Devastation of Mariupol pictured before and after Russian assault – one year on

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  • The siege of Mariupol is one of the most brutal battles of the war so far in Ukraine, highlighting the cruel tactics Vladimir Putin’s Russia is prepared to use.

    Defiant defenders holed out with remaining civilians in the now-famous Azovstal Steel plant to the East of the city, with reports surfacing of horrific conditions as Russia closed it.

    It started at the beginning of the wider invasion of Ukraine on February 24 and ran until May 20 2022 meaning the bulk of the fighting was concentrated throughout the spring months one year on.

    Ukraine claims to have killed 6,000 Russian troops for the loss of 906 of its own soldiers and 25,000 civilians.

    Russia claims it killed 4,200 Ukrainian soldiers and 3,000 civilians.

    The city was devastated, with attritional tactics used to grind its defenders into dust. But the resilience of the Ukrainian forces, at the centre of which was the hardened Azov Regiment, far outlasted what anyone, especially Putin, thought was possible.

    1. The Avozstal Steel plant was the centre of a brutal siege

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    2. Residential blocks were badly damaged

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    3. Footage released by Ukraine’s Azov Regiment on April 12, 2022 shows destroyed Russian tanks

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    4. The damage was widespread

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    5. The Russian military is understood to be rebuilding Mariupol

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    1. Russian serviceman patrols near the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol

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    2. Reparation works despite the continuation of the war

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    3. Entire neighbourhoods have been obliterated

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    1. Fighting spread through the city for the best part of three months

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    2. Mariupol has seen fighting since before the main invasion.

      Seen here: Ukrainian servicemen patrol around a damaged building after shelling in the southern Ukrainian port city of Mariupol on 24, 2015

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    3. Mariupol remains in Russian hands almost a year on

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    • Russia Ukraine war
    • Russia
    • Vladimir Putin
    • Ukraine

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