It's time to talk about Mariupol. The city of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the city of Azovstal resistance, now also the city of martyrs.
This used to be a thriving port city of half a million Ukrainians, the tenth biggest city in Ukraine and the second in Donetsk region, unfortunately the site of a humanitarian catastrophe and genocide of civilians of a scale unseen since the Second World War. Under Putin's direct orders, Russians completely destroyed not only the main infrastructure of the city, but also 90% of the people's homes.
The tragedy is largely documented by now, there's no need to talk about mass graves, cholera outbreaks, and civilians regularly used as human shields. By the gates of November, eight months past the begining of the invasion, let's take a look on the situation of Ukrainians living in Mariupol at this very moment. And the news that come from the Azov Sea coast are alarming.
The city is living under Russian occupation and currently is considered by our enemies part of the territory of the Russian Federation. After being obliged to vote at gunpoint in a sham referendum to join Russia, residents were at least promised improvements in the housing and in the transport structures, in shambles for months.
The actual population of Mariupol, according to Ukraine, is only 100,000. From the former 500,000, we need to discount one hundred thousand who perished and other 200,000 who could flee in one way or another. The remaining hundred thousand are composed by the people who don't have absolutely nowhere to go.
The least privileged fifth of the Mariupolian society. As usual, the poorest are the ones who are most affected by any conflict. There are a hundred thousand Ukrainians who are barely surviving in a completely dysfunctional city, wiythout other option than living in the same apartments of before. The same that now are still destroyed by the accounts of 80% to 90%.
These people are living without electrictity, without gas, without tap water, and in apartments which the thermal insulation is completely lost. Living without stable power supply is something that all Ukrainians share now, but the situation of Mariupol goes much beyond. The town is practically uninhabitable, but it still holds one thousand Ukrainians.
Unfortunately, caring for the poor is not a specialty of the modern societies, but Russians are notably cruel on this aspect. Anyone who knows Moscow, also knows the divide between the elite members of the society and the poorer citizens who live 40 km away from the city center in dangerous and crumbling districts. A rich Russian from central Moscow don't even look to someone who's not recognized as one of them.
This is not only income inequality: this is also a character inequality. Rich Russians have the personification of how despisable a human being can be. And now Mariupol, theoretically under Russian dominance, have the poorer parcel of their population in the hands of those Muscovites who are entirely uninterested for a poor person.
What is happening in the city of the Virgin Mary is particularly devastating at a time of the year when the weather start to pose a challenge. Humidity is high, there's a lot of rain, and mud is all around. In the next days, much likely, the snow will come and will stay with us for at least four months. As a coastal city, I can say for myself that zero degrees with the strong and humid winds feels worse than minus 15 degrees in a drier environment inland.
It's time to save Mariupol urgently, my friends. There's a tragedy going on there right now, and it's less noisy than before, but it can be even more deadly.