in the heart of Mariupol, a martyr city besieged by the Russians

An unusual silence floats in the streets of Mariupol (Ukraine), Wednesday, April 20. Accompanied by pro-Russian separatist forces, a team from France Télévisions approaches the last Ukrainian bastion of the city. Red flags delimit a corridor: the Russians have declared a four-hour ceasefire. The Ukrainian fighters are entrenched in the Azovstal factory. At 4 p.m. sharp, when the ceasefire ended, a deluge of fire fell again on the factory.

On the ground, the Chechen soldiers are preparing to set out again to attack Azovstal. “We are going to enter building by building to take them. (…) As our leader says, let it become their mass grave”, launches Timour Abriev, officer of the Chechen Akhmat squadron. A few meters further, terrified residents barely took advantage of the calm. “Only idiots are not afraid. We are afraid”, says Ruslan Bezkhlebnie. According to a man, civilians could still be present in the bomb shelter of the Azovstal factory.