Streets of Russia-ruled Mariupol slowly returning to life
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
DeeperDive is a beta AI feature. Refer to full articles for the facts.
People are slowly returning to the streets in the southern Ukrainian city of Mariupol, which was pummelled for weeks by shelling from Russian forces and is now fully under Russian control.
On Monday, local residents charged their electronic devices on generators and exchanged food and clothes at impromptu street markets.
At an empty bus station, Russian state TV broadcast on a giant screen brought in by officials.
A woman known as Ms Lyuba, who was charging her phone, said she had decided not to leave the city, although her apartment had been damaged. "There is no electricity, no water - things are really tough, of course," she said. A man named Nikolai said he had also come to charge his phone, as there was no electricity available at the train station where he now lives.
Some residents could be seen collecting essential products in boxes emblazoned with the pro-Russian "Z" symbol. Others had set up their own stalls to sell - or exchange - products, including vegetables and shoes.
Russia seized full control of Mariupol last month after the surrender of more than 2,400 Ukrainian fighters who had been holding out at the besieged Azovstal steelworks.
