Police in the UK have charged three Iranian nationals with national security offenses following a counter-terror investigation.

The three men, arrested on Saturday, 3 May, have been charged with “engaging in conduct likely to assist a foreign intelligence service,” namely Iran, between 14 August 2024 and 16 February 2025, London’s Metropolitan Police said in a statement Saturday.

The men, aged between 39 and 55, have been named by police as Mostafa Sepahvand, Farhad Javadi Manesh, and Shapoor Qalehali Khani Noori.

They have been charged with engaging in surveillance and reconnaissance, with one man charged with the intention of committing “serious violence against a person in the United Kingdom,” the statement outlined.

The UK’s Crown Prosecution Service charged the men on Friday, and they are due to appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Saturday. The investigation is being led by the British counter terrorism police.

Commander Dominic Murphy, from the Met’s Counter Terrorism Command, said: “These are extremely serious charges under the National Security Act, which have come about following what has been a very complex and fast-moving investigation.”

A fourth man, aged 31, who was arrested on Friday, May 9, has been released without charge.

A Russian drone attack on a bus in northeastern Ukraine killed at least nine people and injured seven others, Ukrainian officials said Saturday, just hours after the two countries met for the first direct peace talks in three years.

While the two sides discussed a possible meeting between the two countries’ leaders, a ceasefire and agreed a prisoner swap, there was no major breakthrough and since then Russia’s aerial assault continued.

The drone attack took place Saturday morning in the city of Bilopillia in the Sumy region, local authorities said, with Oleh Hrihorov – head of Sumy’s military administration – saying that seven people were injured, three of whom were in critical condition.

“This is not just another shelling – it is a cynical war crime,” Ukraine’s National Police also said on Telegram. Police and local authorities said Russia had struck a civilian target.

Moscow has not yet responded to Ukraine’s claims it struck a civilian bus.

However, Russia’s state news agency TASS reported around the same time, citing a statement from the defense ministry, that Russian forces did strike a Ukrainian equipment staging site in the Sumy region with drones.

Russia and Ukraine have both accused each other of targeting civilians, which each denies.

An image shared by Ukraine’s national police showed a heavily damaged van bearing massive holes in the right and top side of the passenger seats. Its windows, as well as the windshield, were shattered.

Overall in Ukraine, Russian attacks killed at least 13 people and injured over 38 in the past 24 hours, which includes the attack in Sumy, Ukrainian authorities say. Two were killed in Donetsk region, and one person was killed in both Kharkiv and Kherson regions.

Friday’s talks marked the first face-to-face meeting between the two sides since the early weeks of the war.

But the meeting – which took place in Istanbul chaired by Turkey – was not attended by Russian President Vladimir Putin, who had first proposed the talks but instead sent a junior delegation. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky also stayed away, having said he would not meet any other Russian official but Putin.

On Saturday, the Kremlin said that a meeting between Zelensky and Putin could happen, but only if certain conditions are met.

“Such a meeting is possible as a result of the work of the delegations of both sides in reaching certain agreements,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said.

Peskov also spoke about preparing a list of “conditions” for a ceasefire agreement, that would then be exchanged with the Ukrainian side. Kyiv and its allies have repeatedly called for an unconditional truce and accuse Russia of deliberately holding up peace efforts.

An American basketball player for the Indonesian league was arrested for allegedly attempting to smuggle illegal drugs to the country, police said Thursday.

The Southeast Asian country has extremely strict drug laws, and convicted smugglers are sometimes executed by firing squad.

Jarred Dwayne Shaw, 34, from Dallas, Texas, was arrested May 7, after police raided his apartment in Tangerang regency, just outside the capital, Jakarta, and seized 132 pieces of cannabis candies, said Ronald Sipayung, the Soekarno-Hatta Airport police chief.

The arrest followed a tip from the airport’s customs that reported Shaw had received a suspicious airway package from Thailand, Sipayung said. Cannabis has been decriminalized in Thailand since November 2024. Under Indonesia’s anti-drug laws, Shaw faces up to life sentence or death penalty if found guilty, Sipayung said.

