“New houses on graves”. Russia destroys evidence of war crimes in Mariupol

Another 21 high-rise buildings are planned to be demolished in Mariupol, the so-called “Ministry of Construction of the occupied part of Donetsk region” reported the other day. A list of buildings is published on the department’s website – they are located on the Left Bank of Mariupol.

What kind of houses are the occupation authorities dismantling in Mariupol? Where do the people of Mariupol who were left without a home live, and what do the occupation officials promise them? Will the demolition of houses in Mariupol affect the proof of war crimes committed by the Russian army during the battles for the city? The Radio Liberty project “News of Azov” found out about all this.

• The Mariupol City Council noted that it was the Left Bank district that suffered the most during the fighting in the city. 38 buildings were completely destroyed around Azovstalska Street, Lomizova Street, Meotida Boulevard, and Morsky Boulevard. In total, during the blockade, Russian troops destroyed 50% of high-rise buildings, which is more than 1,300 buildings, the city council reports. The occupiers also destroyed about 11,000 private homes. In addition, the Russian army destroyed or damaged 85 cultural and sports facilities, 15 hospitals, 63 schools, and 79 kindergartens. More than 460 buildings were completely demolished already after the occupation.
• According to the mayor of Mariupol Vadym Boychenkonow the occupiers continue to demolish homes “so as not to leave any evidence of their own war crimes.” Instead of demolished housing, they are building new ones – most of them for sale under mortgages for Russians moving to Mariupol. It is known about the construction of about 50 such houses. This is only 10% of the “reconstruction for sale” from the number of dismantled houses, the city council reported.

“They promised to repair, not dismantle”

Advisor to the Mayor of Mariupol Petro Andryushchenko told “News of Priazovya” that the high-rise buildings, which are currently planned to be demolished, are located close to the “Azovstal” plant. The occupation authorities promised to repair them, not to dismantle them.

“In fact, the houses there were badly damaged and the Russians promised not to demolish them. At first, they decided to demolish half of the Left Bank – almost the entire central part. They began to dismantle, and in the course of dismantling it became clear that, in principle, nothing is given to people in exchange. People from this sixth plot almost all stayed in the city, they went out to protest, wrote complaints, video appeals so that their houses would not be affected by demolition, but repaired so that they would not lose them. They were promised, even excluded from the list of buildings to be dismantled. It happened this year, in winter. In the summer, a commission came, re-examined these houses and transferred them from the status of those that are being repaired and restored to another list – those that should be dismantled. That’s why it got such a buzz. Because in fact, people were deceived again. This was to be expected,” Andryushchenko said.

In total, according to the Russian lists, there are about a thousand houses in Mariupol that should be dismantled, the councilor says. According to his data, there will be approximately 1,046-1,050 such buildings, which is almost half of the high-rise residential stock of the entire Mariupol.

“To date, about half a thousand houses have been demolished. Dismantling actually ended in the winter of 2023. Today, nothing is being dismantled, because there is no point in dismantling, no one is going to build there. They dismantled buildings, starting from residential central blocks, and further to those where no one lives. Therefore, the sixth plot will stand there for a very long time, no one will see it, it is passable in the industrial zone, so everything will be thrown away simply,” Andryushchenko is confident.

What kind of housing is being built?

Two types of housing are being built in Mariupol – mortgage housing and compensatory housing, says Andryushchenko. However, mortgages are not available for the residents of Mariupol, and compensatory housing is not enough for the number of citizens who need it.

“Compensatory housing, which will be built in Mariupol and should be delivered theoretically by January 1, 2025, is 5.5 thousand apartments. This is what they plan to give to people. Part of this housing has been built – approximately 3.5 thousand, and part of it has been handed over to people. For example, Nevsky, the so-called New Cheryomushki, those that exist in the districts of the city, 2-3-storey, it is being built. Some people stop by, some don’t. In fact, to summarize, then the Russians (army of the Russian Federation) destroyed 70,000 apartments. They plan to build about 8.5-9 thousand apartments today. That is, it is less than 15% of what they destroyed. Very simple numbers,” the mayor’s advisor noted.

Given the hostilities and Russia’s occupation of parts of the southern territories of Ukraine, the editors cannot obtain official confirmation of some of the statements made or independently verify them.

“The people of Mariupol are resisting”

Director of the Mariupol public organization “Archi-Misto” Andriy Marusov told that the dismantling of high-rise buildings is carried out unevenly by the occupiers. In some cases, the residents of these buildings oppose the demolition.

“The eastern part of the city, the so-called left bank from Kalmius, appears to be the most affected. There, entire blocks are already overgrown with weeds, they are no longer there. That is, they were destroyed by Russian artillery during the massacre in 2022. And then they simply demolished them, as can be seen from the videos that have been made public. Since the beginning of the occupation, the inhabitants of several houses have been fighting to prevent them from being demolished. And, unfortunately, as a rule, they lost. The last story was related to the house on Kuprin Street. A large, 9-story building that could house several hundred people,” he says.

