in Mariupol, the Russians want to show that they are beginning to rebuild

Mariupol is the martyr city of the Ukrainian conflict. After having waged a merciless battle there, the Russian army now wants to show that it is working on its reconstruction. It’s a question of image, so that day, it invited the international press to come and film one of its very first projects: a thousand housing units delivered from this fall. “More than 1,000 people work on the site, with more than 500 machines. We work 24 hours a day without stopping for a second“, says the site manager, Oleg Pechionkine.

To avoid wasting time, the various operations are carried out simultaneously – the big works at the same time as the finishes. While most of the workers are Russian, locals have also been hired. “You have to have work, we are not lazy. The city is rebuilding. The first day, when we went out in the street, it was terrifying“, testifies a woman painting a facade.