The inhabitants of Maripol deny the Russian stories about the city

“What they show on Russian television are talk of fools. Most of Maripol is still in ruins,” says John, a Ukrainian living in Russian Maribol. We changed his name when he was afraid of repression by Russian authorities.

“They repair the facades of the buildings on the main streets where they carry cameras to shoot. But there are ruins and void around the corner. Many people still live in half -destroyed apartments with walls that barely stood,” he says.

Since then, just over three years have passed Maripol is taken from Russian forces After a brutal siege and indiscriminate bombing, the key moment in the first months of the full-scale invasion of Russia in Ukraine.

Thousands were killed and UN is evaluated 90% of residential buildings have been damaged or destroyed.

In recent months, videos and reels of several pro -Russian influencing paintings have been painting a shiny city in which damaged structures have been repaired and where life has returned to normal.

But the BBC talk to more than half a dozen people – some still live in Maripol, others who escaped after spending time under occupation – to gather a real picture of what life in the city is like.

“There are many lies that are worn around,” says 66-year-old Olha Onishko, who fled Maripol at the end of last year and now lives in Ternopil of Ukraine.

“We had a beautiful city, but now it is sick. I would not say that they (the Russian authorities) have corrected many things. There is a central square – only the buildings there are reconstructed. And there are empty spaces where the buildings stood. They cleared the debris, but they were not loaded, and they were the dead.

Mariupol also faces a strong shortage of water.

“The water flows for a day or two, then it does not come for three days. We keep buckets and boxes of water at home. The color of the water is so yellow that even after boiling, it is scary to drink it,” says James, another resident of Maripol whose name has changed.

Some even said the water looked like “Coca Cola”.

Sergi Orlov, who is called the deputy mayor of Maripol in exile, says that the channel of the Siver Donets – Donbass, who supplies water to the city, was damaged during the fighting.

“Only one tank was left to supply water to Maripol. For the current population, which would last about a year and a half. As the occupation lasted longer than, it means that there is no drinking water at all.

There are frequent power outages, food is expensive, and medicines are scarce, residents tell us.

“The main medicines are not available. Diabetics are struggling to get insulin on time and is crazy,” James says.

The BBC has contacted the Russian administration of Mariupol to respond to the allegations of shortage and whether they have found an alternative source of water. We have no answer so far.

Despite the difficulties, the most difficult part of life in the city, the residents say, is to watch what they learn from Ukrainian children at school.

Andrii Kozhushyna studied at the University of Mariupol for a year after he was occupied. He has now fled to DNIPRO.

“They teach children false information and propaganda. For example, school textbooks say that Donetsk, Luhansk, Kharkov, Proceedings, Herson, Odessa, Crimea and even Denpropetrovsk regions are already part of Russia,” Andri says.

He also described special lessons called “conversations about important things” in which students are taught about how Russia releases the Russian -speaking population of these regions of the Nazis in 2022.

“Teachers who refuse to take these lessons are intimidated or fired. They seem to reprogram the minds of our children,” says John, a resident of Maripol.

During the Second World War, the festivities for Victory Day in May images from the central square of Maripol showed children and adults dressed in military suits involved in parades and performances-traditions of the Soviet era, which Ukraine was increasingly diverted in occupied territories. Maripol was bathed in the colors of the Russian flag – red, blue and white.

But some Ukrainians have a secret resistance to Russia, and in the dead of the night they spray the paint of Ukrainian blue and yellow colors on walls, as well as placed leaflets with messages such as “Liperate Mariupol” and “Mariupol is Ukraine”.

James and John are both members of resistance groups, as Andrius was when he lived in the city.

“The messages are intended as moral support for our people to inform them that the resistance is alive,” James says.

Their main goal is to collect intelligence for the Ukrainian military.

“I document information about Russian military movements. I analyze where they are transporting a weapon, how many soldiers are leaving and leaving the city and what equipment is being repaired in our industrial areas. I take pictures secret and hold them hidden until I can hand them over to Ukrainian intelligence on secure channels,” James says.

Sometimes resistance groups also try to sabotage civil or military operations. At least twice the railway line in Maripol was interrupted as the signal box was set on fire by activists.

This is a risky job. Andrius said he was forced to leave when he found out he had been exposed.

“Maybe a neighbor shortened me. But once I was in a shop that bought bread, I saw a soldier showing my picture at the cashier, asking if they knew who the man was,” he said.

He left immediately by slipping past Maripol's checks and then traveling through many cities in Russia and through Belarus before entering Ukraine from the north.

For those who are still in the city, every day is a challenge.

“You delete your messages every day because your phone can be checked at checkpoints. You're afraid to call your friends in Ukraine if your phone is eavesdropped,” James says.

“A neighbor from a neighboring house was arrested immediately from the street because someone reported that he had supposedly conveyed information to the Ukrainian military. Your life is like a movie – constant tension, fear, distrust,” he adds.

As the conversations continue between Ukraine and Russia, there are suggestions from the inside and outside Ukraine that it will have to give way to a peaceful deal in exchange for a peaceful deal.

“Diving in territory for a” deal with Russia “will be a betrayal. Dozens risk their lives every day to convey information to Ukraine, not so that a diplomat in a suit will sign the paper that will pass on us, “says John.

“We don't want” peace at any price. “We want Liberation.”

Additional reporting from imogen anderson, anastasiia levchenko, volodymyr lozhko and sanjay gangly