Twitter screenshot
Marinka in eastern Ukraine looks nothing more than a field of ruins in this photo, which has been circulating on social media since March 4.
WAR IN UKRAINE – A city was reduced to ashes. Since this Saturday, March 4, Russian propaganda groups have been sharing mass photos of the occupied city of Marinka in the Oblast, i.e. the Donetsk region, via Telegram messages. A city completely devastated since the Russian invasion and abandoned by its 10,000 inhabitants and forced to flee.
The Chief of Staff of the Ukrainian Presidency, Andriy Yermak, by sharing these images on his Telegram channel, confirmed that, unfortunately, they were very real.
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As you can see belowdrone footage show an apocalyptic landscape in which no building seems to have escaped the bombardment. “Fully shaved, there’s nothing left. Even the Wikipedia page talks about them in the past tense,” the Delphi Geopolitical Observatory tweeted a macabre detail.
Мар’їнка, Просто апокаліпсис дуже шкода, що бато хто не ре реє який геgy
—Igor Lachenkov (@igorlachenkov)
🇬🇧This is Marinka, southwest of Donetsk. Completely shaved, there’s nothing left. Even the Wikipedia page talks about… https://t.co/lISJmC9mDi
— Delphi Observatory (@ObsDelphi)
Once a “peaceful” city
Some observers and experts state that they did not believe these images when they saw them, thinking they had been edited by Russian propaganda.
Such is the case of Ostap Yarysh, a journalist covering Ukraine for The Voice of America, the American international public audiovisual service, who tweeted this Sunday, March 5: “When I saw those first recordings, I thought they would be shocking too, to be true, and didn’t share them. I was wrong. This is Marinka, Ukraine. And to add: “This once peaceful city was completely destroyed by the Russians. Nobody lives there anymore. Looks like a scene from a post-apocalyptic movie. »
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When I first saw these pictures I thought they were too shocking to be true so I didn’t share them. I was wrong. T… https://t.co/3zNXtsgDUJ
— Ostap Yarysh (@OstapYarysh)
there is no life Maryinka. Before and after. The Russians destroyed everything. https://t.co/hMxYWXn1KR
— Kateryna Prokopenko (@KatProkopenkoUa)
Meanwhile, in the face of this spectacle of devastation, Andriy Yermak, chief of staff to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, stressed on Telegram that Marinka was wealthy before the war. “Marina. It does not exist anymore. Such are the consequences of Russia’s terrorist activities,” he wrote, sharing one of the photos of the destroyed city. “What do Russians have to pay for Marinka and other Ukrainian cities? For crimes and murders? A court. Suffocating Penalties. Military destruction on the battlefield. Isolation. »
Destroy the shelters
Fighting between Russian forces and Ukrainian troops has been raging in eastern Ukraine since 2014 and the beginning of the unrest in Donbass. Fighting has intensified since the Russian invasion on February 24, 2022, and the town of Marinka is among those reduced to rubble. Marinka police chief Artyom Shus told the AP agency in late February that the city had been completely evacuated except for the soldiers “because there is no longer a way for the civilian population to live there.”
According to this official, Russian forces are deliberately razing the ruins and blowing up the remaining walls to “destroy any protection, be it a civilian shelter or a military facility.” Lacking structures to shelter behind, the belligerents fight from the basements or crouch under the rubble. “There are no trenches, there is nothing. I even had to hide behind a fridge,” Vitali, a 34-year-old soldier, told AFP in late January.
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According to Colonel Yaroslav Tchepourny, in charge of Ukrainian army relations with the media, in this village, where fighting has been going on for five months, his brigade has suffered “the most casualties” since the invasion began.
In another eastern town, some 80 km northeast, Russian forces are preparing to take possession of Bakhmout after weeks of intense fighting. The Ukrainian army has been reporting an “extremely tense” situation for the past week as Russian troops surround the city. The leader of the Russian Wagner militia, Yevgeny Prigoyine, sent a message to the President of Ukraine on Friday: “Dear Volodymyr Oleksandrovych Zelensky, the Wagner paramilitary group practically controls Bakhmout. Only one road remains. The vise closes. “And at what price…
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