Halina Artemova taught English in Mariupol for nearly 40 years in a flat on Metallurgov Street. She told Deutsche Welle that she knew "every crack in the asphalt and every tree" before a Russian missile struck her building in March 2022. In an adjacent building, photographer Yevhen Sosnovskiy had lived with his wife for 20 years and had renovated the flat themselves; it too caught fire after a missile impact.
The Russian real estate developer Su-2007 has demolished multiple damaged buildings on Metallurgov Street and constructed tall residential towers in their place as part of the Leningradskyy Kvartal residential project. Where Sosnovskiy's home once stood there is now a car park; where Artemova lived, a new building has been erected. DW cannot access Russian-occupied Ukrainian territory to report directly from Mariupol, but examined life in the city today through conversations with former residents, satellite imagery and online research.
Residents who have moved into the new apartments discuss their purchases in neighborhood forums, indicating most bought flats for personal use or to rent out. According to economic analyst Vyacheslav Sheriaiev, the new apartments are purchased mainly by Russian security force personnel, officials and military logistics staff. In Russian-occupied areas, subsidized mortgages are offered at 2 percent annual interest to Russian citizens, with a maximum loan of six million rubles (roughly €63,000) and a required down payment of at least 10 percent.
Mariupol ranks first among Russian-occupied Ukrainian territories for the volume of mortgage loans issued, according to Russian banks. Real estate prices have risen by roughly one-third in a year, primarily because of the city's seaside location. The Leningradskyy Kvartal complex, located ten minutes' drive from the sea, consists of 15 buildings with 12 to 15 floors each. One- or two-room apartments range from 7.5 million to nearly 10 million rubles (€79,000 to €105,000), while three-room apartments start at 10 million rubles; per-square-meter prices range from 120,000 to 217,000 rubles (€1,260 to €2,280). New residents receive discounts of up to 12 percent.
According to the United Nations, 90 percent of buildings in Mariupol were damaged or destroyed during 2022 fighting. Media reports estimate tens of thousands of deaths. Former residents on Metallurgov Street described to DW neighbors who were killed or wounded, including an elderly bedridden man who died in a fire and another man who jumped from the sixth floor. Halina Artemova said a man and his son from a neighboring building died retrieving water, and a woman in building 89 was killed when crushed by concrete.
DW learned that occupation authorities ordered many residents whose buildings were damaged but not destroyed to vacate their flats, promising new apartments in exchange. In 2025, former residents of building 91 addressed Russian President Vladimir Putin in a video, filmed in front of the Leningradskyy Kvartal complex under construction, saying they had not been given flats there as promised but only offered spare units formerly occupied by refugees unable to return to occupied Mariupol. Other former residents from buildings 77, 79, 81, 85, 87, 89 and 91 posted a similar video complaining they had rented flats for three years despite promises of compensation and saying that bombing victims unable to afford mortgage payments felt "abandoned and worthless."
According to a source who spoke to DW on condition of anonymity, occupation authorities told residents after their appeals that "such statements are inappropriate." DW's source said none of the former residents of Metallurgov Street buildings had received flats in the new Leningradskyy Kvartal complex.
