Mariupol residents deny Russian stories about the city

“What they show on Russian television is fairy tales for fools. Most of the mariolpol still lies in ruin,” says John, who lives in Mariolpol, who is occupied by Russian. We have changed his name because he fears revenge on the Russian authorities.

“They are fixing the facades of buildings in the main streets, where they bring cameras to shoot. But just around the corner, there are ruins and emptiness. Many people still live in semi -fat apartments with their walls hardly stand.”

It has passed a little more than three years Mariolpol was taken by the Russian forces After the brutal blockade and random bombing-a major moment in the first months of Russia’s extensive invasion of Ukraine.

Thousands of people were killed, and United Nations ability 90 % of residential buildings were damaged or destroyed.

In recent months, videos and rollers have been from many pro -Russian influencers, drawing a picture of a bright city where the damaged structures were fixed and where life returned to normal.

But the BBC spoke to more than half of a scale – some of them still live in the mariool, and others who fled after spending time under occupation – to collect a true image of what is life in the city.

“There are a lot of lies around it,” said 66 -year -old Ounishko, who fled Mariolbul late last year and now lives in Turnopel Ukraine.

“I will not tell them [Russian authorities] I have fixed a lot of things. There is a central square – only the buildings that were rebuilt. There are also empty spaces as the buildings stood. “They have cleared the debris, but they did not separate the bodies, they were just loaded on the trucks with kicks and were carried out from the city.”

Marriolbol faces a severe water shortage.

“The water flows for a day or two, this does not come for three days. We keep the bulldozers and water boxes at home. The color of the water is so yellow that even after it boils it, it is frightening to drink it,” says James, a Mariopol resident who changed his name.

Some even said that the water is like “Coca -Cola”.

Sehii Orlov, who calls himself the Mariupol mayor in exile, says Sceskyi Dinets – Donbas Canal, which provides water for the city was damaged during the fighting, says Serhi Orlov, who calls the city’s deputy mayor, says.

“Not only a single tank was left to provide water with the mariolpol. For the current population, that had lasted for about a year and a half. Since the profession lasted for a longer period of time, this means that there is no drinking water at all. Water does not use water until the minimum drinking water standards.”

There are frequent energy discounts, food expensive, and rare medicines, and the residents told us.

“The basic medications are not available. Diabetics fight for insulin on time, and it is a crazy cost,” says James.

The BBC contacted the Russian administration of Mariolol to respond to allegations about the shortage and whether they had found a substitute source of water. We haven’t got a response yet.

Despite the difficulties, the most difficult part of living in the city, as residents say, is monitoring what Ukrainian children are taught at school.

Andrii Kozhushyna studied at Mariopol for a year after its occupation. Now he fled to Dnipro.

Andre says: “They teach children false and advertising information.

He also described special lessons called “talks on important things” in which students are educated on how Russia is free to the Russian -speaking population in these areas of Nazis in 2022.

“Teachers who refuse to take these lessons or shoot,” says John, a mariolpol resident.

During World War II, the celebrations of the victory day in May showed pictures of the Mariopol Central Square in Mariolol, children and adults who wear military fashion participating in the marches and shows-the traditions of the Soviet era that Ukraine has been increasingly avoided in the occupied areas. Mariopol was shower in the colors of the Russian flag – red, blue and white.

But some Ukrainians wage secret resistance against Russia, and at the death of the night, spraying blue and yellow colors on the walls, as well as paste messages like “Liberate Mariupol” and “Mariupol Is Ukraine”.

James and John are both a member of the resistance groups, and Andre was when he lived in the city.

“The messages aim to morally support our people, to inform them that resistance is alive,” says James.

Their main goal is to collect intelligence for the Ukrainian army.

“I document information about Russian military movements,” James says.

Sometimes, resistance groups also try to sabotage civil or military operations. On at least two occasions, the railway line was disabled in the mariolol because the activists were shot on the signal box.

It is a risky work. Andre said he was forced to leave when he realized that he was subjected.

He said: “Perhaps one of the neighbors mixed me. But once when I was in a store to buy bread, I saw a soldier showing my picture to the treasurer asking if they knew who he was.”

He left immediately, lagging behind Mariopol inspection tools and then traveling through many cities in Russia, and through Belarus, before Ukraine entered the north.

For those who are still in the city, every day is a challenge.

“Every day you delete your messages because your phone can be examined at checkpoints. You are afraid to call your friends in Ukraine if your phone is exploited,” says James.

He added, “A person was arrested from a house next to the street because someone has reported that he was allegedly transferring information to the Ukrainian army. Your life is like a movie – constant tension, fear, lack of confidence.”

As the talks between Ukraine and Russia continued, there were suggestions from inside and outside Ukraine that it needed to waive the land in exchange for a peace agreement.

John says: “Abandoning lands for” a deal with Russia “will be betrayal.

“We do not want” peace at any cost. “We want liberation.”

Additional reports by Imogen Anderson, Anastasiia Levchenko, Volodymyr Lozhko and Sanjay Ganguly