Place:Mariupol', Donetsk, Ukraine

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Mariupol is a city on the north coast of the Sea of Azov at the mouth of the Kalmius river, in the Pryazovia region of Ukraine. Prior to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine and its capture by Russia, it was the tenth-largest city in Ukraine and the second-largest in Donetsk Oblast, with an estimated population of 431,859, according to a 2021 census estimate.^[1] Following its capture, the population is now, according to Ukrainian authorities, estimated to be less than 100,000.

Not only was Mariupol a centre for trade and manufacturing, it also played a key role in the development of higher education and various other businesses as well as being a Black Sea coast resort area. From 1948 to 1989, the city was named Zhdanov, after the Soviet functionary Andrei Zhdanov, as part of the practice of renaming cities after Communist leaders. Mariupol was founded on the site of a former Cossack encampment known as Kalmius, and granted city rights in 1778. Mariupol played a key role in the industrialization of Ukraine, and was a centre for the grain trade, metallurgy, and heavy engineering, including the Illich Steel & Iron Works and Azovstal Iron and Steel Works.

In 2022, the city was besieged by Russian and pro-Russian proxy forces and largely destroyed, for which it received the title of Hero City of Ukraine. On 16 May 2022, the last remaining Ukrainian troops in Azovstal Steel Plant surrendered as Russia secured complete control over the city.

History

the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

Pre-settlement

Neolithic burial grounds excavated on the shore of the Sea of Azov date from the end of the third millennium BCE. Over 120 skeletons were discovered, with stone and bone instruments, beads, shell-work, and animal teeth.

Mariupol was founded on the site of a former Cossack encampment known as Kalmius,^[2] and granted city rights in 1778. Mariupol played a key role in the industrialization of Ukraine, and was a centre for the grain trade, metallurgy, and heavy engineering, including the Illich Steel & Iron Works and Azovstal.

From the 12th through the 16th century, the area around Mariupol was largely devastated and depopulated by intense conflict between the Crimean Tatars, the Nogay Horde, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and Muscovy. By the middle of the 15th century much of the region north of the Black and Azov Seas was annexed by the Crimean Khanate and became a dependency of the Ottoman Empire. East of the Dnieper river a desolate steppe stretched to the Sea of Azov, where lack of water made early settlement precarious.

Being near the Muravsky Trail exposed it to frequent Crimean–Nogai slave raids and plundering by Tatar tribes, preventing permanent settlement and keeping it sparsely populated, or even entirely uninhabited, under Tatar rule. Hence it was known as the Wild Fields or the 'Deserted Plains' (Campi Deserti in Latin).

In this region of Eurasian steppes, the Cossacks emerged as a distinct people in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. Below the Dnieper Rapids were the Zaporozhian Cossacks, freebooters organized into small, loosely-knit, and highly mobile groups who were both livestock farmers and nomads. The Cossacks would regularly penetrate the steppe to fish and hunt, as well as for migratory farming and to herd livestock. Their independence from governmental and landowner authority attracted to join them many peasants and serfs fleeing the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and Grand Duchy of Moscow.

The Treaty of Constantinople in 1700 further isolated the region, as it stipulated that there should be no settlements or fortifications on the coast of the Azov Sea to the mouth of the Mius River. In 1709, in response to a Cossack alliance with Sweden against Russia, Tsar Peter the Great ordered the liquidation of the Zaporozhian Sich, and their complete and permanent expulsion from the area. In 1733, Russia was preparing for a new military campaign against the Ottoman Empire and therefore allowed the return of the Zaporozhians, although the territory officially belonged to Turkey.

Under the Agreement of Lubny of 1734, the Zaporozhians regained all their former lands. In return, they were forced to serve in the Russian army during wartime. They were also permitted to build a new stockade on the Dnieper River called New Sich, though the terms prohibited them from erecting fortifications. These terms allowed only for living quarters, in Ukrainian called kureni.^[3]

Upon their return, the Zaporozhian population in these lands was extremely sparse, and in an effort to establish a measure of control, they introduced a structure of districts or palankas. The nearest district to modern Mariupol was the Kalmius District, but its border did not extend to the mouth of the Kalmius River, although this area had been part of its migratory territory. After 1736, the Zaporozhian Cossacks and the Don Cossacks (whose capital was at nearby Novoazovsk) came into conflict over the area, resulting in Tsarina Elizabeth issuing a decree in 1746 marking the Kalmius River as the divide between the two Cossack hosts.

