Restoring the infrastructure of Mariupol, which was destroyed after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, will cost more than $14 billion, Mayor Vadim Boychenko said , citing expert assessments, his words are quoted by the Mariupol City Council in the Telegram channel.
Boychenko said that the full restoration of the city will take 7-10 years. Due to the war, 1,356 multi-storey buildings were destroyed or damaged, 40% of private houses were bombed, and most of them cannot be restored. The final figure will be named after an assessment of the destruction at the end of the occupation, the mayor specified.
“We are collaborating with various experts from cities destroyed during World War II. These are Gdansk, Warsaw, Dresden, Rotterdam. We study their recovery experience. We hope that the Marshal's plan for the whole country will have a separate section for Mariupol. I thank President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky, President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen and the EIB for their constant attention to our city. I believe that together we will revive Mariupol and make it even better.”
In the second half of May, Mariupol actually came under the control of Russian troops and forces of the so-called DPR. According to local authorities, in two months of continuous shelling and blockade, thousands of civilians were killed there and up to 90% of buildings were destroyed. Russian propaganda claims that normal life is returning to the “liberated” Mariupol, but in reality, the ruined city is experiencing a humanitarian catastrophe and is on the verge of an epidemic. The Insider talked to Mariupol residents who managed to escape to Ukrainian-controlled territories about how they survived the siege and occupation.