On Telegram, Andriushchenko wrote that enemy sappers were clearing the territory of the plant when the explosion occurred. Four sappers were wounded, two of them in serious condition.
“Azovstal. Mine clearance. Four Russian-Donetsk sappers in the hospital. Two are seriously injured, but if there is a lack of blood, they are candidates for joining Kobzon's choir (to die – ed.),” he wrote.
Earlier, the Mariupol City Council reported the explosion.
The explosion was heard throughout the city. Immediately afterwards, a Russian helicopter took off into the sky.
"A loud explosion in occupied Mariupol was heard in all districts of the city. It came from the direction of the Azovstal plant. The video shows an occupiers’ helicopter flying low over the residential area of Novosilka, then it turned to the sea through the center and to Berdiansk. Just before that, there was a loud explosion at Azovstal," the statement said.
The leader of the terrorist self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic, Denis Pushilin, signed a decree on the launch of conscription commissions in the temporarily occupied Mariupol.