Thousands took shelter in the tunnels of the steelworks in Mariupol for more than two months as Russia bombarded it with missiles. It remains unclear how many are now in captivity
, it is the three-month siege of Mariupol’s steelworks this spring, and the harrowing experience of its last defenders. Holed up in Azovstal, one of Europe’s largest metal-producing plants, hundreds of outnumbered, outgunned, wounded and emaciated Ukrainian soldiers, and more than 1,000 civilians, resisted one of Moscow’s fiercest military attacks for more than 80 days.
Cut off from the world and low on food, the defenders of Azovstal were holed up in the tunnels of the steelworks for over two months while the Russians launched rockets and incendiary bombs at the site. But then, in September, Kyiv confirmed that the commander of the Azov Battalion, Lt Colonel Denys Prokopenko, was among 215 Ukrainian prisoners of war released in a prisoner swap, the largest such exchange since the start of the war. In return, Russia received 55 prisoners from Ukraine, including the country’s most valuable Russian prisoner,, the former Ukrainian MP and an ally of Putin, accused by Ukraine of high treason.
In a rare public interview, another ex-prisoner, Mykhailo Dianov, photographed with a bandage on his broken right arm and weighing 40kg less after his detention in the Russian-controlled penal colony, told Sky News he thought he would never survive: “We thought this every day. At Azovstal we thought it was the end.
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