Petro Andriushchenko
Head of Center for the Study of the Occupation I Керівник Центру вивчення окупації I Consultant & Analyst
Interregional Academy of Personnel Management Center for the Study of the Occupation I Центр вивчення окупації
Ukraine
Jan 20, 2026
76 mortgage “anthills” built on the bones of Mariupol residents.
3 — in January 2026 alone, including one built on the foundations of mass burial sites where more than 400 Mariupol residents were burned alive by Russian shelling.
18,000 Mariupol residents in Mariupol (occupied) currently have no housing after losing their homes during the occupation.
21 Mariupol residents die every day in Mariupol (occupied) from “natural” causes as a consequence of the occupation.
3 children are born every day in Mariupol (occupied).
This is what the real policy of population replacement looks like in numbers.
This is what real Russian fascism looks like.
Comment from :
Birth rate now is 35% of what it used to be before the Siege of Mariupol – which gives us an insight into the actual civilian death toll and number of people remaining in our city under occupation.
You cannot outsource your security to a country under invasion forever. If Ukraine falls, Europe will watch russians pour concrete over mass graves in the Baltics.
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Russia launched a large-scale overnight attack on Ukraine, deploying 339 Shahed-type attack UAVs and decoy drones, as well as 34 missiles.
Air defense results:
• UAVs destroyed or suppressed: 315 out of 339
• Kh-101 cruise missiles intercepted: 13 out of 15
• Iskander-M and S-300 missiles intercepted: 14 out of 18
According to the Ukrainian Air Force, impacts of 5 missiles and 24 strike UAVs were recorded at 11 locations.
Debris from downed UAVs fell at 12 locations.
Information regarding 2 enemy missiles is currently being clarified.
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English translation:
Russian plans for the reconstruction (crossed out) dismantling of Mariupol.
As previously reported, here it is: the historic “Harbor” area approved for complete demolition and redevelopment (items 1–2). This will be financed already this year.
- 2026: demolition and site preparation works.
- 2027: start of construction.
At the same level of cynicism are the plans for “Azovstal” (item 4). Once again, we see the “tourism sector” and a Mars colonization plan — in other words, large-scale looting of the Russian budget with zero probability of actual implementation.
Mariupol Budget 2025: Numbers Without Illusions
In 2025, the budget of occupied Mariupol was “adjusted” several times — from 6.33 billion rubles at the start to 7.74 billion in revenues and 8.54 billion in expenditures as of December. This is not development; it is an admission of the failure of the initial plans.
Transfers from Russia account for 86% of revenues. Own-source revenues are negligible. At the same time, in 2025 an overperformance of own revenues was recorded, primarily personal income tax (PIT), which was fulfilled at nearly 120%. This is not a sign of economic recovery. The overperformance is achieved by relocating military bases to Mariupol and paying salaries to Russian military personnel there — that is, in an entirely artificial and controlled manner.
On the expenditure side, the picture is even more telling.
Expenditures: the real priority structure
As of December 1, 2025, about 68% of the annual expenditure plan had been executed. However, the structure of actual spending demonstrates a clear hierarchy of priorities.
Education has become the absolute dominant: over 51% of all actual expenditures and more than 80% execution of the annual plan. The education sector is financed steadily and systematically, performing not a function of social support but one of environmental control — ideological, кадровий (staffing), and institutional.
Culture and sports show disciplined plan execution (77–80%) with a small share of total spending (around 6%). Their role is to create the illusion of “normal life” and to provide informational cover for the degradation of the urban environment.
Maintenance of the administrative apparatus is funded stably: more than 70% plan execution and about 11% of all actual expenditures. The administrative apparatus is a protected element of the budget regardless of the city’s overall condition.
The housing and utilities sector (HUS) shows a systemic failure in cash execution. With planned expenditures of about 2.5 billion rubles, only around 0.95 billion rubles were actually spent — less than 38%. Funding is fragmented, focused on isolated or visually demonstrative projects rather than on systematic infrastructure restoration. Responsibility for the functioning of housing and utilities is increasingly shifted onto the population through tariffs and reduced budget participation. Meanwhile, water, heating, housing, and urban infrastructure remain secondary issues.
The overperformance of PIT is likewise not evidence of growth. These revenues do not reflect economic revival. In fact, the budget speaks more honestly than any propaganda: Russia is not rebuilding Mariupol — it is financing control over it.
This is not a city budget. It is a cost estimate for maintaining the occupation.
I would draw your attention to what Alina Pereverzieva said :
“You cannot outsource your security to a country under invasion forever. If Ukraine falls, Europe will watch russians pour concrete over mass graves in the Baltics.”
Clearly, planning for the invasion and occupation of Ukraine began very shortly after the commencement of putler’s savage dictatorship.
We saw what they did in Bucha. It was planned; all of the atrocities were. It was the business model for what followed. Sadly we will never uncover the full horror of what occurred in Mariupol until it returns to its rightful owners.
Which brings me to my second point : the putinaZis have no intention whatsoever of returning even one centimetre of thieved land. The only way Ukraine can return it is by force.