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Mariupol is currently being rebuilt by the Russians.
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The Kremlin is having new apartments built in the destroyed city of Mariupol - but they are only open to Russians. For displaced Ukrainians, there is not even the hope of returning.
Rubble lies where blocks of flats once stood. Where Ukrainian families once lived, Russian estate agents now advertise apartments with sea views. After the Russian attack in 2022, the image of Mariupol, once a flourishing port city, is one of death, displacement - and cynical reconstruction.
As the Wall Street Journal reports, thousands of new apartments are currently being built in Mariupol by construction companies with close ties to the Kremlin. Around 5,000 apartments in 70 buildings have already been completed - entire districts, formerly home to Ukrainian families, have been razed to the ground and are now being rebuilt.
The apartments are sold exclusively to Russian citizens - at particularly favorable mortgage rates of just two percent. The brochures advertise "majestic architecture" and "15 minutes to the sea". The destruction is played down as "minor damage caused by military events".
For former Ukrainian owners, however, there is no right of return or compensation. Many of the former apartments were declared "ownerless" without further ado - because the owners either died in the war or were expelled. According to the WSJ, legal appeals or claims for restitution have come to nothing.
One person affected told the newspaper that the alleged "compensation offer" was "not even enough for a grave".
Ukrainians trying to return to their old homes are already being turned away at the border or at the airport, according to the Wall Street Journal.
For Putin's circle of power, reconstruction is also a lucrative business: construction contracts go to companies with a direct line to the Kremlin, while the sale of real estate also fills the war chest.
According to observers, the housing offensive is part of a targeted Russification policy in the occupied territories - with the aim of systematically suppressing Ukrainian identity.
