“The Russians show images of one tiny neighborhood which has been rebuilt and tell people it’s happening everywhere,” said Maria, who fled Mariupol in March 2022 and is in regular contact with people who stayed in the city. “But it’s not true. The city is still in ruins.”
Vladimir Putin’s government wants to turn Mariupol into a showcase for the occupation and so demonstrate that everything in the illegally occupied territories is under control. Certainly, the widespread kickbacks look like business as usual: construction contracts have been awarded to companies linked to the Russian security forces, government officials, and at least 25 organizations from Putin’s home city of St. Petersburg.
A year after taking the city, the Russian-appointed mayor of Mariupol said 32,500 private houses had been completely or partially destroyed, and more than 400 apartment blocks demolished. The occupying authorities promised that within three years residents would get new houses or apartments and promised special housing certificates for people who lost their properties.
The reality is different. Petro Andriushchenko, an adviser to Ukraine’s mayor of Mariupol and an exiled resident of the city said rebuilding work is slow and sporadic.
“Russian authorities approved the development of the Kirov district, where 15,000 people lived, and they estimate to build for 14,000,” he said. “But they won’t build it because of the war, and the money — this small district would cost them around $355m — will go into someone’s pocket.”
Despite the promises of the Russian authorities, Mariupol’s surviving residents are only likely to get support from the occupiers if they meet special requirements. For example, a recent decree from the Russian-appointed governor said compensation for ruined property would only be given to people with Russian passports.
As work begins on the construction of commercial housing in Mariupol, homes for Russians are being built in place of Mariupol residents’ demolished apartment buildings.
Alongside problems related to housing and rebuilding the ruined city, Mariupol residents have to survive without medicines and healthcare facilities after the destruction of their hospitals and the requisitioning of surviving medical units to treat Russian soldiers.
“There are not enough doctors, although doctors were brought from Rostov and other Russian cities,” Maria said. “It is also very difficult to get some medicines in pharmacies, especially if you need European medicines — the medicines you can get are Russian and the prices are crazy.”
The same has happened with education, according to Maria, who ran a photo blog about her home city before the full-scale invasion which has become Mariupol in Exile, publishing pictures from archives and some updates about the city under occupation. “All the schools were bombed, and only a few are working,” she said. “Some children study literally in the corridor. There aren’t enough desks, there aren’t enough places.”
Groceries have also increased in price, due to complex logistics, corruption, and profiteering. “To bring goods through all these checkpoints, from the Russian Federation or the self-proclaimed DPR and LPR, you have to spend a lot on gasoline and bribes,” Maria said. “Everyone tries to make as much profit from the people of Mariupol as they can.”
Stories from those who lived in Mariupol before the full-scale invasion and left for Russia confirm the reports of chaos and disruption. One woman portrayed a reality very different from the Kremlin propaganda.
Eugenia, a cosmetologist, wrote on Instagram that she had returned to the city but left again because of the poor medical care, inadequate transport facilities, limited communications, and high rents and grocery prices, where she had lived for 30 years before Russia attacked. She is now in St. Petersburg.
“Everything in Mariupol is 1.5 times more expensive than in St. Petersburg,” Eugenia wrote. She added that she had been uncomfortable walking on the streets “because of the increased attention from people of other nationalities,” a reference to the workers from poorer parts of Russia bussed in to rebuild the city.
There are estimated to be about 80,000 people living in Mariupol, including 10,000 soldiers and 40,000 migrant workers of different ethnicities from across the Russian Federation. The Kremlin offers inducements, including cheap home loans, to persuade Russians to move to the city, and Ukraine’s National Resistance Center said it has uncovered a Kremlin plan for 300,000 to be relocated to Mariupol by 2035, while Ukrainians are forcibly deported.
The atmosphere in the city is toxic and unsafe, Andriushchenko said, comparing it to the Children of Arbat, a trilogy about Stalin’s brutal rule in the 1930s. “There are denunciations,” he said. “If someone wants a neighbor’s apartment they write a denunciation about them to get it after they are detained.”
The Russian occupiers are also using more modern methods of surveillance, and have ordered residents to download a spy messenger app onto their phones, the Resistance Center reported. Initially introduced as a way for teachers to communicate with students and parents, the software was developed with the FSB and can spy on the phone’s owner, giving details of their movements, web searches, and contacts, the center said.
Despite Russian propaganda and amid all the destruction, surveillance, and repression, many Mariupol residents believe their ruined city can still be liberated and saved.
“If I were to paint an image of Ukraine, I would paint an image of Mariupol. It should become a matter of principle for the whole world to restore the city,” Andriushchenko said. “It should become a symbol of security and the border between civilization and barbarism.”
“It is just 60 kilometers (37 miles) from us to Russia. It will not go anywhere,” he added. “If the world wants to demonstrate that it has defeated Russia, then Mariupol should be rebuilt.”
Elina Beketova is a Democracy Fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA), focusing on the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine. She worked as a journalist, editor, and TV anchor for various news stations in Kharkiv and Kyiv, and currently contributes to the translator’s team of Ukrainska Pravda, Ukraine’s biggest online newspaper.
Europe’s Edge is CEPA’s online journal covering critical topics on the foreign policy docket across Europe and North America. All opinions are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the position or views of the institutions they represent or the Center for European Policy Analysis.
