As of: January 30, 2024, 4:12 p.m
By: Christoph Elzer
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Russia correspondent Armin Coerper reports for ZDF from occupied Mariupol © ZDF
A ZDF report aims to show what life is like in Mariupol under Russian occupation.
But unfortunately you are acting very naively.
Mariupol - "I see a lot of destruction here" - with these words a ZDF report begins, with which the station wanted to report neutrally from the Ukrainian city occupied by Russia.
But that was a complete failure - because Russian propaganda and Russian narratives found their way onto German public television.
The criticism began before ZDF correspondent Armin Coerper even arrived in occupied Mariupol.
Entry into the occupied region is only possible from the Russian side, i.e. with the approval of the Russian government.
This is neither legally nor logistically possible from the Ukrainian side - because this would require penetrating the front line of Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine, which violates international law.
Therefore, there was a lot of criticism on X (formerly Twitter) just for the entry into Mariupol allowed by Moscow.
Coerper, on the other hand, argues that in a war he thinks it is important to report from both sides.
The correspondent explains that despite this dependence on Moscow, he and his team were able to move freely around the city, were not under surveillance and were able to speak freely with the remaining residents of the heavily destroyed city.
However, he himself admits that the residents who actually spoke to him are probably more pro-Russian, since pro-Ukrainian statements would most likely be punished with reprisals.
ZDF correspondent about Mariupol: “Russia is pumping a lot of money into this”
Around 90 percent of all buildings in the city were damaged or destroyed during the war, but Mariupol is not a ghost town today, says Coerper.
“The city works, there is electricity, there is heating, there is hot running water, there is internet, Wi-Fi, it's all there.
People live their lives here, shops are open, restaurants and so on.
[…] Russia is pumping a lot of money into this.”
Then follows a passage from the article that caused a storm of indignation on the Internet.
Coerper says that he spoke to actors from the Mariupol Theater.
This is the theater in which around 600 Ukrainian women and children sought refuge at the beginning of the war and died there when the building was deliberately bombed and completely destroyed by Russian forces on March 16, 2022.
View of the interior of the Mariupol Theater destroyed by Russia.
© Alexei Alexandrov/AP/dpa
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The people Coerper spoke to claimed that they were not allowed to perform Russian-language plays before the war and were happy to be able to do so again.
“Of course, these are also reasons for people to stay here.
If they can continue to speak their language and work in their language.” But at this point Coerper is apparently repeating classic Russian war rhetoric, as was quickly pointed out to him on X.
Internet exposes statements as Russian propaganda lies
Since internet and WiFi existed before the city was destroyed by Russia, the theater's schedules can be easily viewed online.
And it is very clear from this that even immediately before the start of the war in Mariupol, numerous plays were performed in Russian - after all, this is the native language of most of the residents, as Coerper correctly notes in his article.
But it's not just this obviously misrepresentation of the situation surrounding the theater that is problematic.
The entire framing of the report is highly questionable: “Mariupol is not a place for simple and clear answers,” says Armin Coerper right at the beginning of his article.
He “couldn’t find or convey a complete picture.”
In fact, that would be very simple: Russia annexed this area of Ukraine against all international law and wanted to conquer the entire country.
When this failed, unprecedented destruction began, centered on Mariupol's Azov Steel Plant.
Everything that is then positively mentioned in Coerper's contribution would not have been necessary at all if the Russian war had not destroyed the city.
Coerper reports that it is “very noticeable how much is being rebuilt: new schools are being built, we were shown a state-of-the-art hospital.”
“Roads, schools, apartment blocks are being rebuilt, it’s happening very quickly.” “The theater is being rebuilt.”
All of these buildings should actually still be standing - to present this as a positive development is extremely naive and does not do justice to the situation under international law.