One of Europe's biggest steel works damaged in Ukraine's Mariupol

Azovstal is part of the Metinvest group, which is controlled by Ukraine's richest man, Rinat Akhmetov

One of Europe's biggest iron and steel works, Azovstal, has been badly damaged as Russian forces 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. 

Vasylenko posted a video of explosions on an industrial site, with thick columns of grey and black smoke rising from the buildings.  One of her colleagues, wrote on Facebook that Russian forces “had practically destroyed the factory”. 

“We will return to the city, rebuild the enterprise and revive it,” Azovstal's