Despite No End In Sight To Russian Occupation, Ukraine Plans Mariupol's Rebirth

At a recent conference in Berlin, more than 3,000 people from politics, business, and other spheres gathered to discuss reconstruction in Ukraine. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy hoped to secure billions in pledges toward rebuilding the country during -- and especially after -- the war with Russia.

In February, a study commissioned by Kyiv and the World Bank, among others, found that postwar reconstruction in Ukraine would cost almost $500 billion.

Most symbolic of the devastation wrought upon eastern Ukraine by the Russian invasion launched in February 2022 is probably the Azov Sea port of Mariupol. The industrial city, which had a prewar population of more than 400,000, suffered widespread destruction after months of fighting when Russian forces encircled it in the spring of 2022.

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Mariupol: Before And After

Ukrainian officials from the city say reconstructing it will take 20 years and cost billions of dollars.

Deputy Mayor Serhiy Orlov told RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service that city officials have a plan for postwar reconstruction divided into several stages, the first of which "covers 154 projects with a total cost of about 800 million euros. According to our calculation, there will be about 250,000 people in Mariupol within a year after the liberation, and this is a plan of how to revive housing, social, household infrastructure, transport, and private business."

A later stage involves urban planning, Orlov says, but doing so without being in the city is difficult.

"Taking into account the fact that half of Mariupol doesn't exist -- and will no longer exist as it did before -- it's necessary to have a new spatial vision of the city," he says. "It's hard to do it fully without being there, but we can create an architectural vision."

Given the fact that Ukrainian forces have been unable to reclaim much territory since successful counteroffensives in the east and south in the fall of 2022, liberating Mariupol seems to be a distant prospect for now. But Orlov says the duration of the Russian occupation does not affect the vision of reconstruction. He points to the Azovstal steelworks, where the last troops held out against the Russian siege.

The Azovstal metallurgical plant

The Azovstal plant "is 11 square kilometers, 1,100 hectares. It is now in ruins. The occupiers are not doing anything and will not do anything. From the point of view of practical projects, if we wanted to build a certain social facility, and the occupiers have already built a private one there, this affects the specific project, but not the vision of the city's development. It does not affect the transformation and this new urban vision," Orlov explains.

Orlov says city officials are looking for inspiration to other cities that transitioned from economies based largely on heavy industry to more diversified and innovative industries. He points to the cities of Germany's Ruhr Valley, Eastern European cities such as the Czech Republic's Ostrava and Kosice, and especially the U.S. city of Pittsburgh.

A newly built residential building in Mariupol features an image of a girl wearing a dress painted in the colours of the Russian flag in August 2023.

What The Russians Built

Immediately after the capture of the city in May 2022, the Russian authorities announced plans to rebuild the city, primarily housing. Large numbers of migrant workers were brought in to man the construction sites. According to Orlov, the Russians built 50 high-rise apartment buildings in Mariupol -- just 5 percent of what had been destroyed.

"When we talk about destruction, we know for sure that half of the city does not exist. Let's imagine: In Mariupol before the war there were 2,200 high-rise buildings; 55 percent of residents lived in the high-rise sector," Orlov says.

"Fifty percent of them no longer exist, i.e. 1,100 buildings. Seven hundred buildings were demolished even with their foundations -- they were not just destroyed, but completely dismantled, because the occupiers are hiding these war crimes."

Orlov says that when Mariupol is liberated, the new buildings will need to be inspected, and those built illegally or that do not satisfy legal norms will be demolished.

'What People Want'

Vadym Boychenko, the mayor of Mariupol, is convinced that one of the most important factors in the economic recovery of Mariupol is the people, and as long as the city is under occupation, everything must be done to keep Ukrainians in Ukraine.

"People are the factor of accumulation of these resources in the form of taxes. People are the fuse of the future growth or nongrowth of the economy," he says.

The main factor in the return of people to the country is housing, Boychenko says. Creating housing for Ukrainians is also part of countering Russian propaganda, he believes.

"Will people go to Mariupol if we build quality housing there? Of course they will go, after the de-occupation," Boychenko says.

"What is Russia doing today? It's building, building on camera. Unfortunately, today our people fall into this trap. That is, when they are told, 'They don't care about you here, but they can take care of you there,' then thousands of people return to Mariupol. People are asking for two things today -- I'm talking about the people of Mariupol: housing and justice," he adds.