A video circulating on social media purportedly showed Shaw, wearing a black T-shirt and shorts, resisting as he’s being pushed away by police and shouting “Help … help!” when he was about to be arrested.

Shaw has played for several clubs in the Indonesian Basketball League since 2022, and signed a contract with Tangerang Hawk last year. He told police during interrogation that he wanted to share the cannabis candy with fellow basketball players, according to Sipayung.

He said the candy contained a total gross weight of 869 grams (30.6 ounces) of illegal cannabinoid inside a package.

“We are still running the investigation to uncover the international drugs network behind this case and to stop its distribution,” Sipayung said.

Shaw did not make any statement when he was presented by the authorities at a news conference Wednesday wearing a detainee orange T-shirt and a mask with his hands tied.

Tangerang Hawks’ manager, Tikky Suwantikno, told reporters on Thursday that they regretted what had been done by Shaw and the club had immediately fired him as he has breached the contract.

The Indonesian Basketball League banned Shaw from playing for life, said its chair, Budisatrio Djiwandono.

“We don’t tolerate players, administrators or anyone in the field involved in drugs. There is no room for drug users in the basketball world,” Djiwandono said.

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime says Indonesia is a major drug-smuggling hub despite having some of the strictest drug laws in the world, in part because international drug syndicates target its young population.

About 530 people are on death row in Indonesia, mostly for drug-related crimes, including 96 foreigners, the Ministry of Immigration and Corrections’ data showed. Indonesia’s last executions, of an Indonesian and three foreigners, were carried out in July 2016.

Police in Thailand have arrested a man on suspicion of wildlife trafficking after he was found with two baby orangutans in a basket at a gas station in the Thai capital.

The 47-year-old suspect was apprehended Wednesday as he was about to deliver the two primates to a customer, Thai police said in a statement on Thursday.

Officers discovered the orangutans – one about 1-year-old and the other 1 month-old – in plastic baskets, police said.

Images released by authorities showed one of the orangutans in a plastic basket, wearing a diaper and hugging a soft toy alongside feeding bottles.

The man was arrested on charges of “illegally possessing protected wildlife” under Thai law and could face up to four years in prison, police said.

The man had admitted he was delivering the animals, “but he didn’t say where he got the babies from,” Kasidach said.

Police said they had uncovered an illegal wildlife trade network and were working to find out whether the orangutans had been bred in Thailand or abroad, he added.

The operation was carried out in collaboration with the US Fish and Wildlife Service, the Wildlife Justice Commission in the Netherlands, and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, the police statement said.

The department said that Stefan, the 1-month-old, is in an incubator because of weak health and Christopher, the 1-year-old, has been relocated to a sanctuary run by the agency.

Authorities said the orangutans are believed to have been sold for around 300,000 Thai baht ($9,050).

Orangutans are native to Sumatra and Borneo, two Southeast Asian islands that are home to some of the world’s most diverse rainforests, and have come under threat as a result of deforestation, habitat destruction and poaching.

They are listed as “critically endangered” under the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, which assesses extinction risks.

The gentle apes, once found in greater numbers across Southeast Asia, have experienced sharp population declines, according to the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).

Thailand has long been a hub for the illegal wildlife trade.

Its border area with Myanmar, Laos, and China – known as the Golden Triangle – is a hotspot of cross-border trafficking, illegal wildlife trade and consumption, according to WWF.

It seems some parents in New Zealand just can’t get the message. Once again, King has topped the list of baby names rejected by the country’s Registrar General.

The royal title led the list of banned baby names for 14 years in a row until 2023 when it was replaced by Prince, which ranks second in the latest iteration.

Other regal references including Duke, Majesty and Emperor are also a no-go in the country, which polices birth names under its strict registration law.

