Mariupol often appears on Russian state television news. The Ukrainian city, the scene of a long and ferocious battle in 2022 which resulted in the destruction of 90 percent of the buildings and thousands of deaths, is described as a beautiful destination located on the Sea of Azov, where it is worth moving thanks to the low house prices and the excellent climate. The great reconstruction work is shown on TV: condominiums, schools and medical centers are growing like mushrooms. You see families who had lost their homes happily moving into brand new apartments. And the city is reportedly already welcoming a significant influx of Russians.
Mariupol it’s in the Donbassthe region of Ukraine invaded on February 24, 2022 and largely conquered by the army of Vladimir Putinso much so that on September 30, 2022, Russia declared its annexation. Western newspapers and televisions deal with this land above all, and rightly so, to document the evolution of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. But very little is known about what is happening far from the front, in the territories that have now been under the control of the Kremlin for over two years. It is difficult to know the truth by delving into the fog of propaganda on both sides. Certainly older Russians are nostalgic for the Donbass. In a beautiful poster from 1921 the region is drawn as a heart which with its long arteries reaches every corner of Russia. Those were the times when industry was fueled by coal and the Donbass he is very rich in it. The miners were his pride and it is no coincidence that Soviet propaganda discovered the tireless worker right here Alexei Stakhanov. But in this area there are also deposits of gas, oil, iron, manganese, titanium, uranium and significant reserves of metals and rare earths, fundamental for hi-tech and the green economy. Furthermore, some of the most important steel, chemical, metallurgical and metalworking plants in Ukraine are active.
Overall, Donbass had over six million inhabitants at the beginning of 2022: at the end of that year, however, the International Organization for Migration counted approximately 2.9 million people who left the occupied territories. Based on these figures, the total population of the areas that fell into Russian hands can be estimated at approximately 3.5 million inhabitants. The majority are Russian-speaking and ethnically Russian and Ukrainian.
Since 2014 the population has lived in a climate of civil war after the unilateral proclamation of the People’s Republics of Lugansk and Donetsk, the two capitals of the Donbass. Before the start of the clashes between the pro-Russian separatists and the Kiev army, the Donbass it represented 18 percent of Ukraine’s total GDP. But following the conflict the economy weakened and the weight of the region’s GDP fell to just under 6 percent of the Ukrainian total. To the analysts of think tank Italian Balkans and Caucasus Transeuropa Observatory the researcher of Ukrainian politics Konstantin Skorkin he recalled that a power group “owned” the Donbass: «This was a group of oligarchs composed of former communist officials who had managed to seize state property after the collapse of the Soviet Union». And they convinced citizens that Ukrainian independence was the source of all their troubles and that returning to Moscow would only bring benefits.
The theater director Pavlo Yurovoriginally from the Lugansk area, claims that «Four categories of people live in the territories controlled by Russia. There are those who actively support the occupation forces, those who perhaps collaborate with the latter but because they find themselves forced to do so by circumstances, those who are substantially indifferent to what is happening or in any case suffer it passively, those who finally feel pro-Ukrainian and bring carry out partisan activities of various types”.
In Donbass, Putin’s reputation is at stake. He did not “liberate” the whole of Ukraine as promised but only a piece, more or less 18 percent of its territory, and now he must demonstrate that he knows how to restore well-being and prosperity to these areas which have become greatly impoverished compared to the rest of the country . David Lewisprofessor at the University of Exeter, in England, where he teaches post-Soviet politics, reports that «alongside all the soldiers, soldiers, tanks that you see as symbols of the occupation, there is also a whole army of bureaucrats who are trying to incorporate these territories into the Russian state. And that means transforming laws, introducing new tax systems, intervening in the daily bureaucracy of life, including marriages, death certificates, car registrations, health insurance, pension payments.” According to the German foundation Science and Politics (SWP), an independent scientific institution, the integration of the occupied territories «is by far the largest infrastructure project in present-day Russia. In the absence of tangible military successes, it is also the Kremlin’s most important propaganda project.”
In April 2023, reports the SWP foundation, a first “comprehensive program for the socio-economic development” of the occupied regions was adopted, followed, in December 2023, by that for the “Restoration and socio-economic development” of eastern Donbass. The money allocated per year for the implementation of the program is approximately 10 billion euros. A significant part of these resources is used for military purposes such as the construction of defensive structures, while in the civilian field the priorities focus on repairing what was destroyed during the war: restoring energy infrastructure, restarting businesses, of roads and social structures, the creation of housing that people can purchase at particularly low rates.
The first major project was the military’s construction of a 200-kilometer water pipeline from the Don in the Rostov region to Donetsk, completed in record time in early 2023.
In the housing sector, the main focus so far has been on the recovery and restoration of Mariupolwhich Moscow wants to transform into a showcase of Russia’s positive role in the occupied territories. According to the head of the Russian Social Fund, Sergei Chirkov2.5 million people living in the «new regions» received payments totaling more than 204 billion rubles (two billion euros) last year: pensions, sick leave and injury compensation and other benefits.
In addition to bringing money to the population, the Kremlin also wants to create favorable conditions for the development of local businesses and the arrival of companies from Russia. From the summer of 2023, a “free economic zone” offers a series of advantages and tax exemptions for several years in the occupied territories. But behind these actions aimed at relaunching the Donbass eastern and tying it ever more closely to Russia lies an occupation that represses the rights and freedoms of citizens. For those who oppose there is always the risk of suffering arbitrary detentions, forced disappearances, torture and mistreatment.
No segment of society is allowed to organize itself to defend its interests in the political sphere. Freedom of expression is severely limited. School and university curricula have gradually been aligned with those in use in the Russian Federation. To do almost everything you need a Russian passport: open a bank account, run a business, get social security payments. Ukrainian banks have been replaced by Moscow ones, which is causing problems because it is no longer possible to send money to Russian bank accounts from Ukrainian ones.
Moscow’s grip on Donbass it’s getting stronger. Despite the efforts of the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskythe return of the conquered regions to Ukraine appears difficult. Also because the bulk of the population is now resigned, they want nothing more than to suffer less. And have some peace.
