Mariupol — a bloody sacrifice and an epic

The defense of Mariupol for the Azov fighters de facto began on February 22, 2022. Azov Commander Denys Prokopenko, known as “Redis,” ordered to halt planned training processes and initiate defensive measures for the city, for which a coordinated plan existed. Combat actions were practically continuous from then on.

“I had 3-4 hours of sleep each day until I was wounded. When I got injured, it was my first day off.”

The first targets in Mariupol were infrastructure objects: power lines, thermal power plants, communal enterprises, warehouses with food and medicine, mobile operator towers, and even the main water pipeline from a reserve reservoir. Within a few days, the city lost all usual comforts: heating, water, mobile communication, and electricity. All products from stores and warehouses disappeared on the third day. Repair brigades had less opportunity to fix damages, firefighters struggled to extinguish fires, and ambulances couldn’t respond to calls as debris from shells rendered transport useless, and shelling became so dense that providing assistance became deadly. By March 4, 2022, almost no one in the city could retrieve the bodies of peaceful residents who died from shelling. Law and order in the city were regulated by the military and small patrol police forces. Within a few days, Russian forces blocked all exits from the city for civilians, marching almost unhindered from Crimea. The entire half-million city became hostage.

From the first hours of the February 24 offensive, the air was in favor of the Russians. They suppressed Ukrainian air defense and radar systems almost immediately. Mariupol was shelled with reactive artillery, assault aviation, and warships.

The higher military command set the main tasks for Azov:

“The country needed to buy time. And Azov accomplished all three tasks perfectly. Unfortunately, with heavy losses, but Azov held on. It was impossible. But the guys did it,”

– Georgiy Kuparashvili

Urban warfare

“The fight is here. I need ammunition, not a ride.”

The most significant challenge was with ammunition. The last ammunition shipment to the city arrived on February 27, 2022, consisting of 4 Kraz trucks with artillery shells, as there were no warehouses in the city.

Bodies of those killed in shelling were initially buried by neighbors, later taken over by Russians, organizing several mass graves on the outskirts of the city. Women and children began to be forcibly deported to the territory of the Russian Federation.

“They were squeezing us out of the city, from house to house. Aviation, FABs. They wiped us off the face of the earth. So many civilians died there! Boulevard of the 221st Rifle Division, there are two alleys with benches. Length – a block. I remember walking, and on each bench, there were 5, 6 bodies,” – recalls Dmytro, a resident of Mariupol who joined the Territorial Defense (TrO) after the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion.

The urban battles of Mariupol are a continuous story of Azov’s heroism. One machine gunner laid off two and a half enemy platoons at once. In one video, a single shot destroyed two tanks. To evacuate an injured comrade with the call sign “Pchela” to the Azovstal hospital, Azov fighters hijacked an enemy motorboat behind enemy lines.

Azov fighters constantly counterattacked and conducted sabotage behind enemy lines until the defense circle narrowed to Azovstal. For example, on March 9, Azov fighters surrounded a unit of the so-called “DNR” near the “Eastern” district for a week. At the beginning of the massive invasion, Azov’s intelligence even operated in Melitopol, undermining enemy heavy equipment. On February 28, in Mariupol, Andriy Oleksandrovych Sukhovetsky, the first major general whose death was officially confirmed by the Russian side, was killed. He was the deputy commander of the 41st Combined Arms Army.

In addition to destroying enemy equipment, Azov fighters also captured it and used it against the enemy, as in the case of two T-72 tanks. On March 13, the commander of the tank platoon of the Azov Regiment, on his tank, destroyed three enemy T-72 tanks and one Tiger, as the real commander leads the battle.

Arsenii Fedosiuk recalls that the commander of the reconnaissance group “Pashtet,” despite a severe injury with arterial bleeding, refused to be evacuated by helicopter. As soon as he could move again, he returned to the front lines. He consciously chose not to leave his comrades, demonstrating incredible strength of spirit, which was the foundation of everything.

It is rumored that Azov fighters were highly respected, and requests to attach someone from Azov to reinforce Marines or National Guard units were frequent. This request signified high discipline and excellent execution of combat tasks.

In the battles within the defense of Mariupol, Azov fought against all elite Russian special forces, not just the units of the so-called “L/DNR.” Essentially, Azov was the first to debunk the myth of the “second army in the world,” demonstrating that fighters from Akhmat or GRU special forces are just as mortal and vulnerable if hit by an Azov soldier’s bullet.

