Vadym Boichenko, Mayor of Mariupol, in his office at the city hall of Mariupol, Ukraine, Wednesday, January 12, 2022.
Christopher Occhicone | Bloomberg | Getty Images
WASHINGTON — The exiled Ukrainian mayor of Mariupol has vowed to rebuild his decimated former city a yr after it was captured by Russian occupying forces.
The last Ukrainian forces withdrew from the coastal city, whose steel industry was once the economic powerhouse of the nation, a yr ago on Saturday after nearly three months of intense fighting.
But Vadyma Boychenko just isn’t discouraged. And he has a multi-billion dollar plan to bring his city back to life if the Russians are driven out.
“We’re working hard to prepare the essential reconstruction plans and techniques in order that when the city is liberated, we will likely be fully prepared and never waste any time,” the mayor, who now lives elsewhere in Ukraine, told CNBC. “That is the moment once we must prepare as efficiently as possible for the return to Mariupol,” he added. CNBC spoke to Boychenko in April and May about the story.
But Boichenko, 45, had no illusions as he described the massive destruction in Mariupol and the financial hurdles Ukraine faces as the Russian war drags on for its five hundredth day.
“Mariupol is currently one of the most damaged cities in Ukraine. The occupation forces destroyed greater than 90% of the city’s infrastructure,” he said. The mayor added that the strategic port city suffered more brutality from Russian forces in two months than in two years under Nazi occupation during World War II.
Russian soldiers work on demining the territory of the Azovstal smelter during the Ukrainian-Russian conflict in the southern port city of Mariupol, Ukraine, May 22, 2022.
Alexander Ermochenko | Reuters
Mariupol was once home to almost half 1,000,000 people. Currently, its population has shrunk to about 100,000, though Boychenko adds that the current number is difficult to estimate due to the lack of reports in the city.
It left Mariupol two days after Russian troops crossed the Ukrainian border in the largest air, land and sea attack in Europe since World War II.
As Russian bombing intensified throughout the city, Boychenko learned that his grandmother, together with pregnant women and families with young children, had taken refuge in the halls of the Donetsk Academic Regional Drama Theater.
On March 16, 2022, the royal theater in the city center became the venue one of the deadliest known attacks on civilians since the starting of the war. Grandma Boychenko didn’t survive the injuries sustained in the air raid.
The attack on the theater got here per week after Russian bombs bombed a kid’s and maternity hospital in Mariupol. The bombing and the photos of bloody pregnant women evacuated from the rubble sparked a world outcry.
View of a theater constructing destroyed during the Ukrainian-Russian conflict in the southern port city of Mariupol, Ukraine, April 10, 2022. Photo taken by a drone.
Pawel Klimov | Reuters
Boychenko said indiscriminate Russian shelling damaged nearly 20 hospitals, greater than 60 schools and nearly 90 cultural facilities in Mariupol.
He said residential skyscrapers in Mariupol suffered the most, with greater than 50% of the structures leveled by Russian shelling. If proven, what he claims could constitute a war crime under international humanitarian law.
“The situation with basic life support systems is difficult, there is nearly no water, gas or electricity,” he said, adding that restoring the city’s critical infrastructure is its priority and is predicted to take about two years.
Russia had previously claimed that its forces in Ukraine weren’t targeting civilians or civilian infrastructure, and that the attacks on the theater and maternity hospital were staged.
“Rebirth of Mariupol”
An aerial photo taken on April 12, 2022 shows the city of Mariupol during the Russian military invasion of Ukraine.
Andrzej Borodulin | AFP | Getty Images
Despite Russia’s early advances in the war, Ukraine took over large swathes of territory, repelling opposition forces in lots of places with Western money and weapons. Ukraine can be reportedly planning a latest offensive to further repel the Kremlin’s invaders.
The successes of the Ukrainian army gave officials hope that they’d have the option to return to the occupied territories if the Russians were driven back.
The Boychenko plan, dubbed “Mariupol revivalconsists of two phases: the rapid reconstruction of critical infrastructure, followed by urban reconstruction and regeneration projects.
The resumption of essential services reminiscent of water supply, electricity and the reopening of hospitals are some of the immediate issues that will likely be addressed in the first phase. He estimates that Ukraine will need about $378 million in investment for the first stage.
Boychenko said the second phase of the project is predicted to cost around $15.6 billion, though he adds that these figures are based on preliminary estimates.
“Along with our international partners and the World Bank, we’ll assess the extent of the damage and record the damage done to Mariupol,” he said, adding that the current price is barely an estimate.
In March, the government of Ukraine, the World Bank Group, the European Commission and the United Nations filed the cost of Ukraine’s reconstruction projects at $411 billion. The group said the most significant needs were to rebuild transport infrastructure, housing and energy systems.
Prior to the Russian invasion last February, Mariupol was affectionately often called a mighty Ukrainian city with a fierce steel heart.
“It was a strong industrial and business center with two large metallurgical enterprises and a seaport,” Boychenko said when asked about the city’s contribution to Kiev’s economy before the war.
An area resident reacts while chatting outside an apartment block badly damaged during the Ukrainian-Russian conflict in the southern port city of Mariupol, Ukraine, April 18, 2022.
Alexander Ermochenko | Reuters
“Mariupol produced about 12 million tons of steel annually, which is 4.5% of Ukraine’s gross domestic product and seven% of the country’s foreign exchange income,” he said, adding that Mariupol’s steel industry created about 50,000 jobs.
On nearly $70 billionin Ukraine’s exports in 2021, the agricultural sector and the domestic metal industry ruled.
Each industries are served by the port of Mariupol on the Sea of Azov, one of Ukraine’s busiest shipping routes, answerable for the export of agricultural products, coal and steel.
Olena Lennon, a professor in the department of national security at Recent Haven University, said that one of Russia’s important goals in seizing Mariupol was to block access to the port so as to further degrade Ukraine’s economy.
“The Sea of Azov port in Mariupol is one of Ukraine’s key ports for each industrial and agricultural products,” Lennon told CNBC.
“By denying Ukraine access to the port, the Russians weren’t only trying to prevent Ukraine from becoming a prosperous state, additionally they denied Ukraine the ability to sustain its economy during the war,” said Lennon, who’s from the southeastern city of Donetsk in Ukraine.
She added that while Mariupol’s coastline on the Sea of Azov is of strategic importance, the once-busy coastal city has since 2014 develop into the “poster child” of Ukrainian resistance to Russian aggression.
“Mariupol resisted this occupation and have become a logo of Ukrainian patriotism in a sea of what was perceived as pro-Russian influence,” said Lennon, explaining that Russian forces were keen to raze the city to the ground, despite having to rebuild parts of it later.
“It was never about controlling these cities to provide a special life or to maintain the infrastructure. It’s about undermining Ukraine’s sovereignty and undermining the Ukrainian state,” she said. “There isn’t any respect for the population.”
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