Thread by @WarMonitor3

The Battle Of Mariupol a thread🧵
One of the most incredible defences of a besieged city in modern history a true story of David V Goliath.
How a small Ukrainian army grouping held off the Russian armies most elite brigades for 90 days, a tale of extreme heroism and sacrifice.

Why Mariupol one may ask in terms of key Russian military objectives?
The answer is simple but split into three parts.
Number 1- Capturing Mariupol allows a land corridor from Crimea to occupied Donetsk allowing the transfer or resources and people much easier.
Number 2-Mariupol and surrounding area has massive industrial capacity and is very resource rich something the Russian federation saw as important for their war effort.
Number 3- The infamous Azov regiment is stationed in Mariupol the regiment that defended the city in 2014 from Russian separatists and also the regiment that had been causing significant damages against Russian separatist brigades in the east since 2014. Russia saw it as important to destroy this brigade not only because of its military effectiveness but also because of its supposed far right links which is involved in a lot of Russias justification for the invasion to its domestic population, trying to draw parallels from the great patriotic war against Nazi Germany.

How many defenders were there in Mariupol and what regiments did they come from?
Together with the Azov regiment which consisted of around 1500 soldiers there was also the Ukrainian 36th Marine brigade and the 503rd marine artillery battalion totalling around 2000 soldiers.
These professional troops were backed up by the 109th territorial defence grouping and the 23rd separate law enforcement brigades totalling together around 800 fighters each these were also joined by smaller 150 each detachments of the 21st law enforcement and 12th operational brigades.
Estimates suggest initially Ukrainian forces only numbered 3500 troops to defend Mariupol against a Russian adversary with many times that in troops and equipment.
Defenders of the city had limited access to T-64-T-72 tank variants and also BTR and BMP variants again vastly being outnumbered by that of their Russian adversary.
How many Russian troops were deployed to take Mariupol initially?
Russian forces deployed over 3500 separatist troops from the so called Donetsk peoples army who matched Ukrainian defenders numerically but by far vastly outnumbered them in Equipment.
The seperatists came from 11th, 9th, 1st and 5th DPR bridges and the Sparta battalion who enjoyed unlimited naval and aerial support.
These separatist troops were backed up by over 10 thousand highly trained and equipped soldiers from 150th motorised rifle division, both stationed on the easter frontline of the city in occupied Donetsk.

The dawn of the renewed invasion of Ukraine in the early morning around 4:30 two Russian tankers in the Sea of Azov south of Mariupol start an unusual manoeuvre heading directly straight for the city, followed closely by two Russian warships.
This unusual manoeuvre is picked up by Ukrainian coastal radar, based at Mariupol airport several officers stationed at the base are immediately alerted, whom all come to the conclusion the Russian invasion of Ukraine has started.
Immediately the orders are given to start mining the waters around the port, they are soon proven right as two Russian warships start shelling Ukrainian military positions around Mariupol.
Simultaneously Russian cruise missiles and artillery start pounding Ukrainian positions east of the city, marking the start of the battle of Mariupol.
During the cruise missile attack the coastal defence headquarters is targeted causing many officers to abandon positions and the operation to be temporarily halted.
Azov regimental commanders quickly take control of the base to regain organisation and control and start to give orders to regain order in the chaos.

Azov soldiers find that after extensive strikes on Ukrainian bases near Mariupol many officers have abandoned positions leaving the organisational structure and communication infrastructure for defending Mariupol in complete ruin.
Knowing they have to act quickly Deny Redis Prokopenko leader of the Azov regiment at the time takes charge of the defence of Mariupol organising all units to report back to him directly.
Azov pack up any resources from bases they can and move all operations to the Azovstal factory in Mariupol city.
Ukrainian mariners near the port of Mariupol are instructed too mine the coastal areas around the city as much as they can, and they head out on a dangerous mission to do so at night, completely outmatched by Russian naval capabilities the 4 Ukrainian small patrol ships manage to complete their missions undetected and come back to port where they are then completely stripped of all armament and brought ashore.
Whilst this is happening the first wave of assault begin on the eastern frontline toward Mariupol, where mainly the 1st Donetsk army grouping attacks Ukrainian defenders from teh 36th marine brigade in several places on the frontline, most of these attacks are repelled apart from small territorial gains by The Russian units in the towns of Pavlopil and Psychevyk.

