Russia planned to destroy Mariupol before 2022 — first public evidence emerges

Russia deliberately destroyed Mariupol. The Center for the Study of Occupation has released the first direct evidence that Moscow was preparing to seize the Ukrainian city long before the full-scale invasion began.

Mariupol has become a symbol of Russian war crimes and barbarism. After the full-scale invasion began, Russian forces destroyed 90% of the city. Activists and researchers say that 120,000 people may have been killed in the city out of 422,000. The exact number is still unknown. Many people died under rubble without any help, and the elderly took their own lives, realizing no medication or food would come.

According to Petro Andriushchenko, the head of the organization, in 2019, Russia officially developed and published a project for a "transport and transit hub" on the territory of Mariupol. This confirms that the occupation and destruction of the city were not a chaotic result of warfare, but part of a premeditated plan. The project in question already listed Mariupol as part of the Russian-controlled illegal entity located in Donetsk Oblast territory. The documentation outlined the creation of an infrastructure hub in the Zhovtnevyi and Prymorskyi districts, south of the historic center, with specific geographic boundaries: from Pushkin and Kotovsky streets to the shoreline of the Taganrog Bay. Two Russian institutions, the Arena Institute and the Unified Institute for Spatial Planning of the Russian Federation, which is responsible for urban policy in occupied territories, prepared the project.

"This is the first public proof of preparations for the complete destruction of Mariupol prior to the full-scale invasion," Andriushchenko emphasizes.

Earlier, Zaur Gurtsiyev, deputy mayor of Stavropol and former commander of the air operation over Mariupol, was killed in a grenade explosion that occurred overnight on 29 May. The explosion reportedly occurred in southern Russia’s Stavropol city near a residential building. He was awarded multiple Russian state honors, including an order for his role in the occupation of Mariupol.

Grenade explosion kills Russian commander behind 2022 Mariupol deadly airstrikes

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