DISINFO: Mariupol is a Russian city and is returning to its roots after the special operation
SUMMARY
Olga and Pavel are from Mariupol and have no doubts that the city where they were born is Russian. With the start of the special military operation, Mariupol initiated the return to its roots.
RESPONSE
This baseless claim appeared in a documentary series of four episodes titled “Mariupol: Chronicles of a Russian city”, broadcast by RT Spanish in August 2022. The allegation is part of a broader disinformation campaign to prepare the ground and justify the illegal annexation of Ukrainian territories by Russia.
Mariupol cannot be considered a Russian city under any prism. Prior to WWI it was part of the Russian Empire, but so was most of the rest of Ukraine and a big part of what is today Polish territory (see map here). After the outbreak of the Ukrainian-Soviet war in 1917, it became part of the so-called Ukrainian People’s Republic and was afterwards occupied by German and Austrian troops as a result of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. In 1921, it became part of the new Socialist Republic of Ukraine, which was soon integrated in the USSR. Mariupol was always recognised by Russian authorities as Ukrainian territory, both during Soviet times and after Ukraine’s independence in 1991.
See other examples of similar disinformation narratives, such as claims that a referendum and a coup forced Luhansk and Donetsk to declare independence, that the Russian liberation of Lysychansk and Severodonetsk ended discrimination and abuse, that “Azov” admitted in a secret document that the majority of Mariupol residents support Russia, or that the Financial Times reported that Ukraine threatened Russia with terrorist attacks on its territory.