To the west of Mariupol a much more critical situation occurs whilst defenders are distracted to the east on February 24th Russian forces land over 2000 men and 30 apcs from the 810th infantry marine brigade of Russian forces 70km west of Mariupol.
Whilst simultaneously Russian forces start invading from the north east of Crimea with the 126th and 177th Russian marine brigades totalling well over 4000 troops and well equipped also followed by the 19th motorised brigade, who start advancing along the coastline towards Mariupol.
The Russian 810th marine brigade wastes time for 2 days as they lack sufficient orders to act on likely as they landed much further west of the city as they should have due to extensive mining.
Ukrainian forces take advantage of this delay deploying 2 highly specialised units from the Azov brigade to the town of Mangush who pre emtively blow up bridges and then return to the city. After this Redis the regiments commander releases the now famous video claiming the regiment will fight to the last to defend the city which proved to be more than true.

Meanwhile Russian separatist forces with the help of the 150th Motor rile division manage to breakthrough Ukrainian defences to the east of Mariupol capturing the crucial town of Andaol and advancing down the key main road leading into the city and capturing Kremenivka.
Russian recon units attempt to advance south along the same road toward Mariupol but are met with fierce resistance and a well planned Azov ambush, led by Vitaly Truhan the unit commander, destroying 3 BMPs
Whilst this is happening to the west of the city Russian units from 177th marine brigade advance along the Ukrainian southern coast and reach the town of Osypenko advancing along the whole coast relatively uncontested as at this point in the war Ukrainian command is still organising resistance mainly north of the Dnipro river.
This same column then tries to advance further to Mangush where it is contacted first by Azov and Marine units where heavy fighting rages.

This marks the start of major fighting which only intensifies all around the city.
Russian forces continue assaults all across the frontline especially on mentioned road south toward Mariupol, where they eventually reach the Illich Iron and steel works. They are met by two Azov T-62 tanks and a small attachment of Azov troops who are stationed at the plant skilfully to give the impression a large force is holding the area, which is not the case they also mine the entrance to the road and factory heavily.
Russian forces scared of a large confrontation ahead, decide to temporarily postpone the attack on the plant deploying separatist troops to hold previous gains around the area and the outside of the plant.
The 150th mechanised brigade is deployed north west to help the encirclement of the city it instead advances south west of Kremenivka with the goal of reaching the sea line west of Mariupol, it is contacted by Azov units but due to its numerical advantages manages to advance and capture the town of Topolyne to the south which is within artillery range of Mariupol.
The brigade then sets up massive amounts of heavy calibre rocket and conventional artillery in the town which is now used as a staging area of indiscriminately shell Mariupol, from this moment to the end of the siege Mariupol is constantly shelled.
Due to the large Russian breakthrough south, to avoid encirclement Ukrainian marine brigades holding the 2014 line of defence are forced to withdraw.
In particular the 1st regiment of the 36th brigade is forced to abandon positions in the town of Hnutove and Sartana, which creates a risk of encirclement not only for the northern grouping of Ukrainian marines but also the southern grouping along the coast.
The southern grouping of marines are the first to withdraw to the eastern outskirts of the city, as the risk of encirclement is high they lose 3 tanks and a lot of their armoured vehicles doing so due to poor communication.

