Russians looking for their dream home in the new buildings of Mariupol, the Ukrainian city destroyed and occupied by Moscow

A year ago the Ukrainian city of Mariupol it was destroyed and captured by Russian forces.

Now it has become a showcase for Moscow dominance. And some Russians even hope to buy houses there.

LOOK: How the currencies of Mexico and Colombia became the strongest in Latin America (and what disadvantages it has)

Russia claimed to have annexed Mariupolalong with the other occupied areas, after a series of referendums that have been described as a farce.

Around the 90% of the city’s buildings were damaged or destroyed by Russian shelling during a grueling two-month siege.

Thousands of civilians were killed and some 350,000 people fled the city, out of a pre-war population of 430,000, according to the UN.

Now, the occupation authorities seem bent on “russifying” the citychanging Ukrainian road signs to Russian ones, introducing the Russian curriculum in schools and putting pressure on remaining residents to acquire Russian passports.

BBC Verify used satellite imagery to map how Russia is reshaping the fabric of the city.

He has also discovered that although new development works are taking place, there is still a lot of destruction. Residents left behind from before the war fear an uncertain future.

House with sea view

“I have found a property. Mariupol will be a beautiful city,” Vladimir, from the Russian Arctic city of Murmansk, told the BBC.

He and others the BBC spoke to did not want their full names published.

Vladimir is among the Dozens of Russians who have been searching for properties in recent months in the busy city on VKontaktethe most popular social network in Russia.

Vladimir says that he has already sold his apartment in his hometown and will soon move to the house in Mariupol with his family.

“The main thing is that it is facing the sea,” he told the BBC, adding that he bet on buying it because the prices are low.

Vladimir’s remarks echo what millions of Russians have heard in the Kremlin-controlled media over the past year.

Reports have not ceased to appear on state television describing the reconstruction of Mariupol as a process that is advancing at a “record” pace and where life returns to normal.

“On the site of the ruins there are now new blocks of flats, kindergartens, schools: everything is being restored with the most modern technologies,” says a report on the state television station Rossiya 1.

Satellite images analyzed by the BBC show, indeed, the appearance of multiple skyscrapers in existing neighborhoods from the city in the last year, most of them in the suburbs.

There is also a vast new area of ​​newly built skyscrapers in the far northwest of the city, called Nevsky.

Satellite image of the new neighborhood

Collage of buildings in Mariupol before and after

new neighborhoods

Satellite images also reveal that the devastation in the city remains enormous.

This is especially true in some parts of the city center, where most of the buildings can still be seen without their roofs.

Alexander (not his real name), an employee of the large Azovstal steel plant who has remained in the city, claims that what is shown on Russian television is “garbage”.

Ukrainian troops held out at the plant during the Russian siege.

Calculate that so far Only 10% of the homes damaged in the fighting have been restored.

At the same time that new housing is being built, many apartment blocks have been demolished, apparently considered irretrievable.

Among them is an entire neighborhood – with an area of ​​some 315,000 m2, according to satellite images – in the east of the city, another part of Mariupol badly affected by the fighting.

Satellite image of the demolished neighborhood

But Alexander claims little or nothing is being done instead.

“So they tear down a block of flats and now there’s just a hole in the ground, no foundation is being laid, nothing is being done,” he told the BBC.

Delays and restrictions

Officially, people whose houses have been destroyed or demolished can apply for a flat in the new developments that are being built.

Both Russian state television and pro-Kremlin YouTube channels show apparently happy families moving into their new homes.

However, many locals, including those we have spoken with, say that the process is excruciatingly slow and that, in practice, there are many restrictions, so the new buildings are half empty.

Svetlana (not her real name) says her grandmother is still waiting for a flat to replace the one she lost when her building was demolished, months after being notified that she would have her new home in March.

“People are put on a kind of waiting list and they don’t know where they are going to get a flat“, told the BBC Svetlana, who went to live abroad after the war.

Alexander told the BBC that he thinks Floors are being given “with great moderation and very selectively” to people who have “clearly pro-Russian views”.

One of the common grounds for denial, reported online by Mariupol residents, is someone owning property other than their demolished flat, including a plot of land, a share in a flat, or a holiday home in the countryside.

Anna, a woman whose block was demolished, told pro-Russian Mariupol 24 television that she was denied a replacement flat because she owns an 8m2 shed in a village 40km from the city.

His building, on Najimov Avenue, west of the city center, is to be replaced by a new apartment block, called Dom Na Nakhimova.

Built by a private Russian construction company, its website gives the impression of being a luxury development, and it will be sold on the free market to mortgage holders.

“Right now, we do not have the means to buy a house with a mortgage“Anna explained to Mariupol 24. “How could we do it? “How can we do it?”.

Contacted by the BBC, Dom Na Nakhimova’s promoters said most of the flats were already booked, giving the price for a 35-square-meter flat at 3.55 million rubles (about $37,500).

“Russia will lift the city off the ground and it will be even better”

The Russians we spoke to seem unfazed by the scale of the destruction in the city or the problems residents are experiencing on the ground.

“Ukraine destroyed the city, of course,” says Vladimir, who ignores the fact that it was Russia that invaded Ukraine and caused massive destruction.

“Russia will lift the city off the ground and it will be even better than it was as part of Ukraine“, Add.

Oxana, from Tatarstan, a mother of several who says she “always dreamed of living by the sea,” expressed concern at the prospect of Ukrainians returning.

Ukraine is trying to push south towards the city as part of its counter-offensive, according to its deputy defense minister.

Oona Hathaway, Professor of Law at Yale University, explained to the BBC that, if Ukraine recaptures the city, property rights granted during the occupation are likely to be annulled.

But that hasn’t discouraged people like Oxana: “I haven’t given up on my dream yet,” she says. “My goal is to have my own house of no less than 180 square meters.”

Source: Elcomercio