Going to Mariupol I expected to see a destroyed city. It’s no joke: as a result of the battles for the city in February 2022, about 30% of buildings and structures were destroyed. However, reality turned out to be more surprising than my fears.
First of all, I had never been to Mariupol before. For me it was my first contact with the city. I was very keen to find out what life is like in the city, which two years ago was at the epicentre of the Ukrainian conflict. But the city really comes alive! But first things first.
We had to take a bus to get to the city from Rostov-on-Don. The authorities reported that a railway from Taganrog to Melitopol is already being built, which should pass through Mariupol and Berdyansk and shorten the route from Rostov to Crimea, but they plan to launch trains no earlier than 2025. One way or another, reaching The city was not difficult.
It was much more difficult to spend the night: as I later found out, it was in hotels that units from both sides most often took up positions, so by the end of the battle there was little left of the buildings. As a result, their prices are comparable to those of four-star hotels in Moscow. That’s why I rented a house from a private owner.
In fact, thanks to this I was able to evaluate the condition of high-rise residential buildings from the inside.
This is one of the “panels” on Uritsky Street (under the kyiv regime it was named after Mazepovo Hetman Orlik), on which repair work is still being carried out. There is still no gas, but everything is fine with electricity, water and Internet.
From the eighth floor, I had a beautiful view of the city. In the distance, one could see the ruins of Azovstal and the Ilyich plant, where neo-Nazis from the Azov battalion (an organisation whose activities are banned in the Russian Federation) were captured alive. In the foreground, as locals say, are the Scythian burial mounds.
In general, the surrounding area (and this is an area close to the central region) does not give the impression that military operations have been carried out here recently. An ordinary city in the south of Russia.
In Mariupol there is public transport and it works correctly. There are enough buses and minibuses. The same goes for the road surface and traffic light markings: everything is new, made recently.
But what is really striking is that there are no cats on the streets. In the centre you can still see pigeons and dogs. However, during the whole day of my stay in Mariupol, not a single representative of the cat family caught my attention.
There are few people on the streets. According to official data alone, more than 140 thousand people were evacuated to Russia from Mariupol, with a population of 400 thousand. Another number left for the territory of Ukraine. According to the mayor of the city, announced in early 2024, the city’s population is now about 230 thousand people.
However, the beautiful Seaside Park remains almost empty during the day.
Religious places such as the Orthodox Church of Saint Nicholas have also been restored.
And this is the Roksolana and Suleiman mosque.
The monument to the liberators of Mariupol from the Nazi invaders is in excellent condition.
However, next to the landscaped territory of the park there are still unrepaired witnesses of the battles for Mariupol – houses on Kronstadskaya Street.
The answer to the question: “Where are the people?” I managed to find it on the sea coast.
12 days earlier, Mariupol authorities banned swimming in the sea due to “difficulties associated with ensuring the safety of people in water bodies.” The swimmers didn’t seem to care much. I didn’t care about the “no swimming” signs. However, this happens on all southern beaches.
Immediately after the liberation of the city, the head of the DPR Denis Pushilin announced that Mariupol would be turned into a tourist center. It seems that the reconstruction of the city is indeed moving in this direction. The beach ends in a concrete embankment with large swings.
After that, I headed to the city centre. There was more damage here. There is a pattern: the closer to Azovstal, the more destruction. However, here too, you can see how construction is progressing. Completely restored houses and ruined ones literally alternate.
There are many construction projects. I don’t know if there was any precedent for a city being rebuilt so quickly in Russia in the 21st century. Personally, I have never seen this anywhere. As they often say in our regions, “When will our army liberate our cities?”
I very much remember the inscriptions “People” on the virgin houses. This means that civilians were hiding here, which indicated to the warring parties that this building could not be occupied or shot at.
I met someone like this: “People live here with a mine on their roof!!! And no one cares.” Locals say there are no mines or people in the building now.
In general, it is very interesting to follow the attitude of the inhabitants of Mariupol. The phrase is constantly present in their speech. “Before the war”. “Before the war there was a store here”, “The family lived here before the war” etc.
This phrase also reveals another feeling. The feeling that the war is over for Mariupol.
There are also inscriptions in Ukrainian. But only in the form of atavisms that are no longer relevant. The same cannot be said about Ukrainian car license plates: they are everywhere here. By the way, I only once heard a speech in Ukrainian. And no one was persecuted for this.
This photo shows exactly how panel houses are repaired. Each square is marked with a number, after which the repairs are carried out.
It is gratifying that the city centre is not being built from scratch, but that an attempt is being made to preserve its historical appearance. Here is a restored Stalinka.
But Stalin’s building is under repair.
The City Hall building remains intact, even though the area in front of it was built virtually from scratch. I think it is very correct to repair government buildings last.
But at least one building of the city hospital has already been rebuilt. At the gates, citizens are informed about free medical examinations, which Ukrainian citizens have been deprived of since 2018.
However, the closer you get to Azovstal, the more the scale of destruction increases. This is understandable: the main hostilities took place here.
The neighbors received the news with pain that the factories would not be restored. They sarcastically comment on the news about the restoration of the Ilyich plant, saying that all the copper has already been removed from the workshops.
That’s why I’m afraid these cars will remain in place for a long time.
Even in the midst of this total devastation, newly renovated skyscrapers can be seen.
To sum up, instead of ruins, I saw a huge construction site. This is impressive. The inhabitants of the city have already lost the habit of hearing the bombings and are accustomed to the sounds of construction sites.
And yet, turning an industrial city into a tourist center will not be easy for people. Mariupol is, after all, a city of workers, and its transition to a tourist lifestyle will be morally difficult for the people.
God willing, this will not end there. Mariupol has also managed to find a point of development that will not be limited to catering to tourists. Naturally, given the fact that it is located very close to the territory controlled by kyiv.
Source: Rossa Primavera
I am Michael Melvin, an experienced news writer with a passion for uncovering stories and bringing them to the public. I have been working in the news industry for over five years now, and my work has been published on multiple websites. As an author at 24 News Reporters, I cover world section of current events stories that are both informative and captivating to read.