The building in the distance is surrounded by a cloud of smoke.
A sinister omen.
Doctors observe the shaking city from the window of the Mariupol hospital.
Tanks have been seen, marked with a “Z” which alone arouses fear.
The soldiers near them try to keep calm while speaking into their walkie-talkies.
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This film, broadcast on the occasion of the two years of the Ukrainian conflict - a sinister anniversary -, shows what we rarely see: the beginnings of a war.
The shock, the broken windows, the first victims.
Mstyslav Chernov and photographer Evgeniy Maloletka, from the American agency AP, were the last international journalists remaining during the invasion in the port city, strategic in the eyes of the Russians for its access to the Sea of Azov.
An archive replays Putin's speech announcing the operation:
“We will not impose anything by force.
»
Words from a former KGB spy.
Looting scenes
Mstyslav Chernov, in the street, hands the microphone to panicked residents.
“Where should I go?”
Where should I hide?
»
cries a woman wrapped in a thick down jacket, before making the Orthodox sign of the cross.
Another:
“What crimes have we committed to deserve such treatment?
»
This question, which expresses the feeling of absurdity shared by the population, returns like a litany in this disturbing film.
Bombs then begin to rain on Mariupol.
Part of the population, those who can, try to leave the city.
At the end of the offensive, 300,000 of the 400,000 inhabitants fled.
In the middle of a deserted avenue, a sixty-year-old pulls all his gear behind him.
This not very verbose character blurts out in a tone of observation:
“They shoot, and I walk.
»
Deprived of communications, Ukrainians are gripped by anxiety.
They don't know how their loved ones are doing, nor really why the sky is falling on their heads.
The pro-Russians in this region of Crimea accuse kyiv of being at the origin of their misfortune.
Scenes of looting are multiplying.
The voice-over, deliberately serious, reminds us that war reveals the personality of those who wage it and endure it.
Challenging images
Margaux Benn, senior reporter at Le
Figaro
, went to Mariupol in April 2022, shortly after the last images of this film.
The city had fallen under Russian control.
“We cross the city with a lump in our stomachs at such devastation, incredulous in the face of such a field of ruins
,” she wrote at the time.
Mariupol looks like an immense wasteland where rubbish and crushed relics of previous life accumulate.
»
The destruction, on March 16, 2022, of a city theater in which dozens of families had taken refuge was remembered.
Some of Mstyslav Chernov's images were already seen around the world on Western channels at the time.
On Russian channels too, who loudly assured that it was fake news.
There are some terrible ones, filmed within the hospital grounds.
Parents who arrive with their injured infant in their arms - he will not survive.
Or this father bent over the body of his son, mown down during a football game by a shell.
Chernov films operating rooms becoming increasingly noisy as supplies of painkillers dwindle.
Also read “War in Ukraine: defeatism prohibited in the face of Putin”
These shots are intended to make an impression.
As more personal sequences show, the journalist himself seems disconcerted by this war which continues in the east of the country.
The billions of euros in additional European aid to Ukraine will hopefully ensure that we do not have to watch another
20 days in Mariupol
.