Encirclement and counterattacks to free trapped Ukrainian forces:
On march 1st the encirclement of Mariupol by Russian forces is completed after the 150th Mechanised Brigade breaks through and meets up with Russian marine brigades which have been attacking the cities defenders from the west.
On the same day Russian armoured columns attempt to enter the town of Staryi Krym on the outskirts of Mariupol they are ambushed by waiting Ukrainian units who have set up preprepared position destroying several Russian vehicles and assault groups causing them to momentaility retreat.
Over the next few days Ukrainian marine units previously defending the north eatern most positions outside the city are slowly forced to retreat fighting fiercely, they eventually take up positions on the northern outskirts of the city.
Ukrainian command realising that they have 3 brigades worth of soldiers trapped in Mariupol attempt to break the forces out with the heavily armed 56th and 54th motorised and mechanised brigades who attempt large scale counterattacks, these are unfortunately repelled and all rescue attempts are abandoned when Russia forces flank these two heavily equipped Brigades when they capture the town of Rozivka to the north west of Mariupol causing Ukrainian command to withdraw in order to avoid another encirclement.
On march 6th battles rage on the outskirts of Mariupol in particular defenders retreat from the Brick factory in the west and lay a trap, Russian forces enter the factory not soon after only to be encircled themselves from the west and east by Azov soldiers, whilst distracted by the 36th marine brigade. Azov then moves in and wipes out large amounts of Russian assault troops within the plant destroying many armoured vehicles.

Further Russian advances heavy fighting around Mariupol.
Between march 4th and 8th Ukrainian defenders on the eastern side of Mariupol manage to inflict massive debilitating losses on the separatist 1st DPR brigade which is attempting to advance into the city, after 4 days of fighting the Brigade only manages to capture a small area by the coast and to the north east the Satellite plant all whilst taking unimaginable losses.
The situation to the west is not as positive, Ukrainian units facing much better equipper Russian mechanised forces, Ukrainian units are forced to retreat from Staryi Krym and Mariupol airport as well as losing territory just west of Pokrovske where Russian forces reach the sea area, despite this every metre is fought fiercely each house and street is fought for causing heavy Russian losses.

A change in Strategy:
March 9th marks a significant change in strategy for Russian forces, separatist forces after making painfully slow gains on the eastern sides of city are redeployed around the new frontline perimeter to keep defenders trapped inside.
Whilst Russian regular units are now used instead of holding and pushing areas of the frontline instead to probe areas for weak points, which of course exists due to Ukrainian defending units being severely outnumbered and only able to operate in small units.
While this strategy unfolds the Russian command also deploys more professional brigades to the area in order to complete the full capture of the city being increasingly frustrated by Ukrainian resistance.
The considered elite 810 Marine brigade and 19th motorised brigade of teh Russian army are redeployed from Enerhodar area
The marines are deployed to the west of the frontline whilst the 19th brigade is deployed to the north.
The sheer number of Russian forces deployed to the area shows the bravery and fierceness of the Ukrainian brigades, this act of pure heroism for sure drew Russian resources away from other key areas of the frontline helping other brigades organise the defence of the rest of Ukraine.

Warcrimes:
I thought I would just briefly break the reporting storyline to talk about Russian warcrimes in Mariupol.
Make no mistake Russia deliberately shelled Mariupol indiscriminately for 90 days many of which were completely civilian targeted.
In particular Russian artillery units targeted food areas, shelters and hospitals.
The most outrageous and heinous of which was the targeting of the Mariupol Drama theatre on March the 16th by Russian aviation, which completely levelled the building housing hundreds of women and children.
Despite people inside clearly writing on the ground next to the threatre the words "children" so Russian strategic aviation would not target them.
The death toll has been predicted to be between 12 and 600 what's for sure is that hundreds died and were injured due to their awful warcrime that should not be forgiven.
This photo from British press using satellites clearly shows the insignia of children written outside the building before its hit.
Anyway back to the battle(Keep reading it gets more unbelievable)

