Siege in the Russian invasion of Ukraine
The siege of Mariupol began on 24 February 2022 and lasted until 20 May, as part of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. It saw fighting between the Russian Armed Forces (alongside the Donetsk People's Republic People's Militia) and the Ukrainian Armed Forces for control over the city of Mariupol in southeastern Ukraine. Lasting for almost three months, the siege ended in a victory for Russia and the Donetsk People's Republic, as Ukraine lost control of the city amidst Russia's eastern Ukraine offensive and southern Ukraine offensive; all Ukrainian troops remaining in the city surrendered at the Azovstal Iron and Steel Works on 20 May 2022, after they were ordered to cease fighting.
Mariupol is located in Ukraine's Donetsk Oblast, and following the siege, it was initially controlled by the Donetsk People's Republic, supported by occupying Russian troops. However, it was later subjected to Russia's annexation of southeastern Ukraine, and remains under direct Russian control as of 2024[ [update]].
During the Russian siege, the Red Cross described the situation in Mariupol as "apocalyptic" while Ukrainian authorities accused Russia of engineering a major humanitarian crisis in the city. Ukrainian officials reported that approximately 25,000 civilians had been killed and that at least 95% of the city had been destroyed during the fighting, primarily by large-scale Russian bombardments. In an official statement, the United Nations confirmed the deaths of 1,348 civilians in Mariupol, but warned that the true death toll was likely thousands higher while also reporting that 90% of the city's residential buildings had been damaged or completely destroyed.
Major combat operations in the city effectively ended on 16 May 2022, after Ukraine's Azov Regiment surrendered at the Azovstal Iron and Steel Works. Some Western reports described the siege as a pyrrhic or symbolic Russian victory, with others noting that the humanitarian impact of the takeover was a "reputational disaster" for Russia. However, the loss of the city was a significant defeat for Ukraine.
Based on the analysis of mass graves, Human Rights Watch estimated at least 10,284 people died in Mariupol from March 2022 to February 2023, but assumes that is an undercount.
Background.
Mariupol was considered a major strategic city and therefore was a target for Russian forces. It was the largest city in the Ukrainian-controlled portion of Donetsk Oblast, and was also one of the largest Russian-speaking cities in Ukraine. Mariupol was a major industrial hub, home of the Illich and Azovstal Iron and Steel Works, and the largest city on the Sea of Azov.
Control of its port on the western shore of the Sea of Azov is vital to the economy of Ukraine. For Russia, it would allow a land route to Crimea and allow passage by Russian marine traffic. Capturing the city gave Russia full control over the Sea of Azov.
In 2014 after the Revolution of Dignity, Mariupol was swept by pro-Russian protests against the new government. Tensions erupted into the war in Donbas in early May, and during the unrest, militiamen of the separatist and Russian-backed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) took control of the city and forced Ukrainian troops to abandon it during the first battle for Mariupol. However, the following month, Ukrainian forces recaptured the city in an offensive. In August, the DPR and Russian troops captured the village of Novoazovsk, 45 km east of Mariupol near the Russo-Ukrainian border.
With the town captured and forces renewed, in September the DPR attempted to capture the city again in the second battle for Mariupol. Fighting reached the eastern outskirts, but the separatists were eventually repelled. In October, then-DPR Prime Minister Alexander Zakharchenko vowed to retake the city. Mariupol was then indiscriminately bombed by rockets in January 2015. Fearing a future third offensive into Mariupol, in February Ukrainian forces launched a surprise attack into Shyrokyne, a village located 11 km east of Mariupol with the objective of expelling the separatist forces from the city limits and creating a buffer zone. The separatists withdrew from Shyrokyne four months later. The conflict was frozen when the Minsk II ceasefire agreement was signed in 2015.
2018 saw again tension in the region around Mariupol, as the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) coast guard fired upon and captured three Ukrainian Navy vessels after they attempted to transit from the Black Sea into the Sea of Azov through the Kerch Strait on their way to the port of Mariupol. The Kerch Strait incident raised tensions, and martial law was briefly declared by Ukraine in fears that a war would break out between the two countries.
One of the most instrumental groups for the recapture and subsequent defenses of Mariupol was the Azov Battalion, a Ukrainian volunteer militia, controversial for its openly neo-Nazi and ultranationalist members. By November 2014 Azov was integrated into the National Guard of Ukraine, with Mariupol as its headquarters. As one of Vladimir Putin's stated goals for the invasion was the "denazification" of Ukraine, Mariupol represented an important ideological and symbolical target for the Russian forces.
Prior to the siege, around 100,000 residents left Mariupol, according to the city's deputy mayor.
Prior to falling to Russian forces, the city was defended by the Ukrainian Ground Forces, the Ukrainian Naval Infantry, the National Guard of Ukraine (primarily the Azov Regiment), the Territorial Defense Forces of Ukraine, and irregular forces.
Advances to Mariupol.
Preliminary shelling and advance on the city.
On 24 February, the day the invasion began, Russian artillery bombarded the city, reportedly injuring 26 people.
On the morning of 25 February, Russian forces advanced from DPR territory in the east towards Mariupol. They encountered Ukrainian forces near the village of Pavlopil, who repelled the Russian advance. The mayor of Mariupol, Vadym Boychenko, said 22 Russian tanks had been destroyed in the skirmish. That evening, the Russian Navy, drawing on the capabilities provided by the Black Sea Fleet, reportedly began an amphibious assault on the Sea of Azov coastline west of Mariupol. A US defense official stated that the Russians may have deployed thousands of marines from this beachhead.
On 26 February, Russian forces continued to bombard Mariupol with artillery. Later, the government of Greece announced that ten ethnic Greek civilians had been killed by Russian strikes at Mariupol, six in the village of Sartana and four in the village of Buhas.
