Ukrainian Marines In Mariupol Are Out Of Ammo

Mariupol, a Ukrainian port city on the Sea of Azov just 30 miles from Russia, was one of the first and biggest targets of Russia’s wider war on Ukraine that began on the night of Feb. 23.

But the historic city, which before the Russian attack had a population of more than 400,000, held out—despite being just a few miles from territory controlled by Russian-backed separatists and despite the Russians quickly surrounding it.

Seven weeks later, the city’s defenders—including the 36th Naval Infantry Brigade as well as territorial troops and the far-right Azov battalion of volunteers—seem to be out of ammunition … and options.

“We have been defending Mariupol for 47 days,” someone apparently from the 36th Naval Infantry Brigade, part of the Ukrainian navy, stated on its Facebook page on Monday. “We were bombed from airplanes, we were shot from artillery, tanks and other [fire-support]. We kept the defense … by doing the impossible. But any resources have the potential to run out.”

The brigade—which includes three infantry battalions and a tank battalion plus supporting units and which, in peacetime, had a strength of several thousand marines—has suffered heavy losses as the Russians and their Chechen and separatist allies push into the city amid heavy bombardment.

Russian warplanes bombed the brigade’s headquarters in nearby Mykolaiv on March 18, killing around 40 marines as they slept. By early April, there were as many wounded marines in the brigade as there were able-bodied ones, the apparent brigade writer claimed in the Facebook post.

“The infantry all died,” the unnamed poster wrote. Now support troops including drivers are fighting. “Even an orchestra. Dying but fighting. Gradually we are coming to an end.”

Mariupol slowly has emptied of the living. Tens of thousands of residents have fled to Ukrainian-held territory, occasionally via “humanitarian corridors” that the Russians promised not to bombard—promises the invaders didn’t always honor. Others have left the city on their own, braving dangerous roads teeming with trigger-happy Russians.

Thousands of civilians have died in Mariupol or while trying to escape it. The Russians have kidnapped thousands more and sent them to internment camps in Russia. As the atrocities compounded, the city’s isolated defenders kept fighting. Azov Battalion missileers struck Russian vehicles from rooftops. Ukrainian BTR-4 armored cars engaged tanks with their 30-millimeter cannons.

But officials in Kyiv struggled to resupply the Mariupol garrison. Some efforts succeeded. The 36th Brigade claimed it received 50 122-millimeter artillery pieces plus a Starlink satellite-internet system. But for more than a month, no ammo arrived, according to the Facebook poster.

The apparent brigade writer claimed the unit was promised a helicopter but “it never flew.” There have been attempts to get rotorcraft into and out of Mariupol, however. One mission to evacuate wounded troops via Mi-8 helicopter ended in tragedy on or around March 31 when the Russians shot down one of the helicopters, reportedly killing the occupants.

An apparent subsequent shoot-down of another Ukrainian helicopter around Mariupol the first week of April highlighted Kyiv’s continuing effort to resupply the city’s garrison—as well as the extreme danger involved.

But as Russian forces completed their retreat from northern Ukraine and the Kremlin focused its attention on the eastern and southern fronts, Mariupol’s exhausted defenders began to crumble. Videos that circulated on social media starting in early April purported to depict 36th Brigade marines surrendering by the hundreds. The most recent of those videos appeared online on Monday.

It’s unclear how many Ukrainian troops remain in Mariupol and how long they might hold out. But the Russians and their allies seem to be advancing deeper into the city. Video from Monday appeared to show separatist troops occupying at least some of the port facilities near the heart of Mariupol.

“Today will probably be an extreme fight,” the brigade poster wrote on Monday. What comes next “is death for some, but captivity for some,” they continued.

“I don’t know what’s next, but I really ask you to remember the marines with a kind word,” the writer added. “They did everything possible and impossible.”