a year after falling into Russian hands, Mariupol awaits the counter-offensive

It was a bombed city from which Oksana fled soon after the Russian invasion began. Based in kyiv, she is now part of an NGO that helps civilians who continue, a year later, to leave Mariupol: “We are registering daily arrivals of people who have fled. Many buildings have been razed, many civilians live without water or electricity. Nearly 70% of the city has been destroyed.”

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The devastating bombardments and fighting around and on the great city of Donbass have caused the death, according to regional authorities, of more than 20,000 people. A year later, many Ukrainians are still missing, says Mykita, also from Mariupol: “There are a lot of missing, because you have to remember that in the first months of the war, the artillery fire and the air raids were very intense.”

“Many bodies remained buried under the rubble until the arrival of the Russians, who razed the buildings and swept away the rubble. There was no search and these bodies were not counted.”

Like all displaced people from Mariupol, Mykita closely follows the military situation and dreams of liberation: “We are eagerly awaiting the launch of our army’s counter-offensive, so that we can raise the Ukrainian flag again over Mariupol, when the city is liberated.” But Russia is preparing for this counter-offensive: it has installed ramparts and fortifications around the city.