Azov fighters strike Mariupol again, targeting Russian logistics

Azov fighters who lost Mariupol in 2022 are back over the city, this time by drone. A strike on the port hit electrical substations, repair facilities and a sanctioned ship, cutting power and showing how the rebuilt unit is using long-range attacks to pressure Russian logistics far behind the front.

The attack landed in a city that has been under Russian occupation since May 2022 and remains scarred by the three-month siege that ended with the fall of Azovstal Iron and Steel Works. Hundreds of Azov fighters were killed or captured in that battle, and Human Rights Watch later estimated that at least 8,000 people were killed by fighting or war-related causes in Mariupol during the siege, based on satellite imagery and other evidence.

Now the unit is fighting as First Corps Azov, part of the 12th Special Forces Brigade Azov inside the National Guard of Ukraine. The corps said its drones swept over Mariupol’s strategic seaport last week, and Kyiv’s military said the strike caused a blackout. Reuters said it confirmed parts of the video posted by the corps, including footage showing drones over the city and the damaged industrial edge around the port.

Col. Arsen Dmytryk, the corps chief of staff, said the campaign would not stop with one hit. He said there would be dozens more operations to demonstrate the unit’s capabilities, technology and planning. Mariupol sits 120 km, or 75 miles, behind front lines that have barely moved, and Dmytryk called pushing Russia out a long game. “If it takes 20 years, we will spend 20 years planning, waiting, preparing,” he said. “But when the time comes, we must be ready. I believe we will return it (Mariupol). It’s just a matter of time.”

That promise carries more than symbolism. Azov was founded on May 5, 2014, and integrated into the National Guard on November 11, 2014. The unit says it played a role in Mariupol’s defense in 2014 and in the Pavlopil-Shyrokyne offensive of 2015, before its last stand at Azovstal became one of the war’s defining images. Russia said 265 Ukrainian fighters surrendered there on May 17, 2022. Three years later, the same city is again a battlefield, this time in a campaign aimed at rail lines, repair sites and other links that keep Russia’s war machine moving.

That shift matters because it shows how Ukraine is rebuilding combat power after catastrophic losses. The brigade has also been rehabilitated inside Ukraine’s military structure, and in June 2024 the Biden administration allowed it to access U.S. weapons after Leahy-law vetting. For Moscow, Mariupol was supposed to be a sealed victory. For Azov, it is becoming proof that defeat can be turned into a platform for return.