Published on: 05/23/2022 – 22:23
In Donbass, which has been partially controlled by pro-Russian separatists since 2014, the situation for the Ukrainian defenders of Lugansk, one of the two regions of this coal basin, is “getting more difficult”, and especially in Severodonetsk, which operates “24 hours a day”. , said the Ukrainian governor Sergiï Gaïdaï. All Russian and pro-Russian forces are concentrated in this area. The soldiers almost left Mariupol, where our special correspondent went again.
From our special correspondent in Mariupol,
From now on there will be fewer checkpoints on the roads to Mariupol coming from the capital of the separatist republic of Donetsk. If you still need special permission to go into town, power is no longer in the hands of the military. He was handed over to the police. The central police station and other neighborhood branch offices are now installed.
Almost the whole city is accessible, except for the Azovstal factory and its surroundings. It’s now in the hands of deminers. No sooner had the last Ukrainian soldiers left than work began a few days ago. This former mechanic from Azovstal lives directly opposite the factory. For him it will be necessary to live with the detonations of the mines for a long time.
It will take a long time to clear everything because there are so many corridors, so many tunnels… I worked there for 40 years, I worked in this Azov valley. There are so many things. You can’t do that in a week or even a month. You have to dig there for at least six months, because there are underground passages, pipelines, oil tunnels, everything! It will take a long time. It’s just a bunch of junk. There’s nothing left. The pipelines are destroyed, everything is destroyed. It’s scary to go there. You can now step on anything: grenades, mines, corpses. There are tunnels and subterranean corridors that go up to at least thirty meters. After so many months of fighting, anything is to be expected in there. I think it’s over, impossible to restore. You would have to spend so much money for that. And anyway, where would you find the people who work there? People are dead or gone, and the factory cannot function without professionals, and again without a lot of money.
The houses in a quarter opposite the Azovstal factory. © RFI/Anissa El Jabri
In this neighborhood, where residents say they still can’t get used to the silence, one wonders how to work, how to find an income and, above all, where to live. Here the destruction is greater than anywhere else. Some houses are nothing more than a tangle of tin and rubble. In the face of spring this nagging question: But how to spend the next winter?
►Read again: The city of Mariupol, from metallurgical industry to seaside tourism ?
Regarding the Azovstal soldiers, those able-bodied were immediately put behind bars. The injured were taken to a seaside hospital in Novoazovsk for treatment. Only a few images from the Ministry of Defense were leaked. This Monday evening the confirmation from Rosgvardia, the Russian National Guard: All have now been placed in detention centers.
00:38 Houses in a neighborhood opposite the Azovstal factory. © RFI/Anissa El Jabri
According to the Russian Defense Ministry, since May 16, 2,439 Ukrainian soldiers and members of the Azov regiment have surrendered. Your future ? A trial, the leader of the self-proclaimed Donetsk Republic said on Saturday. But some are already talking about an exchange; This was the case last Saturday, but Denis Pushilin clarified on Russian TV at noon:
These prisoners are currently being held on the territory of the Donetsk People’s Republic. An international tribunal is planned for the future. The relevant documents are being prepared, the court rules are being drafted. There may be intermediate courts, as after the Great Patriotic War.
According to the Interfax agency, a first trial against the surrendering soldiers will take place this Monday evening in Mariupol. Others are planned in other places.
►Read again: In Mariupol on May 9th we also celebrated the independence of the separatist republic of Donetsk