Ukraine war: Steel plant builds six-person bunkers for front line troops

A steel plant in Ukraine's Kryvyi Rih city is making metal bunkers for its front-line troops. The bunkers are built to withstand projectiles with calibres of up to 152 millimetres. They can accommodate up to six soldiers and need to be buried about five feet underground, a report by the news agency AP said. The project (to build the bunkers) has been launched by the Ukrainian mining and metals company Metinvest.

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Petro Zhuk, who manages the 40-person team building the bunkers, said that although the structures take 165 man-hours to produce, including prefabrication, his team can build one a day. Zhuk hoped that Ukrainian troops would find a measure of comfort in the bunkers.

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“While they are inside, they cannot worry about an attack that could happen while they are asleep. They can be warm and comfortable,” he added.

Metinvest also owns the Azovstal Iron and Steel Works, a plant in Mariupol. When the city was under siege, civilians and soldiers sheltered at the plant and it became a symbol of resistance against Russian attacks.

Speaking to local media, the company's chief executive officer (CEO) Yurii Ryzhenkov said that drawings for the bunkers were found in the company's archives when it was a Soviet enterprise. Back then, every plant had to produce something for the army, Ryzhenkov added.

'This is for victory of Ukraine'

With Metinvest making bunkers for Ukrainian troops, the workers in the steel plant in Kryvyi Rih are happy that they are contributing to the resistance to Russia's offensive.

Vitalii Yevzhenko, 54, a plant worker involved in assembling the bunkers, said he thinks what he and his colleagues are doing is very important. “This is for the victory of Ukraine. The sooner the war ends, the better it will be,” Yevzhenko said.

(With inputs from agencies)

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