Massive Russian attacks on the western districts to the centre and failed Spetsnaz raid ambushed:
On March 13th Russian forces mainly Marines from the 810th brigade attempt a huge breakthrough toward the central districts of Mariupol they are met with Heroic Ukrainian resistance, The assault starts with a heavy bombardment of Ukrainian positions on the Kurpin Street and the Metro market, which are completely destroyed. Russian armoured columns supported by storm troopers then attempt to advance down two parallel streets heading to the centre of Mariupol heading down the peace avenue road.
Despite numerical advantages Ukrainian defenders from the Azov regiment and the 73rd naval special units launch a very brave counterattack supported by a Ukrainian made BTR, destroying huge amounts of Russian storm troopers and armoured vehicles.
This counterattack is so effective it forces on that day Russian marines to withdraw and reconsolidate and continue a massive aerial and artillery bombardment of the area.
The first battles on Peace avenue can be remembered by a very famous video of a Ukrainian BTR riding around and engaging Russian armoured vehicles I will put the video below.
Meanwhile on the eastern side of the city Russian spetsnaz teams from teh 22nd and 346th guards division attempt a daring raid into Ukrainian territory advancing 1km into Ukrainian territory.
They are met with a wall of Ukrainian mortar and small arms fire, as they attempt to dismount at nearby plant and are then confronted by a quick Azov reaction brigade who destroy the remaining element of the mission, picture will be put below.

Further Russian advances and heroic Ukrainian resistance several Russian commanders killed.
On March 15th to 16th Russian forces launched a renewed attack on the western district with the goal of getting to freedom square along the peace avenue road.
This time the assault is much too big to be stooped at its start, even with this massive armoured assault Ukrainian defenders fight fiercely for every house. Ambushing many Russian tanks and Armoured vehicles who struggle to traverse the well defended streets and houses. Ukrainian defenders in small groups severely outnumbered pop out and ambush Russian assault groups throughout the whole day.
Despite this Russian forces reach the peace square but are forced to retreat after losing several tanks and decide to consolidate in newly captured positions in the eastern suburbs.
To the north a significant development takes place Oleg Mitayev the commander of the 150th mechanised brigade is killed after he lead a foolish assault into the Illicit steel plant, where his unit was met by several well entrenched Azov fighters. During the battle all of the Russian reconnaissance grouping is destroyed however the commander of the 2nd Azov regiment is also killed, he died right there with his men.
Towards the eastern side of the city the situation is much more critical Russian marines and separatists forces make a breakthrough occur on the eastern suburbs pushing outnumbered Ukrainian units all the way to the Azovstal steel works, despite this Ukrainian units do not move without a heavy fight and manage to kill the deputy commander of the Black Sea fleet who again is caught in a foolish assault attempt. Although credit where credit is due, he was there with his men in he fiercest battles.
Below is also drone footage of Russian tanks being ambushed on freedom square.

The incredible Ukrainian helicopter supply runs to encircled Mariupol.
Ukrainian airforce conducted 7 airlift operations to occupied Mariupol perhaps the greatest feat of the war so far.
Ukraine decided it desperately needed to supply the defenders of Mariupol to help them continue their fight, they only way to do this was to conduct very risky air missions into occupied Russian airspace.
All flights took off from airports in Dnipro The first being on March the 24th which involved two Ukrainian Mi-8 transport helicopters flying nearly 100km undetected into Russian airspace at low altitude which were packed with ammunition and supplies. On board these flights were also special forces volunteers from various brigades who would help dismount supplies and load wounded soldiers and stay and fight themselves once the airlift was successful.
The first 4 mission into occupied Mariupol miraculously went well, the missions started to receive thousands of volunteer requests of individuals who wanted to join and fight, the system worked as dropping off needed supplies such as anti air and anti tank guns which were severely needed whilst taking back severely wounded soldiers to get treatment.
What started as small missions with only 2 aircraft turned into larger missions with more than 4 MI-8 transport craft covered by Ukrainian MI-24 ground attack aircraft.
Unfortunately after the fourth mission 3 Ukrainian transport aircraft were shot down as the Russians became aware of what was going off, 1 right outside Mariupol and two closer to the southern frontline. The system worked for the final flights as such, whilst the MI-8s landed and delivered supplies taking wounded Ukrainian brave MI-24 would engage Russian forces on the ground, the flights became so infamous Russian command even deployed an anti aircraft destroyer toward the coast in an attempt to shoot down the aircraft.
After several aircraft were shot down and the frontlines closed to much the flights had to be stopped on April the 4th.
The flights managed to deliver over 72 volunteers to the Azovstal factory many who entered heavy fighting the same day.
Pictured below one of the airlifts to the Azovstal factory which was the main area.