New Zealand registered 60,000 births last year and rejected 38 proposed names, according to a letter from John Crawford-Smith, Principal Advisor of the Department of Internal Affairs, in response to a written inquiry.

Under the law, baby names must not be offensive, unreasonably long, or include numbers and symbols. They must also refrain from resembling official titles and ranks “without adequate justification,” according to the Births, Deaths, Marriages, and Relationships Registration Act 2021.

New Zealand is part of the British Commonwealth and a constitutional monarchy that calls Charles III its King. It’s not known if the 11 parents who applied to call their child King meant it as an ode to Charles, but all were asked to have a rethink, according to Crawford-Smith.

In 2024, more than 1,000 children in the United States were called King, according to the Social Security Administration. (Liam and Olivia were the top US names last year).

Most of New Zealand’s rejected names had royal links. Ten applications for Prince were rejected, followed by four for Princess. Names like Kingi, Kingz, Prinz, Prynce, and Royallty were also banned – potentially because department staff also consider how names sound when spoken when deciding if they’ll be approved.

Officials also consider community perceptions of the proposed name. That may be why other names, including Sativa and Indica, both strains of cannabis, were rejected.

Fanny, once a popular first name, was also declined.

Parents are given an opportunity to explain their rationale before the Registrar General makes a final decision. “We continue to urge parents to think carefully about names,” Crawford-Smith wrote in the letter. “Names are a gift,” he added.

New Zealand is not the only country that imposes laws to regulate newborns’ names.

In 2015, a French judge in the northern part of the country refused to let two parents name their child Nutella because of the risk of humiliation.

Sweden also has a naming law and has nixed attempts to name children “Superman,” “Metallica,” and “Brfxxccxxmnpcccclllmmnprxvclmnckssqlbb11116.”

In the United States, some naming fights have centered on adults.

In 2008, a judge allowed an Illinois school bus driver to legally change his first name to “In God” and his last name to “We Trust.”

But the same year, an appeals court in New Mexico ruled against a man – named Variable – who wanted to change his name to “F— Censorship!”

Indian police have killed 31 suspected Maoist rebels in what is being described as the “biggest ever operation” against the long-running insurgency.

Security forces spent 21 days attempting to capture the rebels along the border of the states of Chhattisgarh and Telangana in central India, Home Minister Amit Shah said Wednesday.

Describing the operation as a “historic breakthrough,” Shah said security forces carried out the “biggest ever operation” against the rebels, killing 31 of them in Karreguttalu Hill, considered a Maoist stronghold.

Indian authorities have been battling Maoist rebel groups, also known as Naxals, across several central and northern states since 1967. Inspired by Chinese revolutionary leader Mao Zedong, insurgents have over the decades launched attacks on government forces in an attempt to overthrow the state and, they say, usher in a classless society.

“Our security forces completed this biggest anti-Naxal operation in just 21 days and I am extremely happy that there was not a single casualty in the security forces in this operation,” Shah wrote on X, congratulating the soldiers for their “bravery and courage.”

“So far, a total of 214 Naxal hideouts and bunkers have been destroyed in this operation,” a statement from the Ministry of Home Affairs said, adding that hundreds of explosives were recovered during the search.

The insurgents are known as Naxalites in India after Naxalbari, a village in West Bengal state where they originated in the late 1960s.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi hailed the operation in a post on X.

“This success of the security forces shows that our campaign towards rooting out Naxalism is moving in the right direction. We are fully committed to establishing peace in the Naxal-affected areas and connecting them with the mainstream of development,” Modi said.

The Indian government has cracked down in areas where Maoist groups are active – an approach that, while appearing to reduce the threat level, has been criticized by some observers as heavy-handed and prone to abuse.

Incidents of violence by rebel groups fell from 1,936 in 2010 to 374 in 2024, according to data from the home ministry. The total number of civilian and security-forces deaths have also fallen by 85% during this period, the data shows.

At least 31 suspected Maoist rebels and two police officials were killed in February, in what was described by police as the deadliest combat this year so far.

