Mariupol is not a city in Russia, but in Ukraine

A Facebook post refers to Mariupol as a “city in Russia,” however, according to international law, it is a city in Ukraine, which is under the occupation of Russia. Russia kept it under siege for almost 3 months, during which it destroyed 90 percent of the city, even a maternity hospital and a children’s hospital on March 9, 2022. On March 16, 2022, a theater marked with the inscription “Deca” [Children], in which civilians were sheltered, was also destroyed. Russia occupied the city on May 20, 2022, and annexed it on September 30, 2022, while the UN rejected it with the Resolution ES-11/4. That annexation is null and void even under Russian law

 

A post on the social network Facebook says: 

The city of Mariupol is on the coast of the Sea of Azov, an important industrial and port city in the Donetsk People’s Republic of Russia.  

Mariupol is a city in Ukraine, not in Russia. The fact that it occupied it on May 20, 2022, and annexed it on September 30, 2022, is null and void to the world, since it is a breach of international law. It was set forth in the UN Resolution ES-11/4, against which only: Russia, Belarus, North Korea, Syria, and Nicaragua voted out of a total of 193 members of the UN. 

The annexation is null and void even under Russian law. That prohibits waging an aggressive war, which Vladimir Putin violates, and to receive new federal subjects in the Russian Federation, its laws require the consent of the state to which those territories belong, in this case Ukraine. The consent of the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic does not apply. It is a puppet creation of agents from Moscow like Igor Girkin-Strelkov and Alexander Borodai, and not an internationally recognized state.  

The ratification of the annexation in the Russian Assembly from October 3, 2022, is also null and void. On certain issues, there were more votes that MPs present, which was justified as a “technical error.” 

Mariupolians wanted nothing to do with Russia, even though 44.41 percent of them were ethnic Russians. There was an attempt to forcibly include Mariupol in the Donetsk People’s Republic in the period between May and June of 2014, but it ended in defeat. In September of 2014, the Donetsk People’s Republic attacked Mariupol, in which Russian forces were allegedly involved, but it was again defeated. On January 24, 2015, the Donetsk People’s Republic launched a rocket attack on the city, but again failed to break it. When on February 24, 2022, Putin launched an all-out aggression against Ukraine, he was particularly harsh on Mariupol, which is seen as revenge for that city’s insubordination. In this regard, the post says:  

The city suffered severe destruction in the fierce battles between the Russian army and the notorious Ukrainian Nazi Azov Battalion who terrorized the civilian population for over 8 years, only to be surrounded and captured in the Azovstal industrial complex and surrender to the Russian military forces. 

Here it is hushed up that Putin is to blame for those destructions. He kept Mariupol under siege for almost 3 months, killing many of its citizens (including ethnic Russians) and damaging or destroying 90 percent of the city, including a maternity hospital and a children’s hospital (on the 9th of March, 2022), and a theater marked with the inscription “Deca” [Children], in which civilians were sheltered (on the 16th of March, 2022).  

In the destroyed and massacred city, under the occupier’s sights, “a referendum” was then held on inclusion in Russia, which is illegitimate, and which was planned even before the occupation.  

The post offers no evidence of the Azov unit’s “terror” against civilians, and although it is true that it once had neo-Nazi elements within it, that is in the past.  

After the rule of pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych, Ukrainian forces were weak and unprepared for the 2014 conflict, so many self-organized into paramilitaries like Azov. Their leader was Andriy Biletsky, who had neo-Nazi views, as well as some strange ones—earlier he was in favor of a confederation with Russia and wanted to fight in Kosovo for Serbia.  

The financing of Azov was undertaken by the oligarch Igor Kolomoisky, who is of Jewish origin, which shows they were not consistent in their neo-Nazism. Due to the hopeless and chaotic situation, the head of the Ukrainian Ministry of Interior, Arsen Avakov, then supported Azov.  

However, after Ukraine consolidated, it brought order to those half-wild paramilitaries and forced them to depoliticize and integrate into the regular forces. On April 9, 2015, Ukraine passed a law banning Nazi ideology, therefore, there must be no Nazi slogans in Azov. 

Radicals such as Oleg Odnorozhenko and Ihor Mosiychuk then left Azov, which also applies to Biletsky, who then softened his views and became an MP, which he was not very successful at. Azov from 2014 has not much to do with Azov from 2022 which defended Mariupol. Recently, the US State Department lifted the sanctions that prohibited US military equipment from being assigned to this battalion, so this unit is now already using military equipment from the US when performing military actions on the front.  

The city was also defended by the 36th Marine Brigade and bunch of other units, but the post tends to emphasize Azov’s participation in it, because of their tainted record. And, while the post deals with their alleged neo-Nazism, aggression against Ukraine is carried out by real Russian neo-Nazis such as Anton Raevskiy or Alexey Milchakov with the Rusich Group.  

Indeed, Azov eventually surrendered, but not because they were surrounded, broken, or frightened, but only after receiving orders to do so from Kyiv. These are fanatical fighters, who fought against a superpower for almost 3 months, and they don’t give up easily. Russia was preparing staged trials for war crimes, but in the end, it exchanged the most important Azovs for the pro-Russian politician arrested in Ukraine, Viktor Medvedchuk. Putin is his daughter’s godfather. Nepotism is more important to him than Azov’s alleged “Nazi crimes.”  

The post ends by praising the Russian occupier for supposedly rebuilding the city:  

The city is almost 80-90% restored. 

For good reason, the term ‘Potemkin villages’ (Potyomkinskaya derevnya) which refers to false facades that give the impression of something being built and developed, was invented by Russians themselves. We have already written on the topic of these manipulations. When Putin visited Mariupol on the 18th of March 2023, one resident allegedly tried to protest those manipulations, however, it was suppressed. 

Even if Russia builds something, there is nothing for it to build on foreign soil, and that does not wash away the sin that it destroyed the city. Furthermore, this new Mariupol is not the authentic one, and Russian colonizers are moving there, so it is being built for them. Recently, a clip was shared in which a “Mariupol woman” expresses gratitude for receiving a new apartment, but it turned out that she comes from Novy Urengoy, Russia.  

The post is abundant in manipulation, so we assess it as untrue. 

 

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