ZAPORIJYA | In a bunker several meters underground, water and food reserves, piles of mattresses, toilets and wood stoves show that the Soviets had built this Ukrainian steelworks with one idea in mind: war.
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Similar to the Azovstal factory, the last Ukrainian redoubt in the port city of Mariupol, the Zaporizhstal factory shows how these Stalin-era sites were designed in anticipation of an invasion by the USSR.
“We can stay in the shelters for a long time,” says Zaporizhstal employee Ihor Buhlayev, 20, in his silver safety gear. “I think it will give us a chance to survive,” he says, as the melting of metals sparks behind him.
This metallurgical complex, located in Zaporijjia in the south of the country, was not conquered by Russian forces. But the factory was forced to suspend its activities as the front approached dangerously.
The underground bunkers at the Azovstal and Zaporizhstal power plants were built in the early 1930s, a time when the world was recovering from one war while heading into another, and are intended to house thousands of workers.
Both mills are owned by Metinvest Holding controlled by Ukraine’s richest man, Rinat Akhmetov.
Zaporizhstal has sixteen bunkers. The one visited by AFP is about ten meters deep, protected by a ten centimeter thick anti-blast door.
The room, long and bright, has rows of wooden benches and must be able to accommodate up to 600 people.
Water tanks are used to flush toilets, emergency food and water bottles are stacked in a storage room, and piles of wood for the stove as big as a barrel of oil are chest-deep .
“God keep us”
The bunkers beneath Azovstal housed hundreds of civilians, many of whom left the site during an international evacuation operation, and still provide refuge for forces resisting Russia for full control of the strategic city of Mariupol .
“God save us from finding ourselves in a situation like our colleagues from Azovstal, metallurgists like us, who ended up staying so long (in the shelter) (…) I would not wish this on anyone,” says Alexander Lotenkov , head of the communications department.
The approximately 5.5 square kilometer site is half the area of Azovstal. It remains massive nonetheless, and the only way to effectively move between its units is by using a vehicle.
Site size is one thing. Another is the sheer number of places to hide among the rows of buildings and tunnels beneath the site, as well as the vantage points from its tall structures.
But the war passed by, and even if Zaporizhstal did not know the same fate as Azovstal, business suffered.
They have resumed since early April, at the same time as Russian forces withdrew from the vicinity of Kiyiv, after fierce resistance from the Ukrainians.
Another good news arrived this week with the US announcement of the suspension of customs duties on Ukrainian steel, but the situation is still difficult.
Ukraine accounts for only about 1% of US steel imports, according to US authorities, which had imposed protective tariffs of 25%. And logistics have become a major challenge for Ukrainian exporters, as the usual transport routes have been destroyed by the war.
“We will not be able to compete with other producers, because their logistics expenses are lower and in order for us to be able to export to the United States, we now have to transport the production of Zaporizhia through Poland,” the general manager told AFP. of the site, Alexander Mironenko.
Steel exports have fallen to a fraction of their pre-war level and it will be essential for the Ukrainian economy to regain its former pace and market to rebuild.
“It was one of the main export industries, (…) about 50% of foreign currency earnings were generated by the metallurgical and mining sectors of Ukraine,” adds Mr. Mironenko.