MARIUPOL, Ukraine – The city of Mariupol on the Azov Sea was controlled by Kremlin-backed separatists in April-June 2014 and ran the risk of being surrendered to them again in August, when regular Russian troops invaded eastern Ukraine.
The danger remains today.
Pro-Ukrainian activists and fighters say the risk is alive because of what they believe to be the complaisance and inaction of Ukrainian authorities. The defense of the city, which had a pre-war population of 500,000, is inadequate and military supplies are insufficient, they say.
These concerns are raised as fighting is intensifying in the strategically located village of Shyrokyne 20 kilometers east of Mariupol. The sound of shelling was clearly heard in downtown Mariupol. Passersby are so used to them that they don’t pay attention to it.
Mariupol’s city council was not available either by phone or email. Oleksiy Mazepa, a spokesman for the Army General Staff, said he had no information on Mariupol’s defense, while Anatoly Kravchuk, a spokesman for the Donetsk Oblast administration, said he could not comment because it is a military secret.
Activists and volunteers helping the army say that local officials used to cooperate with separatists but now pretend to be pro-Ukrainian due to conformism. Very few have been dismissed.
“The authorities are not Ukrainian even if they wear a vyshyvanka (traditional embroidered Ukrainian clothing) and take a spade to dig trenches twice a year,” Spartak Stepnov, an activist of the pro-Ukrainian New Mariupol group’s self-defense unit, told the Kyiv Post at a barbecue party organized by the group.
He voiced a similar view about regional authorities. “(Former Donetsk Oblast Governor Serhiy) Taruta is responsible for losing territory,” he said. “He had all the tools and opportunities to nip (the takeover of cities by Kremlin-backed separatists) in the bud.”
Taruta, in a separate interview with the Kyiv Post earlier this month, said he didn’t have enough authority and help from Kyiv to prevent the takeover of cities and town.
Dmytro Chichera, a volunteer from the same group, said that local authorities were unable to solve major problems and called conversations with officials “a talkfest” and a “waste of time.”
“It would be better if they didn’t exist at all,” he laughed.
One of the authorities’ presumed failures is that they have been allegedly unable to build proper fortifications around Mariupol to withstand a combined Russian-separatist assault.
Stepnov criticized the third fortification line, which runs through the city of Mariupol, calling it “laughable” and “shameful.”
“This is a fortification line in name only,” he said. “There has been talk about it since September but nothing has been done.”
The head of an Azov Regiment sub-unit who goes by the nom-de-guerre Kirt, also criticized the fortifications, saying that none of the three lines of defense around Mariupol was good.
Another problem is authorities’ apparent failure to properly supply the army, with volunteers having to provide clothing, food and equipment.
As an example, Chichera said that some checkpoints around Mariupol were not getting enough drinking water, and in some cases soldiers had received service water that wasn’t potable.
Activists believe that not only authorities but also monitors of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) are an obstacle to Mariupol’s defense.
The OSCE has insisted that Shyrokyne be demilitarized – something that pro-Ukrainian activists say would expose Mariupol to shelling by Kremlin-backed forces.
“Shyrokyne is a strategic height from which the city can be shelled,” Yaroslav, a member of the Mariupol Squad self-defense group, said at a rally against the OSCE on May 26. He did not give his last name for fear of reprisals.
They also argue that demilitarization of Shyrokyne contradicts the Feb. 12 Minsk cease-fire agreement, according to which the village must be under Ukrainian control.
Yaroslav also argued that OSCE observers had compromised their mission by repeatedly failing to see Russian troops and equipment in Ukraine and by recording mostly Ukrainian responses to separatist shelling, as opposed to shelling of Ukrainian positions by Kremlin-backed forces.
Mariupol Squad activists claim that the OSCE is promoting Russia’s agenda and accuse its Russian monitors of gathering intelligence for the Kremlin. “This is not an independent mission. They are Russian spies,” Yaroslav said.
Alexander Hug, a deputy chief monitor of the OSCE mission in Ukraine, denied that there is a pro-Russian bias, saying that many OSCE countries are represented in the mission. There are 24 Russian representatives at the mission.
He told the Kyiv Post that he believed withdrawal of weapons and troops from Shyrokyne would not threaten Mariupol. “We are not insisting that they give up defensive positions, just offensive ones,” he said.
Commenting on accusations that withdrawal of weaponry from Shyrokyne would be a violation of the Minsk deal, Hug said that “the fact that the sides are fighting
in Shyrokyne is a violation of Minsk and de-escalation is a way to
ensure adherence to the Minsk agreements.”
Despite obstacles to Mariupol’s defense, it will be hard for Russian-backed militants to seize Mariupol outright with their current resources, activists and fighters argue.
However, if Russia launches an invasion, the seizure of Mariupol will become more likely, Kirt said. Russian regular troops invaded eastern Ukraine last year during the battle of Illovaisk and earlier this year during the siege of Debaltseve.
“If Russia intervenes, Mariupol could be surrendered, or there will be a colossal massacre and fighting in the city,” he said. “Half of the city would be destroyed, infrastructure would be ruined, and civilians would be killed.”
Stepnov said that if separatist or Russian forces occupied the city’s eastern part, it would be hard for them to move further because of the river running through Mariupol’s center.
As opposed to taking Mariupol itself, Kremlin-backed forces are more likely to surround it by moving to the city of Volnovakha and further to the border of Donetsk and Zaporizhya oblasts, Stepnov said. In that case Mariupol’s population will have to be evacuated, and it will be impossible to supply the city, he added.
“They’ll gobble this territory and then move on,” he said. “This will never stop.”
Chichera compared a possible takeover by combined Russian-separatist forces to Russian troops razing Grozny, the capital of Chechnya, to the ground in the 1990s.
“They are like locusts,” he said. “They eat everything on their way. And Shyrokyne is being razed to the ground.”
Activists argue that it is not the authorities but local civil society that has so far prevented a separatist takeover of the city.
They say that, although a majority of the city’s population cannot be characterized as actively pro-Ukrainian, Mariupol has defeated separatism due to an organized and active minority.
Initially pro-Ukrainian activists were isolated and afraid, and the task was to bring them together, said Maria Podybailo, a coordinator of the New Mariupol group.
“Our number doesn’t matter,” she said. “What matters is how strong, organized and united we are and whether we are ready to act.”
Neutral and passive residents have had to adapt and “follow the strong,” Maria added.
As a result, pro-Ukrainian sentiment in the city has increased, and pro-Russian views have been marginalized, she said.
Kyiv Post staff writer Oleg Sukhov can be reached at [email protected].
