Russian profiteers cash in on sham Mariupol ‘reconstruction’ as authorities cover up crimes – FT
Russia wants to hide the traces of its crimes in occupied Mariupol and show that it is "rebuilding" the city, but "the reality is very different from the propaganda," according to a Financial Times investigation released on Feb. 7.
Mariupol residents live in dilapidated houses and leaky apartments while Russian businessmen make money on multimillion-dollar contracts.
According to FT, Mariupol is 95% destroyed and, in the words of Mayor Vadym Boychenko, will take about 20 years to fully recover. The death toll in Mariupol as a result of Russian aggression may reach tens of thousands.
Maksym (name changed), a resident of Mariupol and a construction worker, told reporters that the Russian company R-Stroy began "work" in his building in October 2022. It was windy and raining heavily at the time, but the company's "workers" still took out most of the windows, and the apartments were flooded with water. The new windows that were delivered a month later were the wrong size. The "workers" installed them upside down or in such a way that they protruded from the walls. Heating in the building was not available until the end of February, most of the furniture in the apartments could not withstand moisture, and the floors swelled and bent.
Read also: Russians use civilian trucks to transport military equipment and personnel through Mariupol
Almost a year after the "work" began, residents are still struggling to get R-Stroy to repair their home and fix the additional damage caused by their own "builders," according to the FT report.
R-Stroy is one of the companies that received a contract to "restore" the city destroyed by the Russian troops. It was established in May 2022, immediately after the Russian takeover of Mariupol.
The FT describes how Russia destroyed Mariupol and committed war crimes, including striking a drama theater where civilians were hiding and a maternity hospital with pregnant women. Other Russian crimes may remain unsolved because law enforcement is unable to enter the city and the occupation administration is trying to cover their tracks.
Ukrainian Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets noted that Russia is trying to destroy all evidence of its war crimes in Mariupol.
Read also: A journalistic chronicle of unfathomable tragedy – NV’s review of ‘20 days in Mariupol’
Russia announced a "master plan" for Mariupol, allegedly developed by the Ministry of Construction and the Moscow-based Unified Institute of Spatial Planning, two weeks before the city's defenders withdrew from Azovstal. The "plan" promised the "development" of the city destroyed by the Russians in 2022-2035, including "restoration of buildings in the historic center," "tram and bus networks," "bicycle infrastructure," and more.
According to the FT, the Russians' document was based on outdated Ukrainian plans created before 2016 and did not take into account changes that had occurred since then.
"In the years leading up to the [full-scale] war, the city streamlined its bureaucracy, invested in services and infrastructure, and created new public spaces,” says the article.
“Mariupol became much more modern and European, although there was still much to do. Vadym Boyko, the Ukrainian mayor of Mariupol, who is now in exile, said: ‘The Russians are dragging us back to Soviet times.”
Russian propagandists broadcast the alleged "rebuilding" of Mariupol, and the occupation authorities boasted of celebrating Victory Day and taking children to the zoo. But the FT notes that the Russians, who boasted of "new" schools and kindergartens, were actually opening facilities built and almost completed by Ukrainians. Even the new buses and trams with the inscription Mariupol and St. Petersburg – sister cities turned out to be Ukrainian, which the authorities had bought shortly before the full-scale invasion.
"This is our tram, it even has our registration number," said Mykyta Biryukov, a former deputy director of transportation in Mariupol.
Due to a lack of drivers, transportation in the occupied city has been intermittent, there is no heating in the cabins, and passengers complain that, in winter, it was warmer outside than inside the bus. Additionally, the occupation administration laid tram routes without regard for where the city residents actually need to go.
Ilya Shumanov, Director General of Transparency International Russia, noted that many of the officials sent to Mariupol are inexperienced representatives of the "lowest rung of the career ladder" of the Russian bureaucracy, and construction companies are often "people connected with officials, not luminaries of the construction world."
Mykola Tryfonov, who headed the capital construction department in Mariupol, noted that adequate construction work does not take two or three months, which was the time it took for the Russians to complete the construction of some apartment buildings. According to him, the concrete took only a week to harden, not three, and this will lead to structural problems in two to three years.
Read also: Russians plan manufacturing hub at devastated Azovmash in Mariupol
Videos posted on social media show that Mariupol residents are living in inhuman conditions, and the Russian "reconstruction" has only exacerbated the situation. At the same time, most people under occupation are afraid to speak out, so these stories are likely just the "tip of the iceberg," Shumanov said.
The FT investigation states that contracts concluded with companies such as R-Stroy are administered on behalf of the Russian Ministry of Construction by a parastatal organization called the Single Customer. According to the documents, in 2024-2026, Single Customer is to receive 445 billion rubles ($5 billion), to be distributed among subcontractors who are supposed to "restore" infrastructure destroyed by the Russian military. The documents indicate that in the second half of 2022, R-Stroy received $37 million as one of 22 companies that allegedly got funding.
FT journalists found 55 projects in Mariupol in which R-Stroy is involved. These include the "reconstruction" of the Illichivets stadium, two university campuses, and dozens of residential buildings on the left bank.
Residents of the buildings that the company is supposed to "restore" complain about the lack of a work plan, qualified personnel, and actual repairs.
One resident of Mariupol said that his 12-story building had been waiting for work to begin for 483 days. According to the FT, more than ten residents of the building were killed by Russian shelling. Neighbors took out and buried those they could, but most of the bodies remained buried under the building structures and lay there until the end of May, decomposing, the man said.
In October 2022, a "home inspection" was conducted, and in November, "measurements" were taken to replace the windows, but the company did not begin restoration work until the winter of 2023. People were forced to live without heating, with frozen pipes, flooded sewers, and holes in the concrete from artillery strikes.
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Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
