Russia will secure a stronghold over Mariupol by stripping Ukraine of identity and building on devastation
eight months later Mariupol fell to Russia After one of the most brutal battles of the war, Moscow is now building on the devastation, bringing in people to fill the abandoned city and cleansing it of any Ukrainian identity.
Amid months of being unable to advance the front lines and ceding major cities like Kharkiv and Kherson to Ukrainian forces, the Kremlin reportedly turned its attention to Mariupol.
An investigation by the Associated Press found that the city is beginning to resemble a Russian garrison as Moscow pours in troops, equipment, doctors, construction workers and administrative officials.
The remains of a statue and other rubble lie in front of the Azovstal steel factory, which was the last site in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol to fall to Russian forces in late May 2022.
(AP Photo)
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Buildings bombed are reportedly being demolished at a rate of one a day, and the extent of Russia’s deadly invasion has become even more apparent as more bodies and mass graves are discovered.
Some 50,000 homes are expected to be demolished.
The world saw the attack of the war as Russian forces hit the port city, and both Ukrainian forces and civilians took refuge for three months in an attempt to hold the city.
A construction worker works on the site of the new municipal medical center in Mariupol with an Orthodox church in the background, in territory controlled by the government of the Donetsk People’s Republic, eastern Ukraine, Wednesday, July 13, 2022.
(Photo/AP File)
Fighting for the city eventually centered on Mariupol’s Azovstal steel plant, where Ukrainians soldiers and civilians were trapped under relentless bombardment from Russia, blocking access to food, water, and medical care, and forcing thousands to ultimately surrender.
Officials have warned that as many as 25,000 civilians were killed in the siege, though according to AP research that number could be up to three times higher as rubble is cleared and more graves are discovered.
This November 16, 2022 video image shows some of the new graves that have been dug since the Russian siege began, at the Staryi Krym cemetery on the outskirts of the occupied Ukrainian city of Mariupol.
(AP Photo)
As Ukrainian troops have begun to push the front lines further east in Donetsk, Russia is seeking to secure its control over Mariupol by clearing the city of any vestige of Ukrainian identity.
The Avenue of Peace, which runs through the city, was reportedly renamed Lenin Avenue, and Soviet-era titles have replaced street names and signs throughout the city.
Russia has reportedly unveiled new plans for the city that will focus on the historic Drama Theatre, which housed hundreds of Ukrainian men, women and children who took refuge from Russian bombing in the early days of the war.
The theater was bombed by twin Russian airstrikes on March 16 and some 600 people were killed in the attack.
In this December 2, 2022 video image, a fence is seen surrounding the Drama Theater in Mariupol, Ukraine. Months after hundreds of people were killed in Russian airstrikes on the theater, the fence is engraved with Russian and Ukrainian literary figures, as well as a sketch of the theater’s earlier life, before the Russian occupation.
(AP Photo)
Residents who remained in Mariupol said the theater stank all summer because bodies were trapped inside.
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In response to the devastation, Russia erected a screen around the building high enough that it can be seen from space, the AP found.
Russia is also apparently planning to convert the Azovstal steel plant, a site that has remained a symbol of the ukrainian resistance – in an industrial park, although construction is not believed to have started.