It 's a hot , sunny Sunday morning , and birds are chirping in the trees over the heads of children playing on swings and in a pile of sand in a small park in front of City Hall . Or what used to be City Hall , anyway . Today , it 's a burned-out husk of a building , the ground around it thick with ash and crunchy with broken glass , official documents strewn around and covered with footprints . Windows are shattered . Walls are stained black by smoke and fire . A dozen or so young men lounge around on the front steps of the building , asserting that they are part of the militia of the Donetsk People 's Republic . But they look more like drunks with nowhere else to go after a night out . But they 're not the only ones hanging around the remains of City Hall in Mariupol , recently the scene of clashes between supporters of the central government and backers of either independence or union with Russia for this part of eastern Ukraine . Yevgeny Bulgakov , a steelworker , is here too , wearing his thick Ilyich factory work jacket despite the heat of the day . He 's here to help re-establish order in the city , he said . And indeed , despite the destruction of City Hall , the scene is much calmer than it was a month ago , when the building stood behind a makeshift barricades of tires , bricks and paving stones . That 's gone today . The only remnants are a coil of barbed wire discarded among spring flowers and a small pile of tires by the street corner . Did the steelworkers bring calm ? Some are giving credit for the restoration of order here to the steelworkers . There are tens of thousands of them in this industrial city where factories spew brown and gray smoke along the road into town . About 11,000 of them signed up to help patrol Mariupol along with local police , according to the company MetInvest , which employs them . The patrols come alongside an agreement signed by a wide range of leaders in Mariupol to try to de-escalate the situation . The deal came five days after violence in the city left at least seven people dead and 40 wounded , according to Human Rights Watch . The steelworkers are backed by their boss , Donetsk-based billionaire Rinat Akhmetov , who came out against both independence and union with Russia last week . Many of them are paid for the time they patrol , MetInvest said . But steelworkers are not the only ones on patrol . They only make up about a third of the total volunteer force , locals say . And hard-core supporters of independence for the region do n't give them credit for restoring order . A group of about a dozen steelworkers was jeered as several hundred supporters of independence gathered for a march Sunday to mark the killings on May 9 that seem to have been a turning point in the city . Hard questions for separatist leader . But the separatist crowd also has hard questions for the local separatist military commander , Andrey Borisov , an angular man with a shaggy beard and close-cropped hair under a beret . They surrounded him and peppered him with questions as he smoked and sweated in the hot sun . He did n't seem to be able to say who 's in control . `` Who will govern ? You will be the first one to come up to me when you do n't have your pension paid . The transition of power is a complicated process , '' he said . And he admitted that the separatists need more men . `` We need guys who are able to take arms and fight , '' he said to the crowd , composed mostly of people middle-aged and older , none of whom volunteered for the job . That could be a problem for the self-declared local political leader , Denis Kuzmenko . Kuzmenko vowed firmly Sunday that the people of Mariupol would not participate in Ukraine 's presidential election scheduled to take place in a week . The friendly , slightly chubby man wore a pistol in a holster on his hip as he spoke to journalists outside his headquarters , a tightly secured brick police station taken over by the separatists . His words were firm . `` We consider trying to open up a polling station and trying to establish an opportunity to vote as a provocation . We will treat it as such , '' he said . But can he carry out the threat ? He all but admitted he does n't have enough men to control the city when asked whether he needed the steelworkers to help maintain order . `` Of course we need everyone , '' he said , saying there are 50,000 steelworkers in the area , and that the majority support independence . He denied there was a divide between `` the steelworkers '' and the people . `` They are patrolling because they support the Donetsk People 's Republic and they want order , '' he said . As Kuzmenko spoke , his security guard , a clean-cut man with shiny gray trousers , violet shirt and AK-47 , came over to a journalist , tugged his arm and spoke English . `` Our citizens are the steelworkers , '' he said . `` It is the same . ''
An easy calm has settled over Mariupol , a city in the eastern part of Ukraine . Separatists battled government supporters last month for control . The strife has mostly come to an end , but no one seems to know who 's running the city . Key players in the drama are the city steelworkers .