Heavy fighting continues for another 2 weeks, more commanders are killed and encirclement closes.
For the next week and several days heavy fighting continues on the western districts of the city as the Russian 810th brigade again tries to advance down peace avenue to the centre, whilst also trying to capture districts on the southern areas of the city. On march 22nd Russian troops attempt a large push down parallel roads they are met by two Ukrainian T-62 tanks and defenders on roofs fighting in the western district area continues for at least a week, where on the southern district areas around the Prymors'kyi district Ukrainian marines with the support of a BTR are reported to have destroyed several large Russian assault groups attempting to flank.
Let me remind you of the Ukrainian bravery here, fighting for every house literally.
During wave assaults the Russian commander and his deputy of the 810th brigade are killed by Ukrainian forces likely Azov fighters or Marines Alexi Sharov for the record.
At the same time on the eastern side of the city near the Azovstal factory heavy fighting continues for the remaining districts under Ukrainian control, due to heavy losses of the Russian marines and mechanised forces Russian command deploy the Chechen Akhmat brigade to the area who engage in heavy fighting with Ukrainian units.
After just a couple days of fighting the deputy commander the detachment is killed in fighting.
To put this in perspective this two week period roughly of the heaviest urban combat you have ever seen, Russian marine brigade the 810th is reported to take 85 percent combat losses with the 17th mechanised brigade also having to be rotated out, as the groupings become combat effective.
On April 1st to 2nd Russian forces attempt to attack isolate the most western part of the Ukrainian defensive line in the town of Pokrovske assaulting the town with armoured vehicles and massive artillery strikes.
Mariners from the separate 12 brigade using a BTR engage Russian armoured units destroying many and forcing them to retreat to previous lines.
After 2 weeks of heavy fighting the frontline begins to slowly close on Azovstal factory will small territorial losses each day adding up, especially on the western and eastern districts.
Let me remind you a relatively small group of Ukrainian units manage to inflict massive losses, they are literally fighting for every house in either district even engaging in hand to hand combat at points.

Below is pictured the two Ukrainian T-62s that engaged Russians initial advance.

Encirclements/ breakouts and Surrenders -Pivitol moment in the battle of Mariupol.
As the encirclement becomes tighter by the the day between the days of April the 3rd and 4th on the Illich Plant in Mariupol the 501st regiment of the Ukrainian marines under unexplained instructions from the commander completely surrender to Russian forces laying down their weapons, perhaps as they had run out of ammunition and resources.
This leaves the remaining more ideological and battle hardened marines from the 36th Marine brigade in a dilemma despite this they continue to fight on for several days.
To the western side of the city Ukrainian defenders are forced out of most areas, and are surrounded when Russian forces take fire control of a key street in the north western district of the city where defenders remain called the Metalurhiv street, they manage to escape mostly and retreat to the surrounding suburbs around the azovstal factory.
Whilst to the south west Russian forces advance east in Pokrovske capturing several key port areas despite being under heavy mortar fire.
On the eastern side of Mariupol more districts fall to Russian forces, with heavy fighting still taking place throughout the day and the night over the preceding week Azov carries out several devastating ambushes on Russian forces.

Illich Plant Breakthrough:
This deserves its own slide.
To the north the Illich plant on around April the 10th is completely surrounded by Russian forces trapping at least 800 soldiers from the 36th marine Brigade in the plant.
A large argument breaks out between the Azov commander and the existing Commander of the 36th brigade, the 36th commander wants to conduct a breakthrough to the north and try to meet up with Ukrainian forces which are 100km north of Mariupol.
Whilst the Azov commander wants the brigade to make a breakthrough south and link up with the remaining Ukrainian forces around Mariupol.
On April 11th disobeying Azov commanders orders 500 mariners from the 36th Brigade attempt to breakthrough too the north using most of the remaining armoured vehicles in Convoy, the convoy is ambushed by aerial and ground attack as it attempts to leave Mariupol and completely destroyed, many are captured and killed.
A smaller contingent manages to escape and reportedly managed to sneak past Russian lines into Ukrainian territory but this is not confirmed.
The remaining 500 of so 36th mariners in the plant at a similar time breakthrough the Russian defences to the south of the Plant and head to the Azovstal plant taking few losses in the process.

