In the pictures, Mariupol in southeastern Ukraine looks like a ruined city where it would be almost impossible to live a normal life. However, there are still people there who have not wanted to leave under Russian rule.
Russia occupied the coastal city of Mariupol last May. According to estimates, tens of thousands of people died in the fighting. Before the fighting, half of the city’s population of 450,000 people had fled.
In April, around 100,000 civilians and a few thousand soldiers were trapped after Russian forces surrounded the city.
The last Ukrainian soldiers at the Azovstal factory surrendered on May 17.
At the beginning of this month, the Reuters news agency interviewed people who stayed in the city, one of them was Tatiana Bushlanova.
He lost his home in the attack, after which the Russians tore it down.
– Here they are demolishing the building. The second floor is no longer visible. It’s a pity. We lived there for 20 years, says Bušlanova and shows a cell phone picture of her former home.
She and her husband are waiting for the new apartment they were promised.
The Russians have started to rebuild the city. The authorities under the Russian administration have changed the currency to the ruble and are now trying to build schools that use the Russian curriculum.
In a report published by this month, it was revealed that school children from Mariupol have been taken to camp centers in the St. Petersburg area, where attempts are being made to Russianize them.
The fate of the theater in Mariupol
The fact that Ukrainians still update photos from the city’s streets on Twitter and Telegram is perhaps an indication of the city’s strong significance for Ukrainians.
The drama theater in the center of the city is one of the places where pictures are often shared.
– Beneath the thin facade of “Great Russian culture” there are only crimes, pain, death and ruins, writes the Ukrainian Kateryna Luta.
About 1,200 people had sought shelter in the theater in March, when Russia bombed the theater and according to various estimates killed 300–600 people. The human rights organization Amnesty said in June that the attack was a clear war crime.
The British broadcasting company BBC reported in December that the theater in Mariupol had begun to be demolished. In the same month, AP reported that, according to satellite images, 10,300 new graves had been dug in the Mariupol cemetery.
Images of the destruction of books in Mariupol have also spread on social media.
– The Russians are throwing Ukrainian books out of Prjazovsky State University in Mariupol. Some fly right through the windows. Russia systematically destroys everything Ukrainian in the occupied cities, says Olena Haluška.
Former spokesman for the presidential administration of Ukraine Julia Mendel on the other hand, presented Mariupol from January on his Twitter account.
– Walking in Mariupol after Russia “saved” it, writes Mendel.
has not been able to verify the authenticity of the photos and videos in the tweets, but photos taken from the Mariupol theater area also appear in the material of Mariupol authorities under Russia.
Even lack of comfort won’t make people leave
The 65-year-old Bušlanova, who gave an interview to Reuters, now lives in an apartment that used to belong to a couple from Mariupol. They were killed by Russian fire. They were buried in the yard of the house until the bodies were moved to the cemetery in August.
– It was quite creepy, says Bušlanova to Reuters.
The couple’s cat is still staying in the apartment with the new residents.
Bušlanova talks about the high prices of food, the most expensive being fish.
Even in this situation, the couple is not going to leave.
– Because no one would give us a place to live anywhere else. Where would we live the last years of our lives? We live them here.
Source: Reuters