Mariupol, a strategic port city in southeastern Ukraine, was under siege for the first harrowing months of Russia’s full-scale invasion. For almost three months before the city fell to Russian forces last May, Mariupol became a battleground with Ukrainian civilians caught in the crossfire.

On assignment for the Associated Press, Ukrainian filmmaker and conflict journalist Mstyslav Chernov,  who previously covered conflicts in Syria and Iraq, traveled to Mariupol with AP colleagues hours before the war began. Chernov, photographer Evgeniy Maloletka and field producer Vasilisa Stepanenko continued to document the atrocities as the siege continued until they were the last international journalists remaining in the city as Russian forces closed in. They captured what would become some of the most defining images of the war.

The FRONTLINE and Associated Press documentary 20 Days in Mariupol, directed, written and produced by Chernov, draws on that footage. The film, which offers a visceral, first-person account of what Mariupol endured during the first weeks of the Russian siege, was edited and produced by Michelle Mizner and also produced by FRONTLINE’s editor-in-chief and executive producer Raney Aronson-Rath and AP’s vice president of news and head of global news production Derl McCrudden. Before the war, Mariupol had a population of about 430,000 but hundreds of thousands fled the fighting. Ukrainian officials said 25,000 people died during the siege, but according to AP, the death toll could be three times as high.

Chernov spoke with FRONTLINE about how the city of Mariupol has changed since the Russian takeover, updates on some of the people who appeared in the documentary, and what happened to Mariupol’s civilians and children after the siege.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Reports have said that 90% of Mariupol’s residential buildings were either damaged or destroyed by Russian shelling during the siege. Can you describe what the destruction looked like when you left the city? Do you know what it’s like now? Has there been rebuilding?

I have to say that it is not something new when Russian bombs are destroying a city. Russian companies are getting contracts to reconstruct some of these buildings. You see the bitter irony in this when Russian bombs are destroying the city and then Russian companies are profiting out of that destruction.

Mariupol, for years, was thriving as a city — culturally and industrially — and it was just beautiful. And now we see it is lying in ruins. Thousands and thousands of people have lost their homes and just have no way of coming back. Russia added several newly constructed buildings, but they were obviously not enough to fulfill the needs of those people who lost their houses and are mostly given to Russian citizens or people who collaborate with Russia. A big part of the city is still destroyed and many people will not be able to come back.

Speaking about people who lost their homes, what have you heard from your sources about how the city has changed since the Russian takeover? How has the city changed from their point of view?

Most of the people we met, most of the people who you see in the film have been able to leave Mariupol. And all the people who for various reasons remained in Mariupol and openly support Ukraine, they are in grave danger. They are constantly being questioned and detained. Two days ago, I was contacted by one of the Mariupol residents we frequently spoke with before, and he told me that those people who have Ukrainian passports, who refused to give [up] their identity and change it for a Russian passport, are being discriminated against. They are not provided basic support. So those people who have Ukrainian passports have lost their rights.

Listen: Documenting the Siege of Mariupol

And then the worst thing that is happening is those children who remained in Mariupol, they are being forced to study history that is interpreted by the Russian government. They are being told that Ukraine is a fascist country. They’re being robbed of their Ukrainian identity and they’re being “reeducated.” That’s how it’s called. And that’s quite an open process that the Russian government actually speaks about. And those children who lost their parents, they are being taken to Russia, forcefully adopted, and many of them resist that.

You mentioned you were able to keep in touch with the people you met during the siege. Do you know where these people are and what they’re doing now? 

We actually found almost everyone who you see in 20 Days in Mariupol, and most of them have left Mariupol. They lost their homes and relatives, but they were able to leave. So, for example, the doctors who you see in the film, after the hospital was shot by a tank and patients died, left the city and reestablished [Mariupol’s] Hospital No. 2 in Kyiv, which is now fully operational.

The policeman who risked his family to save us from the siege, Officer Vladimir, was recently injured by a double-tap of a Russian rocket in the city of Pokrovsk. And he’s now going through a recovery process because he had multiple shrapnel injuries, including pierced lungs.

The team of special forces that extracted us from a surrounding hospital, some of them, unfortunately, [were] killed during the siege afterwards. Some of them were captured in Azovstal, and then held as prisoners of war in Russia. Then, they were exchanged and they’re back [on] the front lines there. They’re back to fighting. They are dreaming [of liberating] Mariupol.

