Due to the destruction caused by Russian shelling, the Avdiivka Coke Plant will be impossible to restore after the end of the war.
It will be impossible to restore the Avdiivka coke plant
The plant is under the control of the Ukrainian army. He was repeatedly shelled by Russia. They poked at him with everything they had. I think that it will be impossible to restore the plant, CEO Metinvest Yuriy Ryzhenkov said.
He added that it is unlikely to be necessary to rebuild the plant in the form it was in before the invasion.
Ryzhenkov clarified that the Avdiivka Coke Plant's largest consumers were the Azovstal and Mariupol metallurgical plants. According to him, there is no question of their restoration in the foreseeable future "until we return to Mariupol."
The general director of Metinvest added that the company plans to restore Azovstal, but it will be a completely different plant.
Ryzhenkov, commenting on the restoration of Azovstal, also stated that metallurgy would remain a part of Mariupol but no longer be its basis after the war's end. According to him, Mariupol can be a resort city.
Tourism can be the main sector of the city's economy. There is also potential in mechanical engineering, shipbuilding, and science, he added.
But he emphasized that it will depend on the conditions on which the war ends.
Battles for Avdiivka
In early October, the Russian army significantly intensified the fighting in the Avdiyivka area. This offensive is considered the largest since 2014.
As the Commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, General Valerii Zaluzhnyi, previously stated, the occupiers lost at least 10,000 soldiers in the battles for Avdiivka. At the same time, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy noted that Russian losses in the Avdiivka region are more significant than in Bakhmut.
The Ukrainian military explained that the Russian army would not be able to capture Avdiyivka unless they took the territory of the Avdiivka coke plant. At the end of November and the beginning of December, Russian propagandists claimed they were succeeding in the Coke Plant area. However, on December 3, soldiers of the 47th AFU separate mechanized brigade denied rumours about the occupiers' alleged advance on this plant's territory. The defenders emphasized that he was under the control of the Armed Forces.
We should add that fierce battles are occurring along the entire front line in the Avdiyivka area. Still, the Russian occupiers are paying particular attention to Stepove, northwest of the city. The interventionists want to capture it to cut off the logistics of the Defense Force.
