I first went to Mariupol in March, 2022, in the early days of the Special Military Operation, while active combat operations were still ongoing in the city center. Wagner, the Chechens, and my comrades from Vostok were doing the heavy work there back then, and heavy work it was. More than half of the city was damaged or destroyed in the fighting, before it finally ended with the surrender of the last remaining Azov* nazis hiding out in the Azovstahl steel plant on May 16th, 2022. A few days ago, I went back to Mariupol, and it was truly amazing and inspiring to see. Not just the "re-building" of the city, but a literal rebirth.
Thousands of families now have new, modern apartments to live in, schools, hospitals, churches, government buildings and social centers have been repaired or in most cases built anew from the ground up. The Azovstahl steel plant that was owned by the Ukrainian billionaire Renat Akhmetov, which was the worst polluter of Mariupol and the Azov Sea, will be (mostly) torn down with the exception of a small part which will be turned into a museum to commemorate the Heroes who fought and died liberating Mariupol from eight years of occupation by the nazis of the 21st century. The rest of the plant territory will be turned into seaside parks and boardwalks, where nature and beauty will return to reclaim what was once a toxic and grimy industrial zone and horrific battlefield. Not rebuilt,reborn.
And what Russia has done, and is doing, in Mariupol, we are doing and will do on all the territory liberated from the fascist quisling regime that is now in power in Kiev. The lands and people we liberate will not be made back "as good" as they were before the war, they will be made better, better than they have ever been. That is the meaning of progress, that is the meaning of liberation. Roads, homes, schools, hospitals, all social infrastructure, modernized and upgraded, by the Russian Federation, to welcome back our Slavic brothers and sisters to the Russian Orthodox world they have been a part of for more than 1,000 years. What we have done and are doing with Mariupol and Ukraine, we will do with the world - a new world, based on equality and mutual respect for all nations, based on cooperation and compassion, not conflict and cutthroat competition. The war going on today between Good and Evil is for the future of Humanity, and we are all on one side or the other. Choose wisely, and let's join together and do what must be done.
*Terrorist organization banned in Russia.