Sometime after 1738, the treaties of Belgrade and Niš in 1739, in addition to the Russian-Turkish convention of 1741, as well as the following likely concurrent land survey of 1743–1746 (resulting in the demarcation decree of 1746), the Zaporzhian Cossacks established a military outpost on "the high promontory on the right bank of the Kalmius river." Though the details of its construction and history are obscure, excavations have revealed Cossack artifacts, including others, within the enclosure being approximately 120 square meters in the shape of a square. The outpost was likely a modest structure in that it lay within the territory of the Ottoman Empire, and the erection of fortifications on the Sea of Azov was prohibited by the Treaty of Niš.

The last Tatar raid, launched in 1769, covered a vast area, overrunning the New Russian Province with a huge army in severe wintertime weather. The raid destroyed the Kalmius fortifications and burned all the Cossack winter lodgings.^[4] In 1770, the Russian government, during the war with Turkey, moved its border with the Crimean Khanate southwest by more than two hundred kilometres. This action initiated the Dnieper fortified line (running from today's Zaporizhya to Novopetrovka), thereby laying claim to the region, including the site of future Mariupol, from the Ottoman Empire.

Following the victory of the Russian forces, the Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca eliminated the endemic threat from Crimea. In 1775, Zaporizhzhia was incorporated into the New Russian Governorate, and part of the land claimed behind the Dnieper fortified line including modern Mariupol was incorporated in the newly re-established Azov Governorate.

Settlement

After the Russo-Turkish War from 1768 to 1774, the governor of the Azov Governorate, Vasily A. Chertkov, reported to Grigory Potemkin on 23 February 1776 that ruins of ancient domakhas (homes) had been found in the area, and in 1778 he planned the new town of Pavlovsk. However, on 29 September 1779, the city of Marianοpol in Kalmius County was founded on the site. For the Russian authorities the city was named after the Russian Empress Maria Feodorovna; its de facto title was named after the Greek settlement of Mariampol, a suburb of Bakhchisarai in Crimea. The name was derived from the Hodegetria icon of the Holy Theotokos and the Virgin Mary. Subsequently, in 1780, Russian authorities forcibly relocated many Orthodox Greeks from Crimea to the Mariupol area.

In 1782, Mariupol was an administrative seat of its county in the Azov Governorate of the Russian Empire, with 2,948 inhabitants. In the early 19th century, a customs house, a church-parish school, a port authority building, a county religious school, and two privately founded girls' schools were built. By the 1850s the population had grown to 4,600 and the city had 120 shops and 15 wine cellars. In 1869, Consuls and Vice-Consuls of Prussia, Sweden, Norway, Austria-Hungary, the Roman States, Italy, and France established their representative offices in Mariupol.

After the construction of the railway line from Yuzovka to Mariupol in 1882, much of the wheat grown in the Yekaterinoslav Governorate and coal from the Donets Basin were exported via the port of Mariupol (the second largest in the South Russian Empire after Odessa), which served as a key funding source for opening a hospital, public library, electric power station and urban water supply system.

Mariupol remained a local trading centre until 1898, when the Belgian subsidiary SA Providence Russe opened a steelworks in Sartana, a village near Mariupol (now the Ilyich Steel & Iron Works). The company incurred heavy losses and by 1902 was bankrupt, owing 6 million francs to the Providence company and needing to be re-financed by the Banque de l'Union Parisienne. The mills brought cultural diversity to Mariupol as immigrants, mostly peasants from all over the empire, moved to the city looking for a job and a better life. The number of workers increased to 5,400.

In 1914, the population of Mariupol reached 58,000. However, the period from 1917 onwards saw a continuous decline in population and industry due to the February Revolution and the Civil War. In 1933, a new steelworks (Azovstal) was built along the Kalmius River.

