Park to memorialize Mariupol victims may be created at Azovstal steel plant site — DPR - TASS

A park memorializing those killed in Mariupol may be created in the future on the grounds of the Azovstal steel complex, Spokesman for the People’s Militia of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) Eduard Basurin said on Friday.

"Azovstal will keep standing or it will be razed to the ground with time, since the plant was built way back before the Great Patriotic War (part of WWII, during which, the Soviet Union fought against the Nazi Germany). A park might be constructed at this site, dedicated to the memory of the Mariupol victims," Basurin told the Rossiya-1 TV channel. Earlier, on Tuesday, DPR leader Denis Pushilin said that the steel complex’s fate would be decided on following dialogue with the local population.

Mariupol is the largest city on the coast of the Sea of Azov, one of the key metallurgical centers of Donbass and a seaport. Two major ironworks are located in the city - the Ilyich metal plant and Azovstal. The Azovmash engineering plant is also situated in Mariupol.