The first buildings under reconstruction in Mariupol, a port city in southeastern Ukraine devastated by weeks of bombardment, will be inaugurated in September, Russia, which now occupies this locality, announced on Monday (August 1st).
“The first buildings will be ready in September. The first hospitals will be readysaid Russian Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin in an interview with Russian television channel RBK TV published on Monday. On Friday, the latter presented President Vladimir Putin with a plan to rebuild Mariupol in three years, a goal that seems ambitious, given the scale of the destruction.
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Transformation into a “technology park”
The strategic port of Mariupol was captured in May by Russian forces after weeks of siege that devastated much of the city. Residential buildings, schools, shops, streets: nothing has been spared. Before the Russian military offensive, the city, built on the shores of the Sea of Azov, had more than 400,000 inhabitants. But it has largely become depopulated, with many residents fleeing the fighting.
The population should rise to 350,000 inhabitants by 2025, estimated Marat Khousnulline, without specifying whether the Russian authorities planned to put in place a policy of repopulation. The Russian Deputy Prime Minister also indicated that the Russian occupying forces planned to redevelop in “technology park» the devastated industrial area of the Azovstal steelworks, where the last Ukrainian defenders had entrenched themselves. “We are not thinking of a restoration with old technologies. We will create jobs that will fuel the city through the economy“said Marat Khousnullin.
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For the time being, the inhabitants of Mariupol continue to suffer from multiple shortages, with a very patchy restoration of water and electricity. Russian occupation forces are trying to bring some semblance of normalcy back to conquered areas in southern and eastern Ukraine. In several of them, the administrations installed by Moscow have indicated that they are preparing annexation referendums to formalize their attachment to Russia.
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