Mariupol, Ukraine’s port city, was undergoing a facelift in the years leading up to Russia’s invasion.
Following Russia’s takeover of Crimea in 2014, more than $600 million was spent on new roads, a children’s hospital, and parks to modernise the predominantly Russian-speaking city as part of a drive to demonstrate the benefits of life in West-leaning Ukraine.
‘We lived well, joyfully,’ said Maria Danylova, 24, who married last August and moved into a new apartment in the city.
She, like the rest of her family, works for Metinvest, a steel behemoth that has invested over $2 billion in its two massive Mariupol mills since 2014.
‘It was a free-developing city,’ she remarked, recalling weekend strolls with her parents.
The city is now in ruins, with makeshift graves littering the streets after two months of shelling.
A landscape of bombed-out residential towers, darkened by smoke, can be found on every street. Military trucks had been smashed to bits in the ruins. Thousands of individuals are thought to have died as a result of the disaster.
Mariupol is a strategic gain for Russia, as it strengthens its access to the occupied Crimea peninsula via pro-Russian separatist-controlled territory.
Post Your Comments