In 2021, 22 Indian security force members were killed and 31 injured in 2021 during a four-hour gun battle with insurgents, officials said.

The most intense clashes for years rocked Tripoli for a second night and continued into Wednesday morning, witnesses in the Libyan capital said, after Monday’s killing of a major militia leader set off fighting between rival factions.

The United Nations Libya mission UNSMIL said it was “deeply alarmed by the escalating violence in densely populated neighborhoods of Tripoli” and urgently called for a ceasefire.

The latest unrest in Libya’s capital could consolidate the power of Abdulhamid al-Dbeibah, prime minister of the divided country’s Government of National Unity (GNU) and an ally of Turkey.

Libya has had little stability since a 2011 NATO-backed uprising ousted longtime autocrat Muammar Gaddafi and the country split in 2014 between rival eastern and western factions, though an outbreak of major warfare paused with a truce in 2020.

A major energy exporter, Libya is also an important way station for migrants heading to Europe and its conflict has drawn in foreign powers including Turkey, Russia, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates. Its main oil facilities are located in southern and eastern Libya, far from the current fighting in Triopli.

While eastern Libya has been dominated for a decade by commander Khalifa Haftar and his Libyan National Army (LNA), control in Tripoli and western Libya has been splintered among numerous armed factions.

Dbeibah on Tuesday ordered the dismantling of what he called irregular armed groups.

That announcement followed Monday’s killing of major militia chief Abdulghani Kikli, widely known as Ghaniwa, and the sudden defeat of his Stabilization Support Apparatus (SSA) group by factions aligned with Dbeibah.

The seizure of SSA territory in Libya by the Dbeibah-allied factions, the 444 and 111 Brigades, indicated a major concentration of power in the fragmented capital, leaving the Special Deterrence Force (Rada) as the last big faction not closely tied to the prime minister.

Mohammad Iqbal was working the nightshift at a power plant when he got a frantic call from his family saying artillery shells were exploding around their home.

But dawn brought no relief from the shelling that would continue for four days as India and Pakistan fought their most intense conflict in decades, raising fears of an all-out war.

Iqbal, 47, lives near the town Poonch in India-administered Kashmir, a stone’s throw from the de-facto border with Pakistan, an area of pine-clad foothills and flowery meadows, backdropped by towering, icy peaks.

But the idyll is illusory – Kashmir is one of the world’s most militarized regions and the trigger for multiple wars between India and Pakistan, who both claim the territory in full but control only in part.

Last week the nuclear-armed neighbors traded missiles, drones, and artillery shelling for four days following a massacre of tourists in Indian-administered Kashmir last month that New Delhi blamed on its neighbor, which Pakistan denies.

Two hours after the firing started last Wednesday, Iqbal got news his brother-in-law’s home had been hit.

The shell had exploded at a nearby water tank, obliterating windows and sending shards of glass flying, hitting his brother-in-law and niece.

What followed was a frantic scramble to get the wounded to the nearest hospital.

“As people started evacuating there were a few people in the village with cars so people just poured into whatever vehicle they could find,” Iqbal said.

“For a few hours it was difficult to locate everyone. People got split up. But finally at the hospital my family came together.”

There, he found his brother-in-law, who works as a policeman, critically wounded and medical staff struggling to treat the influx of casualties.

Iqbal’s brother-in-law survived. But two of his neighbors did not.

Pakistan said on Tuesday that 40 civilians had been killed and 121 wounded in Indian firing, and that 11 members of its armed forces had been killed. India has previously said 15 civilians were killed and 59 wounded and that it had lost five soldiers.

For the roughly 15 million people living in the contested region, the latest bout of hostilities has appeared to push a political solution for their home further away than ever.

But the immediate concern in both sides of Kashmir is how long the skies will stay quiet.

“Markets are open again and some people who had left have slowly started coming back,” he said.

“There still is that anxiety about what might happen when night comes,” he added.

On the other side of the Line of Control, in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, Saima Ashraf shared those feelings.