Read more: War Crimes Watch: Russia’s Onslaught on Ukrainian Hospitals

And the families who lost their children, families who lost their loved ones are scattered all across the world. And I’m happy to know that some of them were found by people who watched the film, [who] were able to find these families and support them.

That’s such a great testament to the power of 20 Days in Mariupol to actually have an impact on other people’s lives.

It has a very strong impact on the Mariupol community who are now in exile because as tragic as it is, they still carry their city in their heart. And a lot of them, for example, have moved to Zaporizhzhia or Dnipro, cities that are not very far from Mariupol. We had several screenings of the film there, and they were exclusively for Mariupol residents. They came and they shared their stories — stories which were very tragic and which were never recorded because we left after 20 days, but the siege lasted for 86 days.

Most of the destruction happened after we left so when we showed this film to Mariupol residents in exile, they saw that at least some of the tragedy was recorded. Although, of course, maybe it was just 1%, but some of it was recorded and they knew it’s not going to be forgotten now. The fact that hundreds of thousands of people will see the film when it’s broadcasted and published will ensure that people will remember this tragedy. And that is, I think, a huge psychological help to families that lost everything.

You mentioned a lot of the people who fled the city are scattered around the world. There have been reports that some Ukrainian civilians who fled the fight in Mariupol were sent to Russia. Would you know what happened to them? 

Yeah. During the active fighting, it was immensely difficult to cross the active front line. That is what we had to do and that’s what thousands of people did through the green (humanitarian) corridor. However, a lot of thousands of people were taken away, forcefully or voluntarily, because they just needed to get to safety. They were taken first to filtration camps. Maybe some of them who have relatives there or decided to stay there are okay, but a lot of people struggled because they couldn’t leave Russia after that. They got stuck. It’s very hard for them to make their way back to Ukraine or to Europe because they don’t have enough money. They don’t have documents to cross the border.

So that is a separate topic that needs to be addressed because thousands of Ukrainian citizens, including children, are stuck in a country where their rights might be violated. (Editor’s Note: Russia’s U.N. ambassador, Vassily Nebenzia, denied that Ukrainians were being forcibly sent to Russia. In a U.N. Security Council meeting in September 2022, he said that they were living “freely and voluntarily” in Russia and that no one was “preventing them leaving the country.”)

What do you hope American viewers take away from watching your documentary?

I think the most surprising thing they could take away from the film is a feeling of sadness and anger and just a will to act somehow on what you just saw. Because a lot of people in the U.S., when they saw the film they asked me, “What can we do to help? What can be done?”

The second is, surprisingly, people walk away with hope. It is not easy to watch, but there is a lot of hope in this film. In every moment, when you see people suffering and losing their loved ones, they’re never alone. They are always supported by strangers, neighbors, doctors, firefighters, journalists. And this creates a feeling of unity, of the community. And I think this is an amazing lesson for all humans to see this resilience, to see how it could be when people unite in the face of danger and destruction. It just shows how Ukrainian society was able to actually resist and to be so resilient in the face of the enemy, which was much bigger than them. I think the hope is what I want the audience to walk out with when they watch this film.

In your interview with FRONTLINE Dispatch, you shared the sentiment that even if Mariupol is a new city in 100 years, we will always have this film as a reminder of what happened during the Russian invasion. You’ve also mentioned all the changes that Mariupol has undergone in just a year and a half. What aspect of the city do you hope people will remember?

The city is not only the buildings. The city is the people. I see in every Mariupol citizen who lost the city: They want to come back. It’s the city that people carried away with them. It’s the city that people will bring back and will rebuild. That is important. This tragedy has united people from Mariupol, and it’s united Ukrainians. Again, this is an extraordinary achievement of a very sad event, this unity.

I briefly went to Italy for a media conference, and it was the first time I left Ukraine after the Mariupol siege. We already started editing 20 Days in Mariupol so I constantly saw these images of destruction and suffering on my laptop. I was driving with my friend through Rome and it was beautiful and colorful, and people were happy. There were so many tourists and there were so many beautiful buildings, and I kept looking at them from the window of a car. And I said to my friend, “Look, I feel very bad because I look at this beauty and I keep thinking about Mariupol, which was destroyed completely.” And he said, “Oh, Mstyslav. You know how many times Rome was occupied and burned down to the ground? And look at it now.” So Mariupol will also be revived and will be thriving again.

Watch the full documentary 20 Days in Mariupol:

 

 

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