What Russia is doing in occupied Mariupol

A few days ago Vladimir Putin visited Mariupol. The Ukrainian city that has become a symbol of utter destruction. Videos released by the Kremlin show the Russian ruler driving through the city at the wheel of a car. It's nighttime. There is nothing to be seen of Mariupol or what remains of it. No ruins, no destruction.

On May 20, 2022, the last Ukrainian fighters left the city in the south of the country, on the Sea of Azov. Buses took them from the site of the Azov steelworks, where they had been holed up for weeks. Since that day, Mariupol has been under Russian occupation; since the annexation of Donetsk oblast in violation of international law, it has been part of Russia under Russian law.

During the three-month siege, Mariupol was hit hard, harder than almost any other city. Around 90 percent of the buildings are damaged or destroyed, and very many cannot be repaired.

Nearly 450,000 people used to live here; about 120,000 remain. It is not clear how many people were killed during the siege: Moscow speaks of 3000 civilians killed, probably it is much more. Ukrainian counts put the number of victims at 25 000.

Now, ten months after the end of the siege, the port city is about 90 kilometers behind the front lines. What leaks out comes almost exclusively from the Russian propaganda apparatus. But with the help of satellite imagery and photographs, one can get a glimpse of what the Russian occupiers are doing in the city. A new, a Russian Mariupol is to be built on ruins.

Using four locations as examples—a new district, the theater, the city park, and a street—we explain what the occupiers are currently doing in Mariupol, how they are changing the city, and what they consider particularly important. During his visit, Putin drives through Kuprina Street in the west of the city. The occupiers have quickly built a new micro-district on this street. It is called Newskyj and is a showcase project for the occupiers. In May 2022, there was nothing but a green field measuring approximately 90,000 square meters between a few large halls.

One year later, the satellite images show that seven gleaming white apartment blocks are standing here. Most of the neighboring halls have been destroyed, and large holes gape in the roofs.

Videos and pictures show the buildings up close. Russian flags hang on every apartment block, the grass is newly planted, the streets freshly tarred. It looks like a backdrop.

The microdistrict was built by the Russian Ministry of Defense, or more precisely by the ministry's military construction company, which normally builds airfields or barracks. In Mariupol, it is housing estates, and a hospital is also to be built.

Mariupol's exiled mayor, Vadym Boychenko, told the BBC it was no coincidence that many of the buildings built by the occupiers were on the outskirts of the city. "They are only building this to supposedly prove that the version they are spreading of what is happening in Mariupol is true. But they are lying. They destroyed the city. The city no longer exists. It will take 20 years to rebuild it." His adviser, Petro Andryushchenko, also speaks of staging. The new houses would house mainly members of the Russian military. Mariupol residents would have to continue living in destroyed houses.

It is not certain how quickly the Nevsky district was built; the Ministry of Defense says it took 80 days, and the first people moved in as early as September 2022. It probably didn't happen quite that fast, but the speed is still remarkable. Putin also had this new micro-district shown to him. Russian Deputy Prime Minister Marat Chusnullin, who is responsible for reconstruction in the occupied territories, accompanies him, has folding plans with him, and shows Putin where schools are to be built and where kindergartens are to be set up.

Putin also talks to people who are passed off as residents, captured on video and later published on the Kremlin's website. They thank him; one woman says, "This is a little piece of heaven here." But at some point, from a distance, you can suddenly hear the faint cry of another: "It's all lies, it's all staged." Bystanders react in shock: Chusnullin and several other men turn around frantically, trying to figure out where the shouts are coming from.

Two days later, when the video had already been shared thousands of times on the Internet, it is deleted from the Kremlin site and republished in an edited version, without the shout. On the left bank of the Kalmius River is the Azov Steelworks, behind it are the residential districts of the Livobereshny district with its many apartment blocks and the Palace of Culture on Azovstal Street. Many who lived here used to work in the steel mill. During the siege there was heavy shelling, tanks drove through the settlement, many apartment blocks were destroyed.

