In the fight for the future of Mariupol, a plan for Ukraine’s recovery

KIEV – Vadym Boichenko has been mayor in exile for more than two years. His city remains in the hands of Russian President Vladimir Putin, two years after Moscow’s forces reduced it to rubble, but Boichenko is still fighting for its future.

“Mariupol is a military crime,” he told The Hill in central Kiev, and the city’s residents “want to go home. They fight for justice.”

Boichenko and his partners promise to rebuild Mariupol even better than before, with the hope that this project will also create a roadmap for how other cities can rebuild when the war ends, whenever that may be.

Russia invaded Mariupol, a once bustling coastal city on the Sea of ​​Azov in southeastern Ukraine, in one of the first and deadliest offensives of the war, pounding Mariupol with missiles and moving in heavy tanks and infantry.

Its people resisted for 86 days during Russia’s March 2022 invasion, including a famous stand at the Azovstal steelworks that ended in May. In Mariupol, around 22,000 people died in the Russian attack.

Although Mariupol fell to Russian forces, it remains a symbol of Ukrainian resistance – and, for Boichenko and others, hope.

Although there is no complete damage assessment or master plan, Mariupol Reborn has proposed the basic guidelines for the city’s reconstruction.

The architectural vision calls for more green spaces and parks, while slowly increasing housing density and rebuilding public transportation. The Mariupol theater – bombed by Russia, killing hundreds of people who sought shelter inside – is also scheduled to be rebuilt following public opinion on the plan. And the city will house memorials and museums to the fallen defenders.

The current revitalization plan includes 154 projects, 650 pieces of equipment and 7,500 employees at the start. The cost of the project is expected to exceed $15 billion and could take up to 20 years, making assistance from donors and other nations crucial to the reconstruction of what has been described as the largest city recovery plan in Europe since World War II. .

Boichenko, who consulted European reconstruction experts because of his knowledge of rebuilding cities after World War II, presented an initial plan to a European Union advisory committee in April.

The mayor said he was confident in gaining international support for this mission.

“Our obligation is Europe’s obligation in the revitalization and reconstruction of Ukraine,” he said.

The US and Europe are discussing the possibility of seizing around $300 billion in Russian assets frozen abroad after the invasion of Ukraine to help pay for military support for Kiev, but there is also a desire to make Moscow pay for the reconstruction of the war-torn country.

“What Putin destroyed, Russia should – and must – pay to rebuild,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement. May speech while in Kyiv. “This is what international law requires; This is what the Ukrainian people deserve. Our Congress gave us the power to seize Russian assets in the United States. We intend to use it.”

Boichenko said he agreed “one million percent.”

“Are we still in doubt about what to do with this money?” he said. “This is criminals’ money, which has to be directed [and] given to the people they terrorized and killed.”

The mayor is not alone in pushing for the restoration of Mariupol. Systems Capital Management (SCM), an investment firm and the largest private sector employer in Ukraine, led by Ukrainian billionaire Rinat Akhmetov, also plays an important role in the reconstruction mission. (Akhmetov’s foundation paid for The Hill’s trip to Ukraine.)

SCM was heavily involved in Mariupol, owning major assets such as the Azovstal steel mill, making the city an emotional and financial loss for the company. Now the company wants to invest in the reconstruction and future of Mariupol; one proposal includes the transformation of 48 schools into more modern educational institutions.

More broadly, Mariupol, built during the Soviet Union, now has the opportunity to separate itself from that past, said Natalya Yemchenko, communications director at SCM and supervisory board member of the nonprofit Rinat Akhmetov Foundation charity.

“The city will be more human-centered,” she said, describing a variety of cultures and countries that will likely contribute to the designs of areas such as public spaces. “One of the biggest changes we would like to make is de-Sovietization.”

The first steps would have to involve simpler measures, such as demining the city, reducing pollution and creating adequate humanitarian aid facilities. Initial construction in the architectural vision targets 660 apartment buildings and 1,346 homes.