“Uncertainty still prevails,” she said. “Many believe it (the ceasefire) is not a permanent solution.”

Others are unclear about when they can return to their homes and villages.

“Many of them are waiting to see how the situation develops before making a decision about returning,” Akhtar Ayoub, a local administration official in Pakistan’s Neelum Valley, told Reuters.

Raja Shoukat Iqbal, who lives near the de facto border, described the ceasefire as “essential for the people of Kashmir” who he said were paying a high price on both sides of the divide.

“This peace was also necessary on the international level because both countries are nuclear powers, any mistakes or anger of any country could cause the deaths of two billion people,” he posited.

Flashpoint

Kashmir has been a flashpoint since 1947, when British India was hastily divided into two by its former colonial rulers.

What followed was the birth of two nations: Hindu-majority India and Muslim-majority Pakistan. Millions suddenly found themselves on the “wrong” side of the new border, leading to a frantic and bloody mass migration that tore communities asunder.

Kashmir, a Muslim-majority state led by a Hindu monarch, was in a unique position. Pakistan laid claim to the territory, while the prince chose India.

Both Pakistan and India, two nations gripped by fervent nationalism, believe that Muslim-majority Kashmir is an integral part of their countries.

For Pakistan – which was founded as a homeland for South Asia’s Muslims – Kashmir’s division is viewed as a grave historic injustice.

The country’s powerful military is run by the general Asim Munir, known for his hardline stance on India. Weeks before the latest conflict, he described Kashmir as Pakistan’s “jugular vein,” according to local media reports.

India has long accused Pakistan of funding terror groups in Kashmir, an accusation denied by Islamabad. Pakistan, meanwhile, seeks to position the cause of violence in the region as a result of New Delhi’s alleged “oppression.”

Hindu nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi has pushed a more uncompromising position on the contested land.

In 2019, his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government split the former state into two union territories, giving the government in New Delhi greater control over the Muslim-majority region.

‘Our family is together’

India and Pakistan have both claimed victory from their latest conflict.

New Delhi says its strikes inside Pakistani territory – the deepest since one of their wars in 1971 – have eradicated terror camps used to plot attacks on India – including the massacre of tourists last month that sparked the conflict.

Pakistan says its air force shot down five Indian warplanes, including advanced French-made Rafale fighter jets.

On Monday, in his first remarks since the fighting started, Modi said India had “only suspended our responsive attack on Pakistan’s terror and military hubs.”

“In the coming days we will measure Pakistan’s every step,” he said.

Those on both sides of the border have long been living under the threat of shelling and strikes.

“We sat in silence, extremely petrified,” he said. “Praying the next target would not be our family or our home.”

“Smiles plastered across our faces, and we hugged,” he said.

“We now want this ceasefire to stay. Both countries need to find long-term solutions.”

Iqbal, the power plant worker, said he was trying to remain optimistic despite the damage done.

“We are lucky,” he said. “We have only homes to re-build and our family is together. I hope things don’t resume. But there’s no guarantee.”

Kim Kardashian is set to testify Tuesday in the Paris trial of the burglars accused of tying up and robbing the billionaire reality TV star at gunpoint nearly nine years ago.

She is expected to detail her ordeal during the 2016 Paris Fashion Week burglary, where she was robbed of nearly $10 million in cash and jewellery, including a $4 million engagement ring that was never recovered.

It will be the first time Kardashian will face the alleged robbers in court.

The defendants – who consist of nine men and one woman whose ages range from their 30s to their 70s – are facing charges including armed robbery, kidnapping and conspiracy. Eight of them deny involvement, while two have admitted to lesser offenses.

Several are repeat offenders, with much of the beginning of the trial focused on their past criminal careers.

The trial opened on April 28 at a packed courthouse in the French capital.

The bodyguard, named only as Pascal D., said he found Kardashian “crying hysterically” on his arrival.