Following orders, Azov defended the city’s civilian population, with children taking shelter in the Azovstal bunkers. When the last journalists left the city on March 15, Eugen Maloletka and Mstyslav Chernov, information about the course of events in the besieged city could only be obtained from Ukrainian military due to the absence of light and communication.

Port Defense

Mariupol is primarily a port city, and its port was a strategic logistical hub. Civilian vessels were present in the port throughout the full-scale invasion, targeted by Russian artillery shells. Therefore, port defenders developed a defense plan to minimize risks for civilians. The Russian forces took crew members as hostages and exchanged them as prisoners of war. About 6 Azov fighters, supported by National Guard soldiers, participated in the defense of the port.

Bogdan Ravlikovsky became the commander of the unit defending the port, later appointed as the commander of the battalion on Azovstal by “Redis.” The local chief left the service, his people, and left the city on the first day of the invasion. Initial defense measures included mining the waters with anti-ship mines to protect and flooding two repair cranes and an old ship in the passages.

Russians made several attempts to clear mines from the port’s waters using a boat. Ukrainian defenders prevented this by destroying the boat. Then, infantry with tanks were involved in storming actions. The first attempts were repelled. However, Russian forces began to encircle them numerically and attack from the flanks and rear. Ukrainian forces had to narrow the defense circle, retreating to the port. The superior enemy forces did not cease their attempts to attack Ukrainian positions, and when they were practically surrounded, they received an order to retreat to Azovstal. This happened on April 14.

Aerial Breakthrough to Azovstal

When Mariupol was surrounded, the city’s defenders quickly ran out of ammunition. Then, the Main Intelligence Directorate, in collaboration with Azov Special Operations Detachment, developed an extremely risky and bold airborne operation. Helicopters carrying ammunition, medical supplies, provisions, and water flew 100 kilometers deep into enemy territory to the besieged Mariupol. Meanwhile, Ukrainian forces distracted the enemy’s attention and fire. The flights had to be very low to avoid enemy air defense in complete radio silence. They flew to the city at dawn, approaching from the sea, with two points of interest — Azovstal and the port. In one of these missions, they successfully transported 72 reinforcement fighters and several civilian surgeons. In turn, helicopters evacuated critically wounded individuals from the besieged city. Eventually, due to a breach in secrecy, Russian military managed to shoot down one helicopter and target another, but miraculously, the missile did not detonate. In total, 7 missions were successfully conducted on sixteen Mi-8 helicopters from March 21 to May 11. The time for landing and unloading cargo in Mariupol was 5-7 minutes.

“How many lives does your life cost?”

This phrase was said by the army aviation commander to the crew commander in response to his claim that these operations were impossible. After all, the pilot could save lives by delivering aid and evacuating the wounded, if the operation succeeded.

Bunker “Zalizyaka”: Medicine in Besieged Mariupol

“Considering the number of wounded and constant enemy fire, doctors worked non-stop. Medics slept only a few hours a day, and the rest of the time, they were operating,” recalls Yevhen Chudnyetsov, the chief of Azov’s medical service.

According to “Chudyk,” the Russians deliberately destroyed one hospital after another until one remained in the city — Hospital 555. However, after a shell hit directly into the operating room during surgery, the hospital with the wounded was evacuated to Azovstal. During the mentioned shelling, the power went out, and everyone on the operating tables died — many civilians were in the hospital. All the equipment that the doctors had in the bunker was brought from Hospital 555. However, it was critically insufficient — there was no ultrasound or X-ray for diagnosing injuries.

In early March, Russians shelled the blood transfusion point because there was a shortage of blood in hospitals due to a large number of wounded. On Azovstal, even the most essential supplies were lacking. To save the life of one wounded soldier, “Wikipedia,” they had to directly transfuse blood from three other soldiers with the same blood type, as there were no blood packs on Azovstal. Wounds often festered due to the lack of a sufficient amount of sterile material, so medics used improvised means, and they even managed to heal wounds with through-and-through injuries using bandages soaked in saline and iodine. The usual sorting of the wounded in Mariupol was very tough. Shrapnel injuries were often not considered a reason to be sent to the hospital; they were treated with antibiotics to let the wound heal with fragments inside. Fighters with such injuries would return to duty, as “Process” remembers. Injuries were considered sufficient for hospitalization only in cases of damage to vital organs and limb amputations.

