Society

Donbas residents dream of rebuilding homes, streets destroyed by Russian bombs

Residents are harking back to the Bakhmut and Mariupol they remember for architectural inspiration.

Construction workers rebuild the Mariupol Drama Theater in Mariupol, Russian-controlled Ukraine, on April 4. Ukrainians denounce the reconstruction as a cover-up of Russia's bombing of the theater in March 2022 when civilians including children were sheltering in it. [AFP]
Construction workers rebuild the Mariupol Drama Theater in Mariupol, Russian-controlled Ukraine, on April 4. Ukrainians denounce the reconstruction as a cover-up of Russia's bombing of the theater in March 2022 when civilians including children were sheltering in it. [AFP]

By Olha Hembik |

WARSAW -- Exiled residents of cities occupied by Russian forces in Ukraine's Donbas region are coming up with plans to rebuild their destroyed homes even as the war rages on.

Since it launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Russia has been methodically destroying Ukrainian cities with artillery and air assaults.

Dozens of towns in Donetsk province have been turned into ruins, including Bakhmut, Avdiivka, Chasiv Yar, Marinka, Rubizhne, Toretsk, Vuhledar, Popasna, Siverskodonetsk and others.

Specialists estimate the level of destruction of towns in the course of the Russian assaults to be 60%-90%, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) reported in September.

A man stands on the street in front of destroyed houses after a missile strike, which killed an old woman, in Druzhkivka, Donbas region, on June 5, 2022. [Aris Messinis/AFP]
A man stands on the street in front of destroyed houses after a missile strike, which killed an old woman, in Druzhkivka, Donbas region, on June 5, 2022. [Aris Messinis/AFP]
This aerial photograph taken on February 1 shows apartment buildings destroyed by shelling in Izyum, Kharkiv province, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. [Roman Pilipey/AFP]
This aerial photograph taken on February 1 shows apartment buildings destroyed by shelling in Izyum, Kharkiv province, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. [Roman Pilipey/AFP]

Mariupol, the only Ukrainian city that Russian forces surrounded when the full-scale invasion started, suffered catastrophic damage.

In the first two and a half months of the full-scale war, all 19 hospitals, 86 out of 89 educational facilities and 93% of the multistory apartment buildings in the city center were damaged, according to Human Rights Watch, Truth Hounds and SITU Research.

"Russian troops struck the city with all types of weapons -- from the ground, air and even sea. As a result, they turned this promising Ukrainian city into ruins," Vadym Boychenko, the Mariupol mayor in exile, told Kontur.

To date 90% of the city's critical infrastructure, 50% of the multistory apartment buildings and more than 38,000 private-sector buildings have been wiped out, said Boychenko. Almost all the city's schools, cultural institutions and businesses were damaged by shelling.

"Many calm sections of Mariupol were simply wiped off the map," Boychenko said.

Mariupol residents who are united by the idea of returning to their hometown after its liberation maintain communication with exiled municipal authorities through social networks and a Telegram channel.

The municipality of Mariupol in August 2022 created a charity called YaMariupol (I Am Mariupol), which has brought together city residents to provide humanitarian, legal and counseling assistance.

It has also become a forum for participants to discuss and vote on ideas for rebuilding the city.

The experience of the Polish cities that were rebuilt after World War II could serve as a model, according to Boychenko.

"We were inspired by the approach Warsaw took and how they [the Poles] started to develop their reconstruction plan even before the city was liberated. Mariupol is following that historical path now," Boychenko said.

"Our goal isn't only to rebuild things as they were but also to construct a new city with a new economy. We want to introduce 'green metallurgy' and make the city a window on the sea," he added.

In the process of building a new Mariupol, officials expect to use new construction methods and to create accessible, comfortable infrastructure.

To accomplish all of this, the exiled Mariupol city council recently signed a cooperation agreement with a South Korean company, Boychenko said.

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, World Bank, US Agency for International Development and large Ukrainian businesses are helping to create the city's reconstruction plan, known as Mariupol Reborn, he said.

Bakhmut in miniature

Bakhmut, a city in Donetsk province, also experienced maximum destruction in May 2023 and was then occupied.

The city's displaced residents, many of whom received refugee status, hope that Bakhmut will be rebuilt after the war.

The company Metinvest has unveiled a project called Steel Dream to envision Bakhmut's postwar restoration. In 2023, specialists designed an entire district for Bakhmut that can be rebuilt using prefabricated metal solutions.

The plans to rebuild the Yuvileinyi (Jubilee) microdistrict in Bakhmut are designed to accommodate 17,000 residents -- a quarter of the city's population before the full-scale invasion.

Metinvest also plans to build a district for displaced Bakhmut residents in the town of Hoshcha in Rivne province, about 1,000km away.

The project features a miniature copy of Bakhmut made up of four- and two-story apartment buildings that will include an educational complex for 400 children and a clinic.

The complex's distinctive feature is that it will adhere precisely to the contours of the lost Bakhmut, down to the rose-lined walkways and monuments. It will be able to accommodate 3,000 residents.

"The [Hoshcha] project calls for financing that totals around $111 million," said Oleksandr Marchenko, the exiled deputy mayor of Bakhmut.

He presented the plan in Warsaw on November 13 at the Rebuild Ukraine forum.

"Of course a single donor can't finance such an expensive undertaking. We're looking for investors, sponsors and every possible avenue to get financing. In three years we're planning to build 35 apartment buildings and an educational and medical facility," Marchenko told Kontur.

Sites of memory

As Ukrainians dream of rebuilding their cities, they will place particular importance on memorials for those who died in the Russia-Ukraine war.

"It's important to have places of mourning in the liberated cities in order to overcome trauma. It's not disturbing if you place them on the streets where children will be playing," said Małgorzata Wosińska, a genocide anthropologist.

"In Warsaw we learned to integrate these small islands of memory into the urban landscape. There needs to be a balance between the landscape of life and the landscape of memory," Wosińska told Kontur.

In Mariupol, should it be liberated, the Azovstal metallurgical plant and the Mariupol Drama Theater will be likely candidates for memorials.

Hundreds of Ukrainians, including children, died in the theater in March 2022 when Russian planes dropped bombs on it. The attack was deliberate even though residents had written "Children" on the pavement in front of the building.

"Mariupol residents don't want anything [commercial] on this site of the theater. There's a proposal to preserve the ruins by renovating the grounds as a space for reflection," Boychenko said.

"Another concept proposes topping part of the ruins with a glass reflecting dome, and then under the square to put a museum with access to the site of the explosion, like the 9/11 Memorial and Museum in New York," he said.

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