In Mariupol, Donetsk region, there are battles for the ''Azovstal'' plant, and the occupants are trying to seize it. Vadim Denisenko, advisor to the Minister of Internal Affairs, told this on the air of a national TV marathon of Ukrainian TV channels in the morning of March 19.
"The situation in Mariupol is catastrophic, now there are fights for ''Azovstal''. According to the available data, we can say that we have lost this economic giant, in fact, one of the largest factories in Europe is actually being destroyed," Denisenko said.
Denisenko stressed - the occupation troops are destroying Mariupol on the orders of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
"This is Putin's personal order - to destroy this city. In parallel, of course, one of his key tasks in this war, now we can say without doubt, is not demilitarization, but deindustrialization of Ukraine. That is to make sure that after them we have to rebuild our factories in the next decades", - added the adviser to the head of the Interior Ministry.
Meanwhile, the director of communications SCM (co-owners of the plant) Natalia Emchenko reported that the plants were put into hot mothballing back on February 25.
"It was the right decision. Because a bomb hitting a working plant is a big and real trouble. But to a plant in mothballing is not," she noted.
People continue to be rescued from the rubble of the academic drama theater in Mariupol, which was destroyed by the occupants. According to preliminary information, there is no data on the deaths. But there is information about one seriously injured person.
Regarding the humanitarian disaster . According to the authorities, there are still about 350,000 people in the city. Some of them manage to leave through humanitarian corridors organized by the Ukrainian authorities. So it is planned to evacuate today. It is known that civilians are bombarded from time to time in the humanitarian convoy by Russian troops.
It is also known that the occupants undress men at the exit from Mariupol in order to find people with patriotic tattoos. They are looking for "Azov men".
As a reminder, Mariupol Mayor Vadym Boychenko said that Russian troops were unable to storm Mariupol and began dropping air bombs on it and shelling residential neighborhoods with artillery and multiple rocket launchers. Authorities estimate that approximately 350,000 people remain in the city.
Residents of besieged Mariupol were left without water, light, heat and communications because of the Russian occupiers. There are problems with medicines and foodstuffs in the city.
According to official data, 2,357 residents died in Mariupol during the Russian aggression. But the mayor's advisor Petr Andryushchenko believes that this is not the final data, as it is impossible to deal with the search for the bodies of the dead due to constant shelling for the time being. He supposes that about 20 thousand people could have already died in the city. Andryushchenko also said that about 80 percent of Mariupol housing stock is uninhabitable.
For about three weeks - until March 14 - there was no evacuation from the city because of constant shelling by Russian occupation troops. This week, several tens of thousands of residents managed to leave Mariupol in private cars.
