was here, the first basement of Azovstal.

The factory would have seven basements.

It is the very first accessible, security requires.

Not everything has been cleared yet, and investigators are still looking for bodies.

This basement is not that of the civilians, nor that of the marine infantry or other units of the Ukrainian army;

here, explains the Russian army, were the quarters of the Azov battalion.

The yellow and blue of Ukraine.

Azov Battalion t-shirts.

© RFI / Anissa El Jabri

Nazi symbols, posters and slogans

In these few dark rooms that are reached by a steep staircase, cockroaches disturbed by the light of visitors run on the walls.

They navigate between the bunk beds of a dormitory, where we piled up under a low ceiling.

A daily newspaper that still exudes humidity and mold.

Shards of glass as a mirror, rope for hanging hangers... a few towels abandoned next to gas mask cartridges, red crosses from the infirmary on bottles, spread out on mattresses...

Then, next to the scattered blankets, yellow and blue flags of Ukraine.

The Azov Battalion t-shirts, too, are very visible.

Visible: Nazi symbols, posters and slogans on clothes and walls.

Wolf's head and SS sign, like 14/88.

A dormitory in Azovstal's first basement.

© RFI / Anissa El Jabri

Ammunition, Western anti-tank weapons...

The Azov battalion is an important element in Russian communication.

One of the stated objectives of the special operation, as the Kremlin says, is to “denazify” Ukraine.

kyiv asks for weapons.

Some were delivered to Mariupol, Azovstal.

At least on the ground we see scattered ammunition, military instruction manuals, but also, next to the beds, some Western anti-tank weapons.

There were also French speakers here, says the Russian army.

Western weaponry presented to the press by the Russian army in Azovstal.

© RFI / Anissa El Jabri

At almost every corner, in the basements as well as in the interconnected dark tunnels: traps, including on the doors.

Explanation from an officer:

Here's how it worked: door opening, contact wire tearing, mine exploding.

One you see here, a Directional Bomb, and the second as a backup on the wall.

So, in reality, as soon as the door opens, it's two munitions that explode.

For them they had made signs so that those moving along the gallery would not open the door.

“I am happy to have destroyed Azovstal”

Icy building where danger was around every corner, and sniper positions everywhere.

Outside, in the ruins, under the scorching heat, the bomb craters, the burnt out trucks and cars, and the already rusted metal beam carcasses.

The letter Z on this Russian army truck in Azovstal.

© RFI / Anissa El Jabri

Still floats the smell of death.

Between a helmet abandoned on the ground: gas mask cartridges and mines reported, but not yet exploded.

These few words written in paint on a wall: “ 

 ”.

In the neighborhoods adjoining the factory, it is desolation.

Of the houses, sometimes only sections of walls remain.

No area in Mariupol is so marked by the violence of the fighting.

►Read also: Russia says it is ready to export its cereals

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