Dubbed the “Grandpa Robbers,” of the original 12 suspects, one has since died, and another defendant who has Alzheimer’s disease has been ruled unfit to stand trial. If convicted, some of the remaining defendants could face up to 30 years in prison.

The trial has been delayed for years partly because of major cases like those related to the 2015 Paris terrorist attacks.

The trial is scheduled to run through May 22, with a verdict expected on May 23.

Three years after it seized control of Mariupol following a brutal 86-day siege, Russia is using a more subtle power to keep its grip on the Ukrainian port city: social media influencers.

Though their follower counts and overall reach pale in comparison to celebrity influencers, experts say that the Kremlin needs local voices to effectively promote life under Russia’s rule.

“Just look what Russia is getting up to in Mariupol,” Pavel Karbovsky, a teacher at one of the blogger schools, said in a recent TikTok video highlighting the construction of new apartment buildings. “Wait, they’re building, not demolishing… this is Mariupol, our Russian town!”

But Russian-backed occupation officials have been actively encouraging creators like Karbovksy to post about the restoration of the “liberated” territories, including in official meetings.

In January, Karbovsky was among a group of content creators invited to meet with Denis Pushilin, the Russian-backed head of the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR). Pushilin said in a statement on Telegram that he was “counting” on the group to spread the word that the eastern Donbas region was “being revived.”

“We are all united by an immense desire to restore and revive Donbas. And people should know as much information as possible about the large-scale work that is already underway,” the post continued.

But absent from their videos is any context on the reason for rebuilding.

Russia’s siege of the port city, once known as a hub for trade and manufacturing, was one of the deadliest and most destructive battles since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine more than three years ago.

According to United Nations estimates, 90% of residential buildings were damaged or destroyed in Mariupol during Russian attacks, and around 350,000 people out of the pre-war population of about 430,000 were forced to flee. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a recent interview that 20,000 civilians are believed to have been killed, though the death toll is impossible to verify. Ukrainian officials accused Moscow of trying to cover up evidence of civilian casualties, a claim the Kremlin denies.

For Moscow, maintaining control of Mariupol remains a strategic priority and a focus of significant investment. “We are paying a lot of attention to Mariupol,” Russian President Vladimir Putin said during his annual press conference in December. In March 2023, he staged a highly choreographed trip to the city, discussing “restoration” efforts with local officials. In a video that circulated online of him meeting residents, a voice off-camera could be heard shouting: “It’s all lies, it’s just for show.”

Training new voices

In September, an organization called the Donbass Media Centre (DMC) opened its “blogger school” in Mariupol. It offers free two-week courses designed to give aspiring influencers a technical grounding in skills like filming and editing, as well as an understanding of how to gain popularity and make money online.

Similar courses had already been held in Donetsk and Luhansk, and another followed in Melitopol, in the Russian-occupied part of Zaporizhzhia. Karbovsky was one of the teachers.

The DMC was set up by Donbass Media, a pro-Russian news channel mostly operating on social media. In 2024, the DMC won a Runet Prize, a national award of the Russian Federation and Presidential Foundation for Cultural Initiatives that celebrates excellence on the Russian internet. It also has a partnership with “Top Blog,” a competition for content creators run by a Kremlin program called “Russia – Land of Opportunities.” Last year, the most successful DMC students won a trip to Moscow to visit the headquarters of Vkontakte, Russia’s version of Facebook.

Vkontakte is among several Russian social media networks owned by state-run Gazprom-Media. The Kremlin has clamped down its control of social media in recent years, through ownership, internet slowdowns, and, more recently, legislation requiring influencers with over 10,000 followers to register their personal details with Russia’s media regulator, Roskomnadzor.

Karbovsky said the DMC’s aims are not political. “DMC does not have any such goal to create some sort of propagandists – no way. We don’t need this,” he said. “We want people to be able to share their different views about what is happening in the DPR (Donetsk People’s Republic) and the LPR (Luhansk People’s Republic) and other regions.”

