How the Russian Federation hides crimes in Mariupol: new buildings on skeletons and population replacement

 

Logistics center and aggressive propaganda

 

From February 24, 2022, the city on the coast of the Sea of Azov is under constant Russian fire. There were street fights on the territory of Mariupol, bombs fell on houses, hospitals, schools - the city was under blockade. Hundreds of thousands of locals were forced to leave their homes, tens of thousands died. Bodies lay all over the city for several months, new, often unrecognizable graves appeared every day. Bodies are sometimes still taken to the cemetery, they are found during repairs, most of them are difficult to identify. If possible, they are buried in the city cemetery. Elsewhere, graves can still be seen along roads or in construction debris that has not been removed.

However, Russian social networks and media do not talk about the funerals. There you can watch videos about how the city lives "under Russia" - "happy people", "new houses" and "disappearance of everything Ukrainian".

The Russian Federation is trying to create from Mariupol a new, so to speak, prosperous city that lives and develops "under its auspices". No one shows the already destroyed high-rise buildings and the cemetery, the occupying authorities erect new buildings with playgrounds, open beaches and install sculptures.

"Initially, I think, the Russian Federation did not want to do anything with Mariupol, they would have left it destroyed. But in August 2022, Ukraine hit the Crimean bridge, and the Russians began to use only the road through Mariupol," Petro Andrischenko, an adviser, told Focus the mayor of Mariupol. "Then the Russian army realized that they needed a convenient logistics base. Mariupol is suitable as a base. Berdjansk could also be considered as a base, but Mariupol has a better port, it is unique on the Sea of Azov. In addition, there is a railway and direct route to Crimea. It became clear that it is very convenient to have such a military-logistics base right on the territory of Mariupol. Simply, pragmatism. On the other hand, the battles were fought for money, the Russians divided the city according to spheres of influence, who does what. It started is reconstruction. Now, based on the example of Mariupol, they are already promising the reconstruction of Bahmut and Avdijevka. But I doubt it."

The Russian Federation was initially interested in Mariupol as a logistics base, as it was at one time in Crimea, which should secure a certain part of the front. Propaganda is already the second layer, at first it was about logistics.

Andrišchenko says, now Mariupol is a kind of showcase that can be shown to Russians and so-called international partners, they say, look how beautiful it is. No one says what the city was like before the invasion, pictures of destruction and reconstruction show.

 

Migrants from Central Asia with Russian passports

 

According to the State Statistics Service of Ukraine, as of January 1, 2022, more than 425,000 people lived in Mariupol. In the spring of 2022, a UN report stated that 350,000 people had left the city. It is not known for sure how many of them died. As well as how many are currently in town.

In the summer of 2023, the Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Marat Husnullin stated that Mariupol has a population of 270,000. Ukrainian sources say that it is a smaller number. There are about 50,000 to 55,000 civilians left who lived before the full invasion, some are returning to the city, but mostly retirees. Also, in Mariupol there are already about 50,000 to 60,000 migrants from the Russian Federation, especially from Central Asia. And military personnel and employees of various special services. There are approximately 10,000 to 15,000 of them. This is generally less than twice the number reported by the Russian Federation.

"Russia does not bring its citizens to Mariupol, it encourages them to move very actively," continues Andrišchenko. "These are two different processes. The first ones were actually brought more than a year ago. It started in the fall of 2022, when they attracted migrants from Central Asia. There were 10,000 to 15,000 of them".

 

But little by little they started to disappear. They were mobilized and sent to the front.

The second wave of replacements are the Russians. Russia encourages them to move to Mariupol for permanent residence.

 

"In other words, this means that the first wave in the implementation of the policy of replacing the Ukrainian population with the Russian population took place at the expense of migrants of non-Slavic origin. In our opinion, they became citizens of the Russian Federation recently, and before that they were citizens of Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan. The second — at the expense of citizens of the Russian Federation from regions far from the center. That is, during these two years, such changes in the composition of the population can also be seen", says the adviser to the mayor of Mariupol.

The Russian Federation encourages its citizens to move to Mariupol, first of all, luring them with jobs and high salaries. In Mariupol, the Russians do pay high wages to some categories of workers. For example, drivers of the so-called communal transport.

Second, they promise apartments. Two percent mortgage with minimum down payment. In the spring, a new mortgage program starts, that is, the distribution of abandoned but undamaged apartments. In other words, giving away even the personal belongings of apartment owners who fled Mariupol, leaving their homes, or who died during the attack on the city. They also sell partially destroyed residential buildings, motivating buyers that they will become more expensive over time.

"They are offered good conditions, a mortgage, a minimum first installment, they will pay it for 30 years. And, also, a high salary. In Mariupol, they receive twice or three times more than in the Russian Federation. Budget organizations and communal workers come to Mariupol. In Russia were paid 10,000 to 15,000 per month, and in Mariupol for the same job - 30,000 to 35,000. In order to get more people to come, they are offered additional benefits: temporary accommodation, free lunches. All this is strange, but it turned out that the conditions of the destroyed Mariupol were better from those in which they lived until now", says Petro Andrišchenko.

 

Recovery or houses on bones

 

What Russia has turned Mariupol into is clearly visible on satellite images. Investigators have repeatedly released photos taken before and after the invasion. According to a UN report, during two months of fighting in the city, about 90 percent of high-rise buildings and more than half of private houses were destroyed or significantly damaged. The legitimate Mariupol City Council reported in November 2022 that more than 50,000 apartments were destroyed during the fighting in the city.

But despite such destruction, the Russian authorities, after taking control of the city, began to invite residents of the regions of the Russian Federation to move to Mariupol. For them, they started building new homes and renovating old ones.

