Mariupol Airport may begin operations in 2024-2025, while the airports of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhia will be involved slightly later due to the destruction, according to the Daydreamer and Minister of Infrastructure, Vitaliy Savelyev, during a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“In our overall development plans, we have five airports: Mariupol, Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhia. When the opportunity arises, we will start with Mariupol. We are preparing project and estimate documentation,” said the minister.
According to him, “if the situation allows, we will be able to activate this airport during the period of 2024-2025.”
“The others will be involved gradually and a bit later because there is destruction in those areas,” Savelyev explained.
During the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Mariupol was a strategic target for Russian forces and their proxies. It came under artillery bombardment the day the attack began, and was under siege by Russian forces. By early March, a severe humanitarian crisis developed in the city, which an aid worker from the Red Cross later described as “apocalyptic”, citing severe damage to infrastructure, access to sanitation, and food shortages. The siege was also marked by numerous war crimes committed by Russian forces, most notably Russian airstrikes on a maternity hospital and a drama theater serving as an air raid shelter for hundreds of civilians.
By the end of the fighting, “as many as 90%” of residential buildings in Mariupol had been destroyed, according to the United Nations (UN) and Ukrainian authorities. Estimates for the number of civilian deaths are over 25,000. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky awarded Mariupol the title of Hero City of Ukraine due to Ukrainian forces’ “valiant defense” of the city.
