MARIUPOL 2022: DESTRUCTION OF URBAN SPACE AS A FACTOR OF HISTORICAL MEMORY

Abstract

The article examines the destruction of Mariupol’s urban space in 2022 through the lens of historical memory of the Russo-Ukrainian war. It argues that largescale damage to residential areas, public infrastructure, cultural sites, and industrial facilities was not merely a by-product of fighting but also a driver of profound changes in urban identity and collective experience. Drawing on reports by international organizations, Ukrainian institutions, media coverage, visual evidence (photo and video), and eyewitness narratives, the study identifies key sites of destruction and explains how they have shaped public perceptions of the city’s past, present, and imagined future. The paper conceptualizes the ruined urban environment as a material and symbolic carrier of trauma that has become one of the war’s central images in both Ukrainian and international discourse. Special attention is given to the fact that memorialization began while hostilities were still ongoing: digital archives, interactive maps, and public initiatives started to codify the destruction as «evidence» and as memory at the same time. This creates a specific challenge for historians, who work with sources of ‘hot’ memory–highly informative yet emotionally saturated–requiring careful triangulation and contextual reading. Furthermore, the study analyzes «nodal» memory sites, such as the Mariupol Drama Theater and medical facilities, which have become markers of the humanitarian catastrophe and civilian suffering . The article investigates how digital practices of archiving destruction serve as a mechanism for including these losses into the collective memory, preventing the marginalization of individual experiences. Finally, the research addresses the narratives of return and reconstruction, framing the ruins as a future field of «memory wars» where different interpretations of the city’s tragic loss and its future identity will eventually collide.