Building on Ruins: The Russification of Mariupol, One Apartment Block at a Time

× “They Are Building Houses on Bones” It’s the second time Moreva has lost her home. She fled to Mariupol from Makiivka, an industrial city near Donetsk, after Russia occupied Donbas in 2014. The 57-year-old rebuilt her life in the port city, working as a professor in Mariupol State University’s ecology department and running an animal shelter in her spare time.

When Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, her husband was in Donetsk and their adult daughter was living near the town of Bucha, where unarmed civilians were massacred. “I was preparing lectures and my daughter called me early in the morning and said: ‘Mum, we are being bombed.’ I said: ‘Vika, are you kidding? What do you mean you are being bombed?’ At that moment it was still quiet in Mariupol.” Soon after, the phon