The same month the DMC opened its “blogger school” in Mariupol, graduates of a Russian government program called “The New Media Workshop” opened a media center in Mariupol to teach schoolchildren 14- to 17-years-old photography, filming and how “to work in the social networks.” The free program is funded in part by a Russian presidential grant worth around $12,000. Participants are encouraged to show the positive side of Mariupol.

“We look forward to welcoming talented kids, so together we can talk about the life of our beloved city,” reads an October Telegram post from the media center. In another, a participant in the course interviews children about how Mariupol has changed. “It’s become much more interesting, more colorful,” says one young girl. “It’s developing quickly,” her friend adds.

In March, Rutube – an alternative to YouTube owned by Russia’s Gazprom-Media – announced it was setting up “studios” in cities and towns across the four annexed regions, including in Mariupol, where content creators could access high-tech equipment and training programs. The initiative is part of a joint project with the Russian Military Historical Society, which Putin created by presidential decree in 2012 to “counter attempts to distort” Russia’s military history.

“The world now really needs the truth about the lives of the new Russian citizens who have gone through a lot… but chose to speak Russian, think and dream in Russian,” one of the organizers said in a press release.

Subtle messaging

One of her most popular recent videos, with over 177,000 views, is a montage of both damaged and rebuilt buildings in the city set to a voice-over that states: “Mariupol – the seaside capital of Southern Russia.”

“Look how beautiful,” another content creator, known as “Masha from Mariupol,” says in a TikTok video showing off newly built apartment blocks at sunset. “These apartments are filled with happy people… a wonderful region for family life.”

In other clips, she poses in front of a war memorial, gives a tour of the reopened railway station and shows off construction at the Drama Theater, where hundreds of civilians were killed in a Russian airstrike.

“They are approachable,” he added.

“You cannot use automatically the voices which are familiar for the Russians who live in central Russia or Siberia or Moscow, you need to find local voices who understand how to talk to people who live in these territories,” he said.

A ‘Potemkin’ village

Shiny rooftops of restored, or in some cases newly built, apartment blocks are visible dotted in and around the city center, having mostly replaced buildings destroyed in the war, satellite images from late 2024 show.

But in other areas the scars of the conflict are still visible.

In a satellite image from December last year, a crane can be seen next to the Drama Theater, where the Russian word for children, ДЕТИ, was scrawled in the spring of 2022 – a failed attempt to deter Russian bombs. Russian state media has reported that the theater will be finished this year.

In December, Putin claimed in a press conference that at least 300,000 people had returned to Mariupol and said, “the population continues to grow at a rapid pace.” In March, he signed a decree ordering all residents of the four regions to get a Russian passport by September 10 or leave.

Boichenko said he believes Russians are being lured there not only through positive news stories and social media posts, but also by Russia’s preferential 2% mortgage rate for its “new territories” – a significant draw in a country where market rates are currently as high as 29%.

Russia has promised to provide “compensatory housing” to everyone affected by the war, but in videos circulating mainly on Telegram, groups of Mariupol residents claim they still have not received their apartments and deliver direct appeals to Putin for homes.

In one video that surfaced in January, some hold up a sign that reads “БОМЖИ,” a Russian acronym meaning “homeless people.” One person says they are being offered apartments belonging to residents who left Mariupol. “We earned our apartments, we don’t want other peoples,” she says, urging the authorities to continue building. The Russian-installed mayor of Mariupol has said some residents will be given “abandoned” properties, effectively stripping those who left the ability to return.

The newly built Nevsky neighborhood that Putin visited in 2023, for example, is not connected to the sewage system, they said.

They added that the posts from content creators do not accurately portray reality in Mariupol. “It is targeted at people who do not live (in Mariupol) and do not know this entire situation,” the woman said.

And pro-Russia content creators can’t rewrite history, Boichenko added. “This propaganda, these made-up clips that they are doing now in Mariupol, will not help. Russia has committed a crime in Mariupol, and the people of Mariupol know it,” he said.