Satellite photos from September 2022 show how badly Azovstal Street was hit. Roofs of dozens of houses are damaged, artillery shells simply tore away parts of some houses. The house with number 33 was also hit. Months after the video, the three wrecked cars are still standing in front of the house.

A few months later, in January 2023, Azovstal Street number 33 and the houses next to it are gone. Satellite images still show where the apartment blocks once stood. Yellow excavators remain next to the construction pits.

The houses are also listed on a document distributed by the Ministry of Construction of the so-called Donetsk People's Republic, which includes hundreds of houses that apparently cannot be repaired and are therefore to be demolished. It may not come as a surprise that the Russian occupiers are demolishing the destroyed houses. However, the exiled mayor Bojtschenko makes a serious accusation: Russia is covering up the traces of the war crimes it committed in Mariupol. In February, Bojtschenko claimed that the bodies of civilians killed in the attacks were still lying under the rubble of many houses and were simply being cleared away along with the building debris. This statement cannot be verified.

The remains of the Mariupol theater have become a memorial to the cruelty of Russia's war of aggression. In large white Cyrillic letters, the word “Дети” – children – was written on the square in front of the theater.

Shortly after Russian troops entered the city, the theater was designated by the Mariupol city administration as one of the buildings where the population could seek shelter from air strikes. At one point, there were reportedly 1,300 people inside.

But on March 16, the theater was severely damaged by at least one bomb dropped by a Russian aircraft.

A reconstruction by the AP news agency concluded that 600 people may have lost their lives under the rubble. The exact number of victims can no longer be determined. The recovered bodies were buried in mass graves.

Even in August 2022, months after the last Ukrainian fighters left the city, the word “children” can still be read on the square in front of the theater.

Months after the bombing, the Russian occupiers removed this memorial. In early December 2022, scaffolding was erected around the theater and a tarpaulin was stretched over it. It is printed with portraits of Russian poets. Alexander Pushkin and Leo Tolstoy can be seen. Using a technique familiar from the proverbial Potemkin villages, the ruins are being turned into a simulation of culture and reconstruction.

For many Ukrainians, it must seem like a mockery that the Ukrainian national poet Taras Shevchenko can also be seen on the tarpaulin. Behind it, the ruined building, the visible sign of a war crime, is being demolished stone by stone. Whether the theater will ever be rebuilt is unclear.

For Putin, Mariupol is militarily important. After the conquest, the city was gradually transformed into a logistics center. For the Russian ruler, however, it has above all great symbolic significance. This was demonstrated by his visit. After the withdrawal from Kherson, the city on the Sea of Azov is the only major city that Russia has been able to conquer since February 24. As soon as a new apartment block is built here, it is triumphantly paraded on Russian television. Moscow wants to use Mariupol as an example of how the occupied territories are to be Russified. The traces of Ukrainian history and culture are being destroyed. Whoever wants to have his pension here needs a Russian passport, the city has been assigned to the Russian time zone, doctors, craftsmen or civil servants are sent from Moscow. And the construction plans are of enormous dimensions. 875 hectares of housing are to be created by 2035, according to a leaked document from Russia's state planning agency. The port and the historic center are to be rebuilt, and a technology park is to be built where the Azov steelworks once stood, according to Russian sources.

All this is reminiscent of Grozny, the capital of Chechnya, completely destroyed by Russia in two wars, then rebuilt with a lot of money from Moscow. Here, Putin has at least superficially bought the goodwill of the population. Whether the same can be done in Mariupol is by no means certain. "It's a shame Putin didn't come to our house in the Livobereshny district," wrote a resident of this heavily damaged neighborhood on Telegram, according to the independent portal Mozhem Obyasnit (Можем объяснить). "No windows, no doors, no hot water or heating. Here he could have talked to 'local people'."