 

"Many graves remained on private properties. If we talk about large cemeteries, they were demolished together with houses - many things were taken to the landfill together with the corpses. Construction began in these places. An extreme example: on the site of two large cemeteries, on the avenue Mir near the road to the village of Manguš, high-rise buildings have sprung up. Especially the Nevsky residential complex. At least 250 people died in its place during the attack. A little further away is a high-rise building in which 150 people burned. There was also a building. Those who remained in Mariupol is in shock. The Russians cannot avoid this. The burial process has long been over. Now they are just building new facilities," adds Andrišchenko.

And in order to do that, they demolish old houses, mostly in the city center, and not only build new ones, but also change the numbering. Therefore, even those who are left from the locals in Mariupol, after being left without housing, can hardly apply for apartments in new buildings, even if in their place there are those who once had apartments in that place - officially old buildings they no longer exist, and new ones are made for sale. The most prestigious areas are near the sea and closer to the center. Houses are also being built on the outskirts of the city, and apartments are also being sold. Both are bought by Russians.

Instead, if you read the residents' comments in various local publications, you can see many complaints about the occupation authorities' refusal to compensate for losses, forced evictions and rushed construction. Someone writes that the Russians, by demolishing houses, promised to provide housing for people, but they do not fulfill their promises. Someone complains that they are waiting for compensation for what was destroyed. Both of them write complaints to the President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin.

Communal services in the city are not fully provided. For example, it was not possible to restore the heating system, and if it gets cold, most people turn on the heaters, then the electricity goes out. Drinking water supply interruptions are frequent. And utility bills come complete.

 

Changing the composition of the population as a war crime

 

Currently, experts say that the strategic task of the Russian Federation is to change the composition of the population in the occupied territories. Physically and mentally. This was the case first in Crimea, then in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, and now the south is populated by soldiers and members of the special services who bring their families. Not only while the war is going on or they are on a business trip, but it becomes their permanent place of residence.

"It is necessary to understand that what Russia is doing, pushing the local population from the occupied territories and bringing its citizens, is at the very least a war crime. Under certain circumstances, it can be qualified as a crime against humanity," CrimeaSOS analyst Yevgeny Yaroshenko told Focus.

He says that from the first weeks of the occupation of Crimea, it was possible to record the movement of the population.

"Obviously, one of the factors was that the arrival of the occupation regime meant that many people who expressed certain views or belonged to certain groups were at risk of persecution, and were therefore forced to leave Crimea, move to mainland Ukraine. First of all , this refers to pro-Ukrainian activists, some religious groups that operated freely until 2014, but with the illegal spread of Russian legislation suddenly became alleged extremists or terrorists," says Yaroshenko.

Over time, repression began to be applied not only to pro-Ukrainian sympathizers, every time the circle of individuals and new groups keeps expanding. In the end, many Crimeans were faced with a choice: either stay in Crimea and expose themselves to danger, or leave its borders and start building their lives from scratch, which, of course, is not easy.

The forced issuance of passports became an additional factor for the population to leave Crimea. Not everyone wanted to impose a Russian passport, and without Russian citizenship it was impossible to get medical help on the peninsula, employment opportunities were significantly reduced, and it was forbidden to own private property in almost the entire territory of Crimea.

"On the other hand, from the first year of occupation, Russia began to actively promote the relocation of its citizens to Crimea," continues Yaroshenko.

 

"It was caused by several factors. First, Russia needed a bureaucratic apparatus in the occupation administration that would be loyal to it. It is possible to notice that among many leaders of the occupation authorities there is that "always". That is, the occupiers do not always trust the Crimean collaborators. For example, the occupation administration of Sevastopol has been headed by persons brought from Moscow, St. Petersburg or other cities of the Russian Federation for almost all 10 years. The situation is the same in the judiciary. Russia began to rapidly militarize Crimea. If within the framework of the agreement on the presence of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, there was allowed to keep a maximum of 20,000 military personnel, so that after the illegal occupation, completely ignoring previous agreements, they would start bringing their military contingent to the peninsula in unlimited numbers. Only in the first five years of the occupation of Crimea, the number of military personnel increased by 2.5 times." .

Often the result of the relocation of military personnel is the bringing of their families. Many residents of remote regions of the Russian Federation were given the opportunity to move to the warm Crimea.

 

"However, housing prices in Crimea were not so cheap, and salaries were not so high. Maybe only at the beginning. A few years ago, prices in Sevastopol could be compared with prices in Moscow, and salaries with salaries in mainland Ukraine. Many who moved, at first they realized that it was expensive and went back," recalls the KrymSOS analyst.

Many representatives of the special services and prison guards were also transferred, who began to introduce repressive measures and the practice of torture. According to the Office of the President of Ukraine in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, "Russia has moved 500,000 to 800,000 of its citizens to the peninsula in 10 years. The Russian Federation is using the resettlement as a way to change the demographic situation and composition of the population, to replace as many Ukrainians as possible with more loyal representatives of the Russian Empire." .

A similar scenario is now being implemented in Mariupol and other cities in the occupied territories. Citizens with Russian passports live in Kahovka, Kherson Oblast, or Energodar, Zaporizhia Oblast.

Are there those who are waiting for Ukraine? For example, people from Mariupol are sure of it. Mariupol resistance movements and Atesh are said to be active, monitoring the situation and carrying out subversive activities, as well as some citizens helping Ukrainian special services to assess the situation. But over time, as we can see from the example of occupied Crimea or Donetsk, the situation becomes more and more complicated.