Maripol residents deny Russian stories about the city

“What they show on Russian television is a fool’s fairy tales. Most Mariupol is still in ruins,” says John, a Ukrainian who lives in Russian Mariolia. We changed his name because he is afraid of repression by the Russian authorities.

“They repair the facades of buildings on the main streets where they bring shooting cameras.

It’s been a little over three years Mariupol was taken by Russian forces After a rigid siege and analysis of the bombing, the moment in the first months of a full-scale invasion of Russia into Ukraine.

Thousands were killed and UN has paid off 90% of residential buildings were damaged or destroyed.

In recent months, videos and drums from several pro -Russian impacts draw an image of a glossy city, where damaged structures have been repaired and where life returned to normal.

But the BBC talked to more than half a dozen people – some still live in Marioupi, others who escaped, having spent time under occupation – to gather a true picture of what life is in the city.

“There is a lot of lies floating around,” says 66-year-old Olha Anyko, who escaped from Mariupol at the end of last year and now lives in Ukraine.

“I would not say that they (the Russian authorities) repaired many things. There are central squares – only the buildings were restored. And there are also empty spaces where the buildings stood. They cleaned the garbage, but they did not even divide dead bodies, they were only loaded with rubles and taken out of the city.”

Mariupol also faced a serious lack of water.

“Water flows for a day -two, then it does not come for three days. We keep buckets and cans of water. The color of the water is so yellow that even after boiling it, it is scary to drink it,” says James, another resident of Mariupol, whose name was changed.

Some even said that the water looks like a “Coca -Cola”.

Serchi Orlov, who calls himself the deputy mayor of Mariupol in exile, says that the Donaki Siversky – Donbass, who supplied water to the city, was damaged during the fighting.

“Only one reservoir remained, which supplied Mariupoli water.

There are frequent reductions in electricity, food is expensive, and the medicine is small, the residents tell us.

“The main medicines are unavailable. Diabetics are struggling to get insulin in a timely manner, and it’s insanely expensive,” James says.

The BBC addressed the Russian administration Maripol for responding to the deficiency and whether they found an alternative water source. So far we have not received an answer.

Despite the difficulties, the most difficult part of life in the city, the residents say, is an observation that Ukrainian children are taught at school.

Andrei Kashushin studied at the University of Marippies a year after his employment. Now he fled to Dnipro.

“They teach children false information and propaganda. For example, the school textbooks say that Donetsk, Luhansk, Kharkiv, Zaparitzia, Kherson, Odessa, Crimea and even the proprape region are already in Russia,” Andri says.

He also described special lessons entitled “Talk about Important Things” in which students are taught how Russia liberated the Russian population of these regions from the Nazis in 2022.

“Teachers who refuse to take these lessons are intimidated or fired. It’s like they overheat our children’s mind,” says John, Maripol resident.

During the celebration of World War II in May, the images of the Central Square Mariupol showed that children and adults, dressed in military costumes involved in the parades and performances of the Soviet era, which Ukraine is increasingly avoided in the occupied territories. Mariupol was bathing in the colors of the Russian flag – red, blue and white.

But some Ukrainians carry out secret resistance against Russia, and on the dead nights they spray the paint of Ukrainian blue and yellow colors on the walls, as well as insert leaflets with reports such as “release Mariupol” and “Mariupol – Ukraine”.

James and John are members of the resistance groups like Andrew when he lived in the city.

“Messages are intended as moral support for our people to know that resistance is alive,” James says.

Their main purpose is to collect intelligence for the Ukrainian military.

“I document information about Russian military movements. I analyze where they transport weapons, how many soldiers enter and leave the city, and what equipment is repaired in our industrial areas. I photograph secretly and keep them hidden until I can transfer them to Ukrainian intelligence through safe channels,” says James.

Sometimes resistance groups are also trying to sabotage civil or hostilities. At least twice the railway line in Mariupol was broken as the activists set fire to the alarm.

This is a risky job. Andrei said he had to leave when he realized he had been exposed.

“Perhaps the neighbor hit me. But once I was in the store, buying bread, I saw a soldier who showed his photo of the cashier, asking whether they knew who the person is,” he said.

He immediately drove off, slipping past Maripol’s check, and then traveled to many cities in Russia and through Belarus before entering Ukraine from the North.

For those still in the city, every day is a problem.

“Every day you delete your messages because your phone can be verified in checkpoints. You are afraid to call your friends in Ukraine if your phone is knocked,” James says.

“The man from the neighboring house was arrested immediately from the street because someone reported that he allegedly transmitted information to the Ukrainian military. Your life is like a movie – constant tension, fear, distrust,” he adds.

As the negotiations continue between Ukraine and Russia, there were proposals from within and beyond that it needs to give way to the land in exchange for a peaceful deal.

“Holding the territory for” transaction with Russia “will become a betrayal. Dozens risk their life every day to transfer information to Ukraine, not so that a diplomat in a suit will sign a document that” transmits us, “says John.

“We don’t want” peace at all costs. “We want release.”

Additional Imogen Anderson Report, Anastasia Levchenko, Lodzimir Lozhak and Sanji Ganga