The last Ukrainian defenders of Mariupol are still holding parts of the city and will “fight to the end”, said Prime Minister Denys Chmygal. RFI spoke on the spot chechen soldiers participating in the Russian invasion in the last attack on the city.

The RFI arrived in town near the contact line 20 minutes after it expired the ultimatum issued by Russia on Sunday demanding the Ukrainian military in Mariupol surrender, guaranteeing their lives. But the Ukrainians they say “no”.

Arriving in the city (Editor’s note: the trip was arranged by the Russian military) the first people you will see are Chechen special forces.

vehicles without license plates, long beard and sophisticated equipment: they are the elite soldiers of Ramzan Kadyrov, experience urban combat. The purpose of the moment, said the commander, was “finish work in the industrial zone”, to ensure full control, before attacking, he says, the Azovstal fort.

Mariúpol, which had a pre -war population of half a million inhabitants, is experiencing a humanitarian crisis where some residents living there do not have access to basic products such as food, drinking water and services such as gas. or heating.

The final focus of the resistance was just over a thousand troops fighting at the Azovstal plant and its network of tunnels, in an industrial area,

“We gave them two days to surrender. But there is no sign that they plan to do so, so we have to move on, ”said the Chechen official, who gave his name as Shalaev Zamid.

“In some areas, we work in the territories near the Azovstal plant. Because it’s not just about the factory, but about the whole industrial park“, He says.

And he added: “We stopped advancing in front directly to the factory. First we need to control the entire industrial zone. If we leave the industrial property, we will always receive attacks from the sides. “

The Chechen are confident that they can solve this problem. “We studied their strategy. They usually let our people in, then surround them and do their job. But now we’ve seen a good strategy against them, and they’ve been insane a few times. “

The left side of Azovstal I would have been taken. In this factory, always according to the Chechen official, with snipers and machine guns, with supplies until two weeks ago using a helicopter.

Do Russian troops have full control over other areas of Mariupol?

Obviously, it’s hard to say: what the Russian soldiers have been saying to RFI for a few days is that they fear infiltrations. At the last checkpoint, before the front line, a man arrived who wanted to take the friend home. “My house burned down,” he told the soldiers, “I’m going to take him home.”

The ritual is the same: first he has to lift your shirt, show that he has no weapons or suspicious tattoos. Then the vehicle is registered, the engine is inspected, the papers are checked … Anyway and finally, prevent you from going to the requested address.

The rationale: “intense fighting in the area.” In fact, some ten minutes later, several hundred meters away, a 5-storey building was the target of the bombardment. Seeing the fire and puffs of smoke from miles away …

No one can leave Mariupol, the main port on the Sea of ​​Azov, which is now fully controlled by Moscow.

Russia intends to make the Sea of ​​Azov an inland sea for ensure the security of the Sevastopol naval basein the annexed Crimea, and Mariúpol was essential to form a land corridor between that peninsula and the self -proclaimed republics of Donetsk and Lugansk.

Mariúpol, which had a pre -war population of half a million inhabitants, is experiencing a humanitarian crisis where some residents living there do not have access to basic products such as food, drinking water and services such as gas. or heating.

Clarín newsroom with information from RFI’s special envoy in Mariúpol, Anissa El Jabri, and EFE

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