World War II

During World War II, the city was under German military occupation from 8 October 1941, to 10 September 1943. During this time, the city suffered tremendous material damage and great loss of life. The Germans shot approximately 10,000 inhabitants, sent nearly 50,000 young men and girls as forced laborers to Germany, deported 36,000 prisoners to concentration camps , most of whom did not survive.

In October 1941, the Jewish population was nearly extinguished by two operations specifically designed to kill them.

The execution of the Jews of Mariupol was carried out by Sonderkommando 10A, which was part of Einsatzgruppe D. The leader was Obersturmbannführer Heinz Seetzen 5 . The Germans shot about 10,000 Mariupol Jews from October 20, 1941 to October 21, 1941 in Berdyansk .

The Mariupol Memorial to the Murdered Jews also called "Menorah memorial" is a cultural property of a historical place The work consists of a seven-pointed menorah, a Star of David and two commemorative steles with inscriptions:

• "Victims of the fascist genocide were shot here - the Jews of Mariupol. October 1941. May their souls be connected with the living" („Здесь расстреляны жертвы фашистского геноцида - евреи Мариуполя. Октябрь 1941 года. Пусть их души будут связаны с живыми“)
• “I will give in my house and within my walls a place and a name preferable to sons and daughters; I will give them an eternal name” (Isaiah 56:5)

Mariupol was liberated by the Soviet Red Army on 10 September 1943.

Monument to the victims of the Second World War.	Monument to the victims of the Holodomor.	File:Мемориальный комплекс "Менора".jpg The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Mariupol also called "Menorah memorial (Mariupol)"	File:Гетто, Маріуполь.jpg Ghetto of Mariupol
File:Мацева9.jpg Jewish Cemetery, Mariupol	File:Мариуполь. Синагога на улице Георгиевской.jpg Choral Synagogue	File:Мариуполь, синагога (2).png

In 1948, Mariupol was renamed "Zhdanov", after Soviet politician Andrei Zhdanov, who had been born there in 1896. The name of the city reverted to "Mariupol" in 1989.

Russo-Ukrainian War

2014 fighting

Following the Revolution of Dignity in 2014, pro-Russian and anti-Revolution protests erupted across eastern Ukraine, including Mariupol. This unrest later evolved into a war between the Ukrainian government and the separatist forces of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR). In May of that year, a battle between the two sides broke out in Mariupol after it briefly came under DPR control. The city was eventually recaptured by government forces, and, in June 2015, Mariupol was proclaimed the temporary administrative centre of Donetsk Oblast until the city of Donetsk could be recaptured.

The city remained peaceful until the end of August 2014, when DRP separatists together with a detachment of the Russian Armed Forces captured Novoazovsk, located east of Mariupol near the Russo-Ukrainian border. This was followed an offensive by pro-Russian forces from the east came within of Mariupol, before an overnight counter-offensive pushed the separatists away from the city. In September, the two sides agreed to a ceasefire, halting that offensive. Despite this ceasefire, minor skirmishes continued on the outskirts of Mariupol in the following months. To protect the city, government forces established three defense lines on its outskirts, supported by heavy artillery and large numbers of army and national guard troops.^[5]

2015 rocket attack

A rocket attack on Mariupol was launched on 24 January 2015 by the Donetsk People's Republic. According to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine, the Grad rockets hit populated areas of Mariupol killing at least 30 people. Using intercepted phone communication raw data, a Bellingcat investigative team concluded that the shelling was instructed, directed and supervised by Russian military commanders in active service with the Russian Ministry of Defense. Bellingcat identified nine Russian officers, including one general, two colonels, and three lieutenant colonels, involved directly with the military operation. As a response, in February Ukrainian forces launched an assault on the village of Shyrokyne, where the rockets were fired from, located around east of Mariupol. The Shyrokyne battle became a standoff, as Ukrainian and DPR forces battled for control of Shyrokyne and neighbouring villages until the separatists withdrew in July.