On the morning of 27 February, mayor Boychenko said that a Russian tank column had advanced on Mariupol from the DPR, but this attack was repulsed by Ukrainian forces, with six Russian soldiers captured. Later that day, a 6-year-old girl in Mariupol was killed by Russian shelling. Pavlo Kyrylenko, governor of Donetsk Oblast, stated that fighting in Mariupol had continued throughout the night of 27 February.
Throughout 28 February, the city remained under Ukrainian control despite being surrounded by Russian troops and constantly shelled. Electricity, gas, and internet connection to most of the city was cut during the evening. Later, according to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Russian Major General Andrei Sukhovetsky was killed by a Ukrainian sniper near Mariupol, but other sources said that he had been killed during the Kyiv offensive.
Mariupol surrounded.
On 1 March, Denis Pushilin, the head of the DPR, announced that DPR forces had almost completely surrounded the nearby city of Volnovakha and that they would soon do the same to Mariupol. Russian artillery later bombarded Mariupol, causing over 21 injuries.
The city was fully surrounded on 2 March, after which the siege intensified. Russian shelling killed a teenager and wounded two other teenagers who were playing soccer outside. Boychenko announced the city was suffering from a water outage and had experienced massive casualties. He also said Russian forces were preventing civilians from exiting.
Later on 2 March, Russian artillery targeted a densely populated neighborhood of Mariupol, shelling it for nearly 15 hours. The neighborhood was massively damaged as a result, with deputy mayor Sergiy Orlov reporting that "at least hundreds of people are dead".
On the morning of 3 March, the city was shelled again by Russian troops. Eduard Basurin, the spokesman for the DPR militia, formally called on the besieged Ukrainian forces in Mariupol to surrender or face "targeted strikes". Russian Ministry of Defense spokesman Igor Konashenkov reported that DPR forces had tightened the siege, and that three nearby settlements had been captured.
On 4 March, Boychenko stated that the city's supplies were running out, and called for a humanitarian evacuation corridor and Ukrainian military reinforcements. He also stated that Russian BM-21 Grads were shelling the city's hospitals and that Mariupol residents no longer had heat, running water, or electricity. Later that day, a temporary ceasefire was proposed for the Mariupol region in order to allow citizens to evacuate.
On 5 March, the Ukrainian government announced its desire to evacuate 200,000 civilians from Mariupol. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) announced that it would act as a guarantor for a new ceasefire to allow for this evacuation. The Red Cross described the situation in Mariupol as "extremely dire". After three days of shelling, a ceasefire was announced to be in effect from 11:00 to 16:00. Civilians began to evacuate from Mariupol along a humanitarian corridor to the city of Zaporizhzhia. As civilians entered the evacuation corridor, Russian forces continued shelling the city, forcing evacuees to turn back.
Ukrainian authorities later reported that Russian forces had failed to observe the ceasefire and continued to shell the city. Russian officials accused Ukrainian forces of not allowing civilians to evacuate towards Russia. The DPR reported that only 17 civilians had been evacuated from Mariupol.
On 6 March, the Red Cross announced that a second attempt to evacuate civilians from Mariupol had again failed. Anton Herashchenko, a Ukrainian official, said the second attempt at a humanitarian corridor for civilians in Mariupol ended with a Russian bombardment. The Red Cross reported that there were "devastating scenes of human suffering" in Mariupol. Later in the morning, Inna Sovsun, a Ukrainian member of parliament, stated that the fuel pipeline that supplies Mariupol was damaged by Russian forces, leaving more than 700,000 people without heat, and suggested that people might freeze to death, as the temperature at the time often fell below . The bombardment also hit the city's last functioning cellular tower.
On 7 March, the ICRC Director of Operations stated that humanitarian corridor agreements had only been made in principle, without the precision required for implementation, needing routes, times and whether goods could be brought in to be agreed. The ICRC team had found that one of the proposed corridor roads was mined, and the ICRC was facilitating talks between Russian and Ukrainian forces.
On 8 March, another attempt to evacuate civilians was made, but the Ukrainian government accused Russia of violating the ceasefire again by bombing the evacuation corridor.
On 9 March, the Associated Press reported that scores of Ukrainian civilians and soldiers were being buried by city workers in a mass grave at one of the city's cemeteries. Russian shelling had hit the cemetery the previous day, interrupting the burials and damaging a wall. Later, another attempted ceasefire failed after Orlov reported that Russian soldiers had opened fire on construction workers and evacuation points. Orlov described the city's supply shortage as so severe that residents were melting snow to get water. Later that day, the Mariupol City Council issued a statement that a Russian airstrike had struck and destroyed a maternity ward and children's hospital. Ukrainian officials stated that three civilians were killed and at least 17 wounded.
Urban advances.
Russian push into the city.
Ukraine's military stated on 12 March that Russian forces had captured the eastern outskirts of Mariupol. Later, a vehicle convoy of 82 ethnic Greeks was able to leave the city via a humanitarian corridor.
On 13 March, Boychenko stated that Russian forces had bombed the city at least 22 times in the previous 24 hours, with a hundred bombs, and added that the last food and water reserves in the city were being depleted. The Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs said that the National Guard of Ukraine had damaged several Russian armored vehicles with artillery strikes during the day. İsmail Hacıoğlu, the head of the local Sultan Suleiman Mosque, stated that 86 Turkish citizens in the city were awaiting evacuation by the Turkish government.
More than 160 cars were able to leave the city on 14 March at 13:00 local time, the first evacuation allowed during the siege. The Russian Ministry of Defense stated that 450 tonnes of humanitarian aid had been brought to the city after