GROZNY, November 25. /TASS/. The Ilyich Iron and Steel Works in Mariupol is making preparations to be reopened, as Chechen soldiers and plant employees have been clearing mines from its premises every day, Chechnya’s head Ramzan Kadyrov said on Friday.
"The Ilyich Iron and Steel Works has been guarded by fighters from the Chechen republic headed by our dear brother Vakha Geremyev (Ranger), an aide to Chechnya’s head. The industrial enterprise, which used to be very powerful, is making preparations to reopen. The area is being cleared of mines gradually," Kadyrov wrote on his Telegram channel.
According to Kadyrov, the plant’s premises, where Ukrainian gangs had been holed up earlier, are cleared of the debris caused by the hostilities on a daily basis by more than 2,500 plant employees.
Mariupol is the largest city on the Sea of Azov, one of the key iron and steel industrial centers in Donbass and a major seaport. Fighting for the city began as part of the Russian Armed Forces’ special military operation in Ukraine on February 25 when the city was completely encircled and later mopped up of Ukrainian troops. However, remaining groups of militants from the Azov neo-Nazi armed group (outlawed in Russia) holed up for some time in the industrial area of the Azovstal steel plant. They began to surrender en masse on May 16.