2018 Crimean Bridge incidents

Following the May 2018 opening of the Crimean Bridge, cargo ships bound for Mariupol found themselves subject to inspections by Russian authorities resulting in delays of up to a week.^[6] Therefore port workers were put on a four-day week schedule. On 26 October 2018, The Globe and Mail reported that the bridge had reduced Ukrainian shipping from its Azov Sea ports (including Mariupol) by about 25%.

In late September 2018, two Ukrainian Navy vessels departed from the Black Sea port of Odessa, passed under the Crimean Bridge and arrived in Mariupol. But on 25 November 2018, three Ukrainian Navy vessels which attempted to do the same were seized by the Russian FSB security service during the 2018 Kerch Strait incident.

2022 Russian siege

Following the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Mariupol was a strategic target for Russian and pro-Russian forces. The city was under siege from 25 February until 17 May 2022. Mariupol was awarded the title of Hero City of Ukraine on 6 March 2022, by Decree of the President of Ukraine.

On 9 March, Russian planes dropped several bombs on Mariupol maternity hospital number 3, destroying the building. Seventeen people were injured and three died as a result of the airstrike.

On 13 March, the Red Cross warned that the siege had become a humanitarian crisis. A month into the conflict, Ukrainian authorities said that about 90% of buildings in Mariupol were damaged or destroyed. An aid worker from the Red Cross described the conditions there as "apocalyptic", with concerns for the humanitarian situation being severe damage to infrastructure, access to sanitation, and food shortages.

On 16 March, the Russian attacking forces dropped a bomb on the Mariupol Drama Theater. The central part of the building was destroyed. At the time of the air strike, civilians and refugees were hiding in the theater's basement. The Neptune Basin building was also destroyed by an air strike.

On 19 March 2022, a Ukrainian police officer in Mariupol made a video in which he said, "Children, elderly people are dying. The city is destroyed and it is wiped off the face of the earth." The video was authenticated by the Associated Press. Russian forces in Mariupol have been accused of human rights violations and war crimes. However, propaganda in the state-controlled media in Russia presented the invasion as a liberation mission and blamed Ukrainian troops for attacks on civilian targets in Mariupol.

By 18 March, Mariupol was completely encircled and fighting reached the city centre, hampering civilian evacuation efforts. On 20 March, an art school in the city, which was sheltering around 400 people, was destroyed by a Russian bombing. The same day, as Russian forces continued their siege of the city, the Russian government demanded a full surrender, which several Ukrainian government officials refused. On 24 March, Russian forces entered central Mariupol as part of the second phase of the invasion. The city administration alleged the Russians were trying to demoralize residents by publicly shouting claims of Russian victories, including statements that Odesa had been captured. On 27 March, Ukraine's deputy prime minister, Olha Stefanishyna, stated that "[Mariupol's inhabitants] don't have access to water, to any food supplies, to anything. More than 85 percent of the whole town is destroyed," and that Russia's objectives have "nothing to do with humanity". In a telephone conversation between Russian President Vladimir Putin and French President Emmanuel Macron on 29 March, Putin stated that bombardment of Mariupol would only end when Ukrainian troops fully surrender Mariupol given the advanced state of devastation in the nearly captured city.

On 11 April 2022, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated that Mariupol had been "completely destroyed".

By late April, Russian and separatist troops had pushed deep into most of the city, separating the last Ukrainian troops, with the few pockets of Ukrainian troops retreating into the Azovstal Iron and Steel Works. The steel mill contains a complex of bunkers and tunnels which could even resist a nuclear bombing. On 21 April 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin stated that the city of Mariupol was under Russian control, while the Azovstal plant remained under the control of Ukrainian forces. Putin stated that his troops would blockade, not storm, the Azovstal plant. On 25 April, the Russians ordered the remaining 1,000 Ukrainian troops in the Azovstal Iron and Steel Works to surrender, but Ukrainian commander Denys Prokopenko refused. On 4 May 2022, Russian forces entered the Azovstal Steel Plant for the first time rather than its outskirts, which they had been contesting for several weeks. On 16 May 2022, its last troops from the Azovstal Steel Plant surrendered and the city fell to Russia and Russia-backed Donetsk People's Republic.

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