Thousands of Russians celebrated in Moscow on Friday the annexation of four territories in the south and east of Ukraine, self-proclaimed control for a year. But on the ground, many towns were ravaged. In Mariupol, in the Donetsk oblast, many neighborhoods were completely destroyed in intense fighting and many residents lost their homes, like Valentina, 85, whom LCI met in the report below. “Without this house, I no longer know who I am,” she says, showing rooms in tatters, a veritable field of ruins.
She was relocated a few kilometers away in a new building, one of those that regularly come up in the city. According to the new pro-Kremlin authorities, nearly 1,700 residents like her were able to benefit from a new roof. But the octogenarian is not at peace: “my soul has been broken, you cannot compare my life there and here,” she explains.
A sadness far from being shared by everyone in this city where the inhabitants are mainly pro-Russia. “The city is coming back to life, it is being rebuilt, the buildings had never been so beautiful before,” says one of them. “Russia has recovered its city, it’s a Russian city, it always has been,” rejoices another. A Russification of the spirits that Russia wants to spread in the other territories on which it claims to have got its hands, Zaporizhia, Kherson and Lugansk. But fighting continues in this area and kyiv launched a counter-offensive in early June.