The Russians are not going to restore the Azovstal plant in occupied Mariupol, Donetsk region, destroyed by bombing. This was stated by the director of the federal autonomous institution "Roskapbud" Yulia Maksimova, TASS reports on January 24.
"Azovstal" will definitely not be restored by anyone, because on the scale of that Soviet enterprise, as it was before, it is impossible and unprofitable. It was too badly destroyed during the war," she said.
According to the official, the Russian authorities want to economically repurpose the region for agriculture.
The plans of the occupiers were commented on by Petro Andryushchenko, the adviser to the mayor of Mariupol. According to him, the Russian Federation has had enough of its metallurgical production and is fixing the crisis of overproduction, so the Russians decided to turn the region into an agricultural appendage of Russia.
"Since the summer, we have been talking about the impossibility of resuming the work of metallurgy, primarily because of profitability. That Russian metallurgy overproduces, but because of sanctions there is no sale. That, apart from scrap metal and repair bases for military purposes, there is no benefit. But the gaiulyiters lie, and the wait-and-sees believe. Now what about face? Will you say "fake" again to official Muscovites?" - he wrote in Telegram.
According to Andryushchenko, the Russians will destroy industry in the occupied territory. The next in line is the city port, ship repair plant and Azovelektrostal.
"There is no goal of restoring Mariupol. There is a goal of building a Russian Zhdanov with residents of Buryatia on the colonial plantations of Muscovy in the Azov steppe. It's time to understand," said the mayor's adviser.
We will remind that Mariupol was surrounded by Russian troops in the first days of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, which began on February 24. The occupiers were unable to take the city by storm and began to drop air bombs on it and shell it. From the beginning of March, Mariupol was under blockade, from the second half of May - under full occupation. The defense of the city lasted 86 days.
Until mid-May, there were Ukrainian defenders at the "Azovstal" plant - soldiers of the National Guard, in particular the "Azov" regiment, employees of the Security Service of Ukraine, servicemen of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, border guards and policemen. At that time, the occupiers captured almost the entire territory of Mariupol and regularly stormed "Azovstal", shelled the enterprise and dropped aerial bombs on it.