Russia-Ukraine war: Europe's biggest steel works razed to ground, watch horrifying video

One of the biggest iron and steel works in Europe, Azovstal, has been greatly demolished as Russian military lay siege to the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol, officials said Sunday.

"One of the biggest metallurgic plants in #Europe destroyed. The economic losses for #Ukraine are huge. The environment is devastated," tweeted Ukrainian lawmaker Lesia Vasylenko.

Lesia Vasylenko shared a video of explosions on an industrial location, with thick grey and black smoke rising from the structures.

Here's the video: 

One of her fellow worker, Serhiy Taruta, took to facebook and wrote that Russian forces "had practically destroyed the factory".

"We will return to the city, rebuild the enterprise and revive it," Azovstal's director general Enver Tskitishvili wrote on Telegram, without setting down the magnitude of the distruction.

Furthermore, he said that when the invasion started on 24th February, the factory had taken all the measures to minimize the environmental havoc in the event of being hit.

"Coke oven batteries no longer pose a danger to the lives of residents," he wrote. "We have also stopped the blast furnaces correctly."

Azovstal is part of the Metinvest group, which is managed by Ukraine's wealthiest person, identified as Rinat Akhmetov.

Regarded as pro-Moscow before the war started, Rinat Akhmetov has since accused Russian military of engaging in "crimes against humanity against Ukrainians".

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