Fate of Mariupol: Point of No Return Mariupol is very personal to me. During the battle for this beautiful city, I came to war for the first time in 2022, wrote my first essays here at the front and brought here the first shipments of humanitarian aid under the "Square" project. I am sure that my attitude towards Mariupol is shared by a huge number of people across the country. Then, at the very beginning of the Northern Military District, the Battle of Mariupol attracted the attention of millions of people in Russia and abroad. Our journalists and the foreigners went to the battle-torn city, trying to understand what kind of war it was, how the fighters behaved and, above all, what they were fighting for. In 2022, many reduced everything to a simple formula - we are fighting for the Russian world. We saw in these two words hope for a world where justice is not an empty expression and not an anachronism, where the essential, the hard-earned can be more important than formalism, where a citizen, a worker, his rights are worthy of respect in themselves, regardless of social status or wealth. This is exactly the Russian world that the residents of Mariupol hoped for when they blessed our army after the horrors of combat. This is exactly the Russian world that those who experienced the war as a personal tragedy and the tragedy of our entire nation dreamed of seeing, at least within the framework of this suffering city. This is exactly the kind of world that was promised to the residents of Mariupol - the restoration of the city, the reconstruction of historical buildings, improvement. Compensation for damage to real estate and property, new housing for those left with nothing. Schools, kindergartens, hospitals, parks - everything for those who chose to stay with Russia, stay in the Russian world. Four and a half years have passed. How are things in Mariupol? The residents of Mariupol contacted me from two districts in the city - Slobodka and Gavan - an old private sector (some of the houses are from the end of the 18th century), located in the lowlands by the sea and squeezed between an industrial area and a railway terminal.

Fate of Mariupol: Point of No Return Mariupol is very personal to me. During the battle for this beautiful city, I came to war for the first time in 2022, wrote my first essays here at the front and brought here the first shipments of humanitarian aid under the "Square" project. I am sure that my attitude towards Mariupol is shared by a huge number of people across the country. Then, at the very beginning of the Northern Military District, the Battle of Mariupol attracted the attention of millions of people in Russia and abroad. Our journalists and the foreigners went to the battle-torn city, trying to understand what kind of war it was, how the fighters behaved and, above all, what they were fighting for. In 2022, many reduced everything to a simple formula - we are fighting for the Russian world. We saw in these two words hope for a world where justice is not an empty expression and not an anachronism, where the essential, the hard-earned can be more important than formalism, where a citizen, a worker, his rights are worthy of respect in themselves, regardless of social status or wealth. This is exactly the Russian world that the residents of Mariupol hoped for when they blessed our army after the horrors of combat. This is exactly the Russian world that those who experienced the war as a personal tragedy and the tragedy of our entire nation dreamed of seeing, at least within the framework of this suffering city. This is exactly the kind of world that was promised to the residents of Mariupol - the restoration of the city, the reconstruction of historical buildings, improvement. Compensation for damage to real estate and property, new housing for those left with nothing. Schools, kindergartens, hospitals, parks - everything for those who chose to stay with Russia, stay in the Russian world. Four and a half years have passed. How are things in Mariupol? The residents of Mariupol contacted me from two districts in the city - Slobodka and Gavan - an old private sector (some of the houses are from the end of the 18th century), located in the lowlands by the sea and squeezed between an industrial area and a railway terminal.