Russians celebrated capturing a ghost town in Ukraine. Photos show how the war ruined it.
Lauren Frias
- Marinka was once a town of 10,000 people. Now, Russia controls its ruins.
- On Monday, Russia said its army captured the town after Ukrainian forces retreated to the outskirts.
Russia said its forces now control the key Ukrainian town of Marinka earlier this week after months of fighting.
In a televised meeting on Tuesday with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Russian "assault units have today completely liberated the settlement of Marinka."
Ukrainian officials initially denied that the Russian army completely captured the eastern Ukrainian city, saying its armed forces retreated to the outskirts of the town to set up positions.
"Our troops are in the administrative borders of Marinka, the battles for the city continue," Oleksandr Shtupun, a spokesman for the Ukrainian military, said. "The city is completely destroyed, but it is incorrect to talk about the complete capture of Maryinka."
'Here it is, our Marinka!'
Russian state TV aired a report showing soldiers standing amid the rubble and destruction left behind in the eastern Ukrainian town, likening the struggle for the territory to the battle for the Reichstag in Berlin.
"Here it is, our Marinka!" a person in the report says, motioning to a victory banner atop a ruined building in the decimated town.
Marinka plays a crucial role in the Ukrainian defensive barrier.
Putin said the apparent capture gives Russian troops "the opportunity to reach a wider operational area."
Marinka has been on the front lines of the Ukraine-Russia tensions since 2014.
Over the last near-decade, Marinka has been pinned between Ukrainian forces and Russian-backed separatists after Russia seized and annexed Crimea in 2014.
In June 2015, pro-Russian paramilitaries attacked Marinka, but Ukrainian armed forces pushed them out and the town was under Ukrainian control until its recent capture.
Residents of Marinka had learned to live amid the conflict.
In 2017, a school principal told Business Insider through a translator that the children in Marinka "don't care about their safety anymore."
"They got so adjusted to the situation," the principal said. "... They hear the sounds of shelling and shooting, and they just don't care that they could get hurt."
They put sandbags in the windows of shops and schools to shield themselves from shelling
They cleaned up broken glass and debris left behind from artillery fire.
Marinka is now a ghost town.
As the fighting intensified following Russia launching a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Ukrainian officials have been evacuating Marinka since late last year.
Russian officials touted the capture of Marinka as a tactical gain.
"Over the course of nine years, the Ukrainian armed forces created a powerful fortified area there, which was connected by underground passages," Shoigu said. He added that each street was "fairly well protected from all attacks from both the air and field artillery structures, long-term firing points, and a complex system of underground communications."
Experts with the Institute for the Study of War, a DC-based think tank, said the capture "represents a limited Russian tactical gain" unless Russian forces improve issues with their armored vehicle attacks.
The city is now reduced to rubble, the tragic aftermath after months and years of fighting.
"A small and completely destroyed settlement does not offer Russian forces a secure operational foothold from which to launch further offensive operations," the group of experts with the ISW said.
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