Another serious problem was the critical shortage of drinking water — containers with technical water were located outside the bunker, and drinking water ran out very quickly. Every trip for water ended with injuries and fatalities. However, by the end of April, 400 wounded required food and water daily. The daily ration for each wounded person was 200 grams of porridge or borscht.

“All the food we had, the fighters of the Azov regiment gave to civilians. There were many children. Newborns who were only a few months old. The fighters of the Azov regiment risked their lives to find baby food. They would go, find, and bring it to the bunker,” said a fighter with the callsign “Troll.”

Union at Azovstal

Gradually, the encirclement of Ukrainian forces in Mariupol tightened — under the conditions of exponentially superior enemy forces, air superiority, the ability to rotate personnel, and replenish weapon stocks — Russian troops gradually advanced in the city. Ukrainian forces were pushed to the industrial zone, to Azovstal, and the Ilyich plant. Eventually, the combat group of the 36th Marine Brigade led by Colonel Volodymyr Baranyuk, breaking the higher command’s order, decided to break through to Ukrainian forces in the north independently and was shelled and defeated — some died during the breakthrough attempt, and some were taken captive by the Russians. After that, the command of the marines was taken over by Serhiy Volynsky, who, on the orders of Denys Prokopenko, together with the rest of the loyal oath-taking fighters, broke out of the enemy’s encirclement and joined Azov at Azovstal. From April 25, Ukrainian military established a circular defense at Azovstal, the last place in Mariupol where the Ukrainian flag flew high.

Ukrainian flag over Azovstal.

The Last Days of Azovstal

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To destroy the bunkers, the Russians unpacked several dozen aviation bombs, FAB-500 and FAB-3000. These bombs successively destroyed the underground shelters at the plant. One of these bombs caused the destruction of the “operating room” in the hospital bunker. Another pierced the shelter where civilians were hiding. Several more hit shelters, burying many military personnel.

“The decisions were made collectively in the bunker; it wasn’t a unilateral decision by the Azov commander. We discussed the terms of how we would do it. But from the beginning, the question was raised: if we are not given the command to stop the defense of Mariupol, we will not leave; we will stand until the end. However, if such a command is given, then on mutually agreed terms, we will surrender ourselves as prisoners. We had a lot of wounded, and they were dying. We were simply forced to do this. The entire command understood the risks; I understood the risk that could be for me. We understood that as commanders, we might not return from captivity. But to save soldiers who were dying, we had to make such a decision,” recalled Bohdan Ravlikovsky.

“I will say this: we didn’t plan to survive. I’m not saying we didn’t want to survive. We didn’t plan to survive. And if there wasn’t an order to stop the defense of Mariupol, I can say for sure that neither the commanders nor I, nor most officers, and probably most soldiers, would have surrendered as prisoners. We would have died there,” said Bohdan Krotevich.

The commander of the Mariupol garrison, taking only his service weapon, got into a car and headed to Novoazovsk for negotiations with the Russians alone. But these were not negotiations of someone who was losing; he came with a list of demands to the enemy, and without fulfilling these demands, Azov would not lay down their arms. If anyone had the moral right to put an end to the defense of the city, it was precisely that person. “Redis” knew that this could be his last decision; it was a huge risk. But “how much is your life worth” when there is a chance to evacuate civilians, rescue the severely wounded, give a decent burial to the fallen, and preserve your unit — your family? Returning to the headquarters, the commander was hit by a grenade; he received a shrapnel wound.

From February 24, 2022, to May 20, 2022, the Azov Special Operations Regiment, according to visually confirmed enemy losses, eliminated 3500 enemy personnel, with 5000 receiving injuries. approximately 1300 Azov soldiers confronted around 22,000 of the enemy personnel, without support of aviation, heavy equipment, artillery, and the fleet, about 5,000 Ukrainian military with limited amount of weapons and ammunition. The resistance of a significant Russian grouping and the time won in Mariupol allowed to strengthen the defense of Zaporizhzhia, Mykolaiv, and prevented the encirclement of Ukrainian defense forces in Donbas.

Azov fighters destroyed:

Also damaged: