The invaders are turning the Mariupol port into a military base
At the end of December 2022, the russians freed the people of Mariupol from the port. Workers from russian federation were brought in instead.
“The occupiers are gradually turning the seaport in Mariupol into a military base. At the end of December, all residents of Mariupol were fired from the port (with the exception of certain specialist collaborators) and workers were brought in from moscow,” said Petro Andryushchenko, adviser to the mayor of Mariupol.
Some workers from Mariupol were taken to Crimea in the third decade of December, after which contact with them was lost.
The occupiers also started work on dividing the berths into conventionally civilian and conventionally military ones.
As Andryushchenko writes, due to silting of the channel, vessels with small equipment, such as river-sea class RM3, can still enter the water area of the port. However, this is not an obstacle to establishing the supply of military equipment in the spring shipping period. Now they are recording isolated unsystematic entry into the port of RM3 with building materials and containers of unknown contents.