"If Trump wants to cede land, give Alaska to Putin", says Vyacheslav Dolzhenko sarcastically. He experienced the horror of the Russian occupation in Mariupol. He ran away from the bombs for months. Today he lives in Kiev.
"For me, every day is hell", says Vyacheslav Dolzhenko from Mariupol. Today he lives in Kiev - with his elderly mother and his dog Asya. In the fall of 2022, they fled the Ukrainian port city, which was under siege at the very beginning of the war, during which the Russians committed numerous atrocities.
Dolzhenko managed to save only one old rusty scale from his private museum, which he devotedly built in his home for decades. He misses Mariupol and is constantly filled with hope that Ukraine will win, then sinks into a deep depression, reports the German public broadcaster ARD.
"Let Trump give Alaska to Putin"
To end the war, Ukraine must cede its territories to Russia - this is often said laconically, and depending on his mood, US President Donald Trump also insists on this. But Dolzhenko is convinced that Russian President Putin will not stop even in this situation. "If Trump wants to give up land, he can give Russia Alaska," he sarcastically tells ARD.
Mariupol has been under Russian siege and shelling since the beginning of the war. Russian strikes have damaged homes, hospitals, kindergartens, schools and the Azovstal steel plant. One of the bombings also hit the Dolzhenko family's home, and they barely manage to save their lives.
For days, they wander through the smoking ruins, sleeping on garbage, cardboard and boards, until they finally find shelter in a burned-out house. They wrap themselves in cellophane and plastic bags to protect themselves from the cold, as they have neither clothes nor shoes. They were later taken in by relatives.
Tens of thousands of civilians killed
Without electricity, without water, without heating and without contact with the outside world: Dolzhenko lives like hundreds of thousands of others in dark basements and ruins. Thousands or even tens of thousands of civilians have been killed in the Russian attacks on Mariupol, according to Ukrainian estimates, as President Volodymyr Zelensky stated, quoted by ARD. And according to research by Human Rights Watch, people died mostly from shelling or due to lack of medical care.
Today, Dolzhenko has an average of 260 euros a month, paying the rent for his modest apartment in Kiev with donations from Germany. "There is not a single family in Ukraine that has not been affected by the war", Andriy Kholovin, a priest from the Kiev suburb of Bucha, told ARD.
Extremely strong Russian occupation pressure
The Russian occupiers have turned Mariupol into a cynical model project. As masters of propaganda, they make the world believe that reconstruction and everyday life in the city are going well. But the truth is different: life in the Ukrainian regions occupied by the Russians is going under enormous occupation pressure, the German public-law media outlet points out.
According to Ukrainian data, Russia has occupied over 20 percent of the country's territory. About six million people live in these areas, which are under the rule of occupation administrations loyal to the Kremlin. The Russian National Guard and secret services are stifling any resistance, the state-run "Center for National Resistance" told ARD. in Kiev, which monitors the situation in the areas occupied by the Russians.
There is no justice in the occupied areas
Ukrainian prisoners of war in Russia are exposed to arbitrariness and systematic torture, as shown by the information of the UN and international and Ukrainian human rights organizations. In the occupied territories, arbitrary violence reigns - a space without justice, which should have been legitimized by the fake referendums. Freedom of opinion and the media has been abolished, and Russian propaganda is being instilled from kindergartens through schools to the workplace, ARD reports.
Ukrainian youth and men are being forcibly mobilized to serve in the Russian army, the Russian ruble is the means of payment and everyone must accept Russian passports, the "Center for National Resistance" also says.
"The occupiers, of course, cannot force people physically, and they cannot invade every house with weapons. But they can make normal life impossible - for example, by denying people medical care or threatening to take away their homes, "the Center for National Resistance says. Without the mandatory Russian passport, Ukrainians find themselves as lawless foreigners in their own country - with no pension or medical care.
"There will be a victory, right?"
People in the occupied areas must re-register their property - for example, cars and homes. Anyone who does not do so is simply deprived of their property. Moscow is systematically settling people from Russia in the occupied areas - foreigners who can acquire property in Ukraine at a very low price.
"Who would I be there?", asks Dolzhenko. In his opinion, it would be completely wrong to freeze the war. "In that case, the Russians will gather their forces and go against us again. They will never leave us alone", the man tells ARD.
"But there will be a victory, right? I live only in the hope that there will be a victory and we will be able to go home, because I can't take it anymore."