Many residents of Russian-occupied Mariupol were never paid their pensions, and life in the city after the arrival of Russian military personnel is “worse than hell.” This was told to The Guardian by residents of Mariupol who managed to leave the city.

Local resident Tatyana, who left Mariupol in April, said her mother and sister remained in the city. The Russian-installed authorities promised to pay the money, but very few received it. According to her, pro-Russian officials ordered that only those residents of Mariupol who changed their Ukrainian passports to Russian ones could receive pensions.

In addition, according to the sources of the publication, people are largely cut off from the outside world, as the city still has limited access to mobile communications and the Internet. A month after the end of the siege of Azovstal, the townspeople continue to live without access to basic amenities. The publication cites the words of 55-year-old locksmith Vladimir Korchma, who lived all his life in Mariupol before the Russian invasion: “It was worse there than in hell. There are no words to describe it. We didn't have gas or electricity. Only the lucky ones had water,” the man said. He left the city at the end of May.

A girl named Ekaterina, who in early May managed to get out of Mariupol to the border Rostov-on-Don, spoke about the screens with Russian propaganda. “They put these screens around all the main squares ... When my mother and I stood in line for food and water, we were forced to listen to stories about how we were liberated from the Nazis,” she said.

At the same time, on June 7, the Telegram channel of the city administration reported that the authorities of the so-called DPR began to pay pensions to the residents of Mariupol. “The Pension Fund of the Donetsk People's Republic in the city of Mariupol has begun paying the first cash benefits. Today and in the coming days, the funds will be received by those citizens who were among the first to apply for the renewal of pension payments, ”the message stated. The pro-Russian mayor's office claimed that residents of Mariupol filed "46,608 applications for the appointment and renewal of pension payments."

Earlier, Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Marat Khusnullin spoke about the introduction of the ruble in the territories occupied by the Russian military: according to him, in May, the residents of Zaporozhye will begin to pay salaries and pensions in rubles. On May 23, it was reported that in the Kherson region occupied by Russian troops, from May 23, non-cash payments will be only in rubles. On June 11, the first Russian passports were issued in Zaporozhye and Kherson regions occupied by Russia.