Ukrainian forces are again surrounded to the south west of their ever decreasing territory and manage again to breakout, all units after this retreat to the territory of Azovstal.
On the 14th of April the 810th Marine brigade through a costly approach again manages to encircle a large Ukrainian detachment this time on the most southern western area of the frontline along the coast.
Realising the danger the remaining Azov and coastguard units in the area under the cover of night get into remaining armoured vehicles and fighting their way on the night of April 15th all the way to teh Azovstal plant.
The convoy is spotted by Russian aviation which begins to hit the areas around the moving convoy, causing the soldiers to dismount near the Azovstal factory. What makes matters worse is Russian forces bomb the western bridge that leads onto the Azovstal factory over the river that surrounds it causing significant amounts of Ukrainian units to be stuck on teh other side of the plant.
In a latch ditch attempt to save his men the commander of Azov order a near suicidal rescue mission across the river in the early hours of the morning using wooden boats, in the meantime Azov and brave Ukrainian police units had been holding off any Russian advances on the other side of the river.
Eventually most of the soldiers are rescued using wooden boats, a remarkable feet unfortunately many lost their lives during this operation.
The order is then given on April 19th for all Ukrainian forces to withdraw to the Azovstal factory.
This battle in particular is almost out of a movie, how brave those men and women were.
The image below shows the wooden boat runs used to rescue remaining forces outside of Azovstal.

Azovstal
By April 20th Russian forces started to launch waves of aerial attacks on the Azovstal factory attempting to kill any defenders left inside the plant.
Azovstal makes a very interesting defensive position due to its advanced tunnel and bunker network and the underground interconnectedness of all the buildings which made a nightmare for attacking Russian forces as they were being ambushed from all points.
The urban combat that proceeded from the 20th of April was some of the most complicated and brutal in perhaps modern history, with tunnel fighting and metre to metre combat as Ukrainian fighters left on the plant fought fiercely.
While command staff and nearly a thousand wounded soldiers sheltered below deep into the Bunker system.
Due to the depth of the Bunkers Russian forces started using heavy strategic bombers to pound the factory, the Use of TU-22 bombers which were seen often flying over the factory meant they managed to collapse several bunkers within the factory trapping many soldiers inside.
Between April 25th to 28th Russian forces conduct over 50 airstkres a day on the territory of the plant collapsing even more bunkers. Whilst on the ground intense fighting occurs with Ukrainian soldiers bravely fighting at some points to death in order to keep wounded companions alive below.
Below a Ukrainian combat patrol around Azovstal and the Russian TU-22 seen bombing the area.

Azovstal PT2
For another two weeks Ukrainian forces fought on ferociously taking thousands of Russian soldiers with them, and giving up very small portions of territory the urban area offered a perfect place for effective defence, although they were running out of supplies and quick.
By may 12th all civialns had been evacuated from Avostal Ukrainian defenders continued to fight fiercely for another 4 days many intending to fight to the death, short on supplies the situation was dire yet the fighting spirit prevailed.
On may the 16th the order was given by Ukrainian command for Azovstal defenders to lay their weapons down, the day after thousands left the relative comfort of the tunnels to enter Russian captivity.
Many of whom still haven't been exchanged to this day despite promises, also many of whom have been tortured in captivity.
Note maps are purely illustrative and are not completely accurate.

Lets conclude:
Where do I start? Absolutely incredible no other words, thousands of men laid down their lives for Mariupol many of whom fought to the absolute last breaths taking many tens of thousands of Russian soldiers and hundreds of pieces of equipment with them.
I pray I would have the same bravery in that situation, but I don't think many could.
Whatever you have to say about Azov they are a fierce fighting unit along with the Mariners and patrol police.
Every single one of those men and women has an incredible story to tell, let's not forget their sacrifice.
It also reminds me of why this Ukrainian fight is so important, we cannot let their sacrifice be in vain.
Thanks for reading- Make sure to support the thread.
Free the Azovstal defenders!

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