Katerina Chernovol00:31, 03/31/23

According to Boichenko, the authorities of the temporarily occupied city are already working on plans to restore it.

The authorities of the temporarily occupied Mariupol, Donetsk region, are already developing plans for the restoration of the city after the de-occupation from Russian troops. Mariupol Mayor Vadim Boychenko said that we are talking about models of rapid recovery and full-fledged revival. 

“We are not waiting for any such decisions on release. Since September last year, together with our regional team and the municipality of Mariupol, we have been trying to answer the main question – how quickly we return to the city of Mariupol, what should we do in the first 3 months , six months, 12 and 18 months in terms of stabilizing the situation – the work of the public sector, all functional areas, education, medicine. We already have clear answers and we presented them at ReBuild Ukraine in Warsaw in February, presented our model for the rapid recovery of Mariupol” , – Boychenko said on the air of the  FREEDOM TV channel .

According to him, in this regard, we are talking about stabilizing the situation in order to safely, comfortably, restore water, electricity, heat, transport, schools and hospitals in the city. At the same time, the revival of Mariupol may take 20 years. 

“The issue of restoration, revival of that half-million city that we saw and imagined, a modern, European, Ukrainian city that we have been building for 7 years, respectively, these two months of full-fledged such aggression by the Russian Federation, which destroyed 50% of the city, will take 20 years of restoration. If we are talking about critical restoration, critical infrastructure, stabilization of the situation, restoration of all public utilities and areas, this is UAH 14 billion,” the Mayor of Mariupol explained.

Boychenko stressed that the city budget has already accumulated a certain amount with the support of the state and the government. He added that the liberation of Mariupol from Russian invaders could take place in the summer.

“We are planning the liberation of the city of Mariupol, which will happen at the end of summer, and we will return to Ukrainian Mariupol in the autumn. When we talk about the full revival of the city, 5-10-15-20 years, which we will spend on the formation of a new, strong, Ukrainian, European city that will inspire all of Ukraine, then this is $14.5 billion,” he said

The situation in Mariupol

On March 27, an explosion thundered in occupied Mariupol. It was reported that the car of the so-called “police” chief was blown up there. He was responsible for the operation of the filtration camps in the city.

In addition, the Russians began to build fortifications along the route to Mariupol . As the adviser to the mayor of the occupied city, Petr Andryushchenko, noted, these structures began to appear on the border of Donetsk and Zaporozhye regions.

(C)UNIAN 2023