ZAPORIYYA | In a bunker several meters underground, supplies of water and food, stacks of mattresses, toilets and wood-burning stoves show that the Soviets built this Ukrainian steel mill with one idea in mind: war.
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Much like the Azovstal factory, the last Ukrainian redoubt in the port city of Mariupol, the Zaporizhstal factory shows how these Stalin-era sites were designed in anticipation of an invasion by the USSR.
“We can stay in the shelters for a long time,” says Zaporizhstal worker Ihor Buhlayev, 20, in his silver safety gear. “I think it gives us a chance to survive,” he says as sparks erupt from the melting metal behind him.
This metallurgical complex in Zaporijjia in the south of the country was not captured by Russian forces. But the factory was forced to suspend its activities when the front dangerously approached.
The underground bunkers of the Azovstal and Zaporizhstal power plants were built in the early 1930s, when the world was recovering from one war while heading towards another, and are intended to house thousands of workers.
Both mills are owned by Metinvest Holding, which is controlled by Ukraine’s richest man, Rinat Akhmetov.
Zaporizhstal has sixteen bunkers. The one visited by AFP is about ten meters deep and protected by an anti-blast door four centimeters thick.
The room, long and bright, has rows of wooden benches and is designed to seat up to 600 people.
Water tanks are used to flush toilets, emergency food and water bottles are stacked in a storage room, and woodpiles for the stove, the size of an oil drum, are chest deep.
“God Save us”
The bunkers under Azovstal have housed hundreds of civilians, many of whom left the site during an international evacuation operation, and still provide sanctuary for forces opposing Russia’s full control of the strategic city of Mariupol.
“God protect us from getting into a situation like our colleagues from Azovstal, metallurgists like us, who ended up staying (in the shelter) for so long (…) I wouldn’t wish that on anyone,” says Alexander Lotenkov, head of the communications department.
The approximately 5.5 square kilometer site is half the size of Azovstal. It remains massive nonetheless, and the only way to effectively move between its units is by using a vehicle.
Site size is one thing. Another reason is the sheer number of hiding places between the rows of buildings and tunnels beneath the terrain, as well as the vantage points from its tall structures.
But the war passed, and even if Zaporizhstal did not meet the same fate as Azovstal, business suffered.
They have resumed since early April, at the same time as Russian forces retreated from near Kyiv after fierce resistance from Ukrainians.
More good news came this week with the US announcing it would suspend tariffs on Ukrainian steel, but the situation is still difficult.
Ukraine accounts for only about 1% of US steel imports, according to US authorities, which imposed protective tariffs of 25%. And the logistics have become a major challenge for Ukrainian exporters as the usual transport routes have been destroyed by the war.
“We will not be able to compete with other manufacturers because their logistics costs are lower, and in order to export to the United States we now have to transport Zaporizhia’s production through Poland,” said the website’s director-general AFP, Alexander Mironenko.
Steel exports have fallen to a fraction of their pre-war levels and it will be crucial for Ukraine’s economy to regain its former pace and rebuild the market.
“It was one of the main export industries, (…) about 50% of foreign exchange earnings were generated by Ukraine’s metallurgical and mining sector,” adds Mr. Mironenko.