The authorities may have devised a plan to restore the city, but it remains under Russian occupation, with Moscow now governing the city with its own leaders in place. The city recently held Russian-backed elections and still suffers much damage from the fighting, according to a March report in The Economist. 

With Russia advancing on the battlefield and gaining more territory along the front lines, and with Ukraine failing to regain ground last year in a counteroffensive, it is unclear when or if Mariupol will be returned.

“We are marathon runners. So we are very prepared to work and be together and move in the right direction for 10 years, 30 years, 40 years,” Yemchenko said. “I’m sure we’ll be back at some point.”

If that happens, Boichenko will face a reckoning for his escape from the city just two days after the Russian invasion, while many Mariupol citizens were still imprisoned.

But Boichenko said Russia destroyed the city and blamed the criticism on Moscow’s propaganda machine. He said the people of Mariupol should be “united” against Russia.

Defenders of the Azovstal factory are among Ukraine’s many resistance heroes. For more than a month, they resisted intense Russian shelling to protect Ukrainian civilians sheltering inside the plant, including a young mother and her son, until their final surrender.

Through the Heart of Azovstal program, the Rinat Akhmetov Foundation is working to free the Mariupol defenders in Russian captivity, who have been held for more than two years. In Kiev, posters posted on lampposts call “Free the Defenders of the Azovstal.”

Yemchenko said releasing these prisoners is critical due to the appalling conditions in which they are believed to be held.

“War is a terrible thing,” she said, “but captivity is probably worse because it is almost like slavery.”

She said the foundation wants to keep the prisoner exchange in mind for eventual negotiations and maintain a sense of urgency two years after they entered captivity.

“It is absolutely impossible to influence directly,” she said. “That means we have to be creative.”

The Foundation is also working on a project to tell the full story of the 86 days of defense of Mariupol, in what is said to be the most detailed account of the battle to date.

Approximately 12,000 defenders faced Russian forces at Mariupol. About a third have died, another third remain captured and around 800 are missing, according to Yemchenko. The rest came out alive.

Among the freed defenders is Anatoliy Basenko, a retired soldier first class who served in the Azov brigade, a unit previously based in Mariupol when Russia attacked.

Basenko was injured during the defense of Mariupol and was forced to have his leg amputated as Russia attacked the city. Basenko, who now has a prosthetic leg, said he received rehabilitation services for his injury through Heart of Azovstal.

He was forced to surrender in May and taken to a hospital in Donetsk, where he claims he was interrogated by Russian special forces to obtain information about the Ukrainian military. Basenko said he gave them false information.

Basenko was released in a prisoner exchange in June 2022, a priority in negotiations at the time due to his injuries. Since his release, he has not forgotten his fellow soldiers.

“The defenders of Mariupol are suffering in Russian prisons and they are suffering much more than other prisoners captured in different regions and in different parts of the front line,” he said.

Basenko said he works with the Foundation through conferences, promotions and marketing materials to highlight detained fighters and address what he says continues to be a “crucial” problem for the Ukrainian people.

The injured veteran expressed frustration that prisoners of war do not have basic rights under the Geneva Convention, including the right to communicate with their family and loved ones.

“Russia is afraid to show our prisoners because they are in very bad places,” he said. “The Russians are just trying to hide them.”

Rostyslav Prystupa, a retired marine, also survived the defense of Azovstal and served in the Azov battalion. In March 2022, he was seriously injured in a bombing raid, immobilizing him for nearly two months as he took shelter in a bunker before being captured.

He spent about a month detained in Russia in a hospital in Donetsk. Prystupa was eventually exchanged in a prisoner exchange and has since recovered from his injuries, although he still uses crutches.

The Foundation helped him find a home and Prystupa said he, in turn, is actively involved in conferences and events that highlight the issue of his comrades still in captivity.

“We’re just trying to make Ukrainians remember,” he said.

This story originally appeared on thehill.com read the full story