Russia explains why it will not rebuild Azovstal steelworks in captured Mariupol

The Russian occupiers do not plan to rebuild the Azovstal steelworks, destroyed in the battle for Mariupol, as it is "impossible and unprofitable".

Source: Yuliya Maksimova, Head of Roskapstroy Russian Federal Autonomous Institution [company engaged in construction and rebuilding of capital construction projects – ed.], during a press conference for Kremlin-aligned news outlet TASS on 24 January

Quote from Maksimova: "No one is going to rebuild Azovstal, because it is impossible and unprofitable on the scale of that Soviet facility it used to be before...

Such facilities were appropriate and profitable [in the USSR – ed.], they worked and were always busy. Now I think that oblast’s economy will be revised.

Well, there are also facilities within Russia that are not doing well at the moment."

Details: According to Maksimova, two city-forming facilities in Mariupol, Azovstal and Illich plant, are currently shut down and will never function as they used to.

She noted that it is not enough to just repair people's houses, they need to be given jobs in the area, and the "master plan calls for compensatory measures".

According to Maksimova, it is currently more cost-effective and faster to develop the agricultural base, so processing complexes will be built in Donetsk Oblast.

She also said that Roskapstroy has become an operator in the Mariupol Commercial Port and is trying to organise the export of metallurgical products, which are produced in Alchevsk in particular, through the port – "to Crimea, for example".

Background: Mariupol's defenders held the line for several months, until mid-May 2022, hiding from Russian attacks in Azovstal's undergrounds. The plant was severely damaged.

Russian occupation authorities were going to demolish Azovstal and allegedly create a technology park or park zone on the site of the huge plant.

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