The mortgage housing that the occupation authorities are building in Mariupol is designed for Russian citizens moving to the city, the local expert added. He noted that the people of Mariupol simply do not have the opportunity to purchase such housing.

“The question arises for almost every Mariupol citizen, where will I find this money? Since official work is a problem for many. You know, when you look at mortgages, the banks, any banks, they look at the origin of the funds. If there is no official permanent job, then no one will issue anything. In mortgage construction, there is a very clear orientation of the occupiers that Russians, specifically citizens from Russia, would move there,” the public figure emphasized.

“Housing disaster”

Often, people left without a home live in the houses of friends or neighbors who left Mariupol, Marusov noted.

“Someone may solve this problem by simply living in some villages or even in country houses. But a country house is not an option for a cold winter, it is colder there than in apartment buildings. Ago the housing disaster did not go anywhere precisely for the residents of Mariupolit remains for Ukrainian citizens,” he says

According to a resident of Mariupol, first of all, the occupiers demolish houses and build new ones in their place precisely in order to hide the crimes committed in Mariupol.

“When they were demolishing, no one was worried that there might be remains of the bodies of Mariupol residents who died. We are talking about these large burial grounds around the city, they exist even now, we knew about them. And all they did was just demolish it and take it out there to this landfill, it’s actually located within the city limits, and almost everyone knows that this landfill is an unofficial cemetery, burial ground, but in the form of garbage. The bodies were taken out and thrown into this landfill. This is the first. Second, it is clear that many buildings were to be dismantled in one way or another, they were just ruins. There was at least some explanation for this. But it looks very cynical that most mortgage houses are built on the site of demolished buildings, on the site of these burial grounds. People will live, whoever it is, Russians or Mariupol people, who are lucky, they will live on the graves of the actual people who died“, Marusov emphasized.

“Lost Evidence”

A lawyer who represents victims of war crimes in courts, Yuriy Bilous in a comment to Novynam Priazovya, he noted that a large amount of evidence of war crimes in Mariupol had already been lost. The fact that Ukraine currently does not control the city is an obstacle for investigation and documentation.

“Destroyed houses are completely destroyed, new ones are built in their place. Remains of biological traces, remains of some missiles, some weapons, with the help of which it would be possible to conduct various examinations and prove the fact of the crime and the guilt of specific people. The fact that we do not have access to Mariupol affects this in a negative way. Because a lot of photos, a lot of videos, a lot of documents, a lot of material were destroyed. I mean physical evidence that could form the basis for a good number of forensic examinations of all kinds, which would open the way to indictments. We are losing it every day today, because there is no control over Mariupol. This is a problem. But this certainly does not close all possibilities for us to record war crimes, investigate them and in some cases send cases to court,” said the lawyer.

He said that evidence of war crimes committed by the Russian army in Mariupol could be independent conclusions of monitoring missions, satellite images, as well as witness statements.

“There are people who are leaving today. You can work with them already about the period when there was no Ukrainian government there. There are people who are there and are trying to help fix something, so that the Ukrainian state can have leverage to bring the Russians to justice. I have worked with the people of Mariupol many times regarding the war crimes committed against their families and the war crimes they saw around them. And this is very important information. During the conversation, you can hear, in addition to the story that concerns a specific person, a lot of what the person saw around him. Conventionally speaking, March 1, in April 2022. How many checkpoints were there, what was the exit, how was the filtering procedure. People keep documents, not all people have them, of course, but they keep photos and videos,” Bilous explained.

A high standard of proof is used in war crimes cases, Bilous noted. But if there is not enough evidence due to the lack of access to the territory, then the world community can also take this fact into account.

“Only part of the evidence may not be enough. But again, if we are talking about undermining the drama theater, then the civilized part of the world understands that if we lack any evidence regarding the purity of the legal procedure, then there are objective circumstances, the lack of access of our investigators, our prosecutors to the actual place crime A good answer for all of us would be to punish Russia as a state that committed the crime of aggression. This is a financial punishment, a political one, they already have a sanction punishment, isolation is certain. Russia is waging an aggressive illegal war, and we can see the consequences to which it all led, therefore Russia is responsible for them,” the lawyer added.

• Russian military occupied Mariupol in May 2022 after almost three months of fierce fighting. According to the data recorded by the city authorities, more than 20 thousand residents died in the city. However, it is not possible to verify this precisely during the war. Experts assume that the victims are even more.
• Russia destroys traces of mass crimesdilapidated houses with unburied inhabitants are demolished, and new ones are built in their place.
• Russian large-scale military invasion of Ukraine continues from the morning of February 24, 2022. Russia denied that it was waging a war of aggression against Ukraine and called it a “special operation.” The Russian authorities also reject accusations of committing crimes against civilian residents of Ukraine.