On May 9, 2022, the Russian authorities organize a parade to celebrate the victory over Nazi Germany in 1945. In downtown Mariupol, hundreds of people parade. On the images broadcast by Russian propaganda, the road, the monuments and the buildings are intact. No trace of fighting.
Yet for three months the Russian army besieged the coastal city. Its artillery, its air force and its soldiers destroyed a large part of it, without sparing the civilians, some of whom could not flee – facts that the Russian authorities refuse to admit.
However, images, sometimes from Russian propaganda itself, bear witness to this. Combined with satellite images, they show that the city is now largely destroyed. And that civilians have indeed been massively targeted by the Russian army. At the end of this siege, which ended on May 20, at least 20,000 inhabitants would have lost their lives.