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Russia is trying to paper over its war crimes in Mariupol, Donetsk Oblast, by using pro-Kremlin bloggers to portray the “restoration” of the occupied city, attracting Russian settlers to move there, CNN reported on May 14.
Residents of the occupied city—including schoolchildren—attend so-called media programs and “blogger schools” linked to the Kremlin. Although these influencers have relatively modest followings, Russian authorities need any “local voices” to promote life under occupation.
“Look at what Russia is doing in Mariupol: wait — they’re building, not tearing down… this is Mariupol, our Russian city!” said Pavel Karbovskyi, known online as “Cosmonaut from Donetsk,” in a recent TikTok video.
More content creators like Karbovskyi — affiliated with these blogger schools — are discussing the “revival” of cities and towns on Russian-occupied Ukrainian soil. In an interview with CNN, Karbovskyi insisted he isn’t a propagandist but merely wants to “show the truth” about life under occupation. Meanwhile, the occupation authorities actively encourage bloggers to post about the “restoration” of captured territories—sometimes even at official meetings.
In January, Karbovskyi and other bloggers attended a meeting with the Kremlin-backed Mariupol official and leader of the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic, Denis Pushilin. Pushilin said in his Telegram channel that he expected bloggers to highlight the “revival” of Donbas.
The journalists analyzed more than a dozen profiles of what it calls “local influencers” pushing Russia’s campaign to “Russify” Mariupol on social media. Some bloggers openly support Russia, while others claim to be apolitical. Despite audiences ranging from about 3,000 to 36,000 followers on TikTok, their content can attract hundreds of thousands of views—even though videos lack any context explaining why the city needs to be rebuilt in the first place.
Russia’s siege of Mariupol was among the deadliest and most destructive battles since the full-scale invasion began in 2022. The UN estimates that 90% of the city’s residential buildings were either damaged or destroyed by Russian strikes, forcing roughly 350,000 of its estimated 430,000 residents to flee. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said that at least 20,000 civilians may have died in Mariupol, though the exact toll remains unknown.
For Moscow, maintaining control of Mariupol remains a strategic priority and investment target. In March 2023, Russian dictator Vladimir Putin made a carefully staged trip to Mariupol, during which he discussed “restoration” efforts with local officials.
Construction in Mariupol continues, but satellite images, interviews with locals, and social media videos show that significant damage from Russian attacks still scars the city. Many who lost their homes in 2022 have not received new housing, and the quality of the new buildings is often poor. The occupiers have also confiscated homes from Ukrainians forced to leave, redistributing them to others.
“They’ve created a kind of Potemkin village…; people don’t really live there. In many buildings, there aren’t any residents,” said one local.
In September 2024, an organization called the Donbas Media Center (DMC) opened a “blogger school” in Mariupol. The school offers free two-week courses that teach beginners how to film, edit, and become popular online. Similar courses have been held in Donetsk, Luhansk, and the captured city of Melitopol in Zaporizhzhya Oblast. Karbovskyi served as one of the instructors. Neither he nor the school coordinator disclosed the program’s funding source, but the report concluded it is supported the Russian government.
In 2024, the DMC received the “Runet Award” — a Russian national prize from a Putin-funded cultural initiative — for “outstanding achievements on the Russian internet.” Last year, top DMC students won a trip to Moscow that included a tour of the headquarters of VKontakte, which is owned by state-controlled Gazprom Media.
Also in September 2024, graduates of a Russian government program called “New Media Workshop” opened a media center in Mariupol to train teenagers in photography, videography, and “social media work.” The free program is partly funded by a $12,000 grant from the Kremlin, and participants are urged to “show Mariupol in a positive light.” The center has published interviews with children who said the city has “become much more interesting and colorful” and is “rapidly developing.”
In March, the Russian media outlet Rutube, owned by Gazprom-Media, announced the creation of studios on temporarily occupied territories in four Ukrainian oblasts, including Mariupol, where bloggers can access “high-tech equipment and training programs.” The project involves the so-called Russian Military-Historical Society, established by a 2012 decree signed by Putin.
Andrei Soldatov, an expert on Russian intelligence and state internet oversight, said these efforts are coordinated “at the highest level” in the Kremlin. Most of the social-media accounts CNN examined began posting content after the start of the full-scale invasion, focusing on Russia’s supposed restoration of Mariupol.
“When I heard people say that Mariupol is a ruined city with nothing left, I wanted to show that the city is alive and being rebuilt. That’s why I started showing what is really happening,” said 21-year-old Yelyzaveta Chervyakova, a graduate of Mariupol College of Culture and Arts.
One of her most popular videos—viewed more than 177,000 times—shows both ruined and new buildings with a voiceover declaring, “Mariupol is the seaside capital of southern Russia.”
Exiled Mariupol Mayor Vadym Boychenko told the reporters that only about 100,000 Ukrainians likely remain in the city. Russian authorities are attracting new residents in part by offering a 2% mortgage rate for properties on occupied territories, a sharp contrast to Russian market rates of around 29%.
The Moscow-appointed “mayor” of Mariupol said that some residents might receive “abandoned” property, effectively barring those who fled from returning.
“This propaganda, these fabricated clips they’re now filming in Mariupol, won’t help. Russia committed a crime in Mariupol, and the residents know it,” Boychenko added.
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