Recently, the British BBC corporation talked about the construction of a new military base in Mariupol with a large logo of the Russian army on the roof. We decided to check whether such a large-scale unmasking symbol was actually applied to the roof of a military facility and whether the building has a military purpose.

Saturday 3 December, BBC reportedthat Russia is increasing its military presence in Mariupol - a satellite image from the MAXAR company revealed a new building with a large (approximately 20 by 20 m) Russian Army logo on the roof near the city center, which is a military base of the Russian Federation. Information was widely distributed throughout English-language media and the Internet. The publication wrote about this in Russian "Agency", as well as Ukrainian publications nv.ua And "Dialogue". Subsequently the BBC corrected publication, adding text saying it "cannot verify this or confirm what the new building is being used for." And the next day, some Ukrainian media reported that we were talking about “a huge morgue disguised as a diagnostic center” (1, 2, 3). They referred to publication Advisor to the mayor of Mariupol Pyotr Andryushchenko on Telegram.

The BBC article does not mention the exact location of the object. However, in the above image you can see several streets and intra-block passages, the unique configuration of which allows us to quickly establish where exactly the building we are interested in was erected - in the south-eastern corner of the territory of the Mariupol Emergency Hospital (EMS), on the site of the infectious diseases department building that existed until recently.

Assuming that the new building may also have a medical purpose, we discovered on the Internet reportage, called “How a hospital destroyed by Kiev is being restored in Mariupol,” and the accompanying article states that we are talking specifically about emergency hospitals. First of all, this video sheds light on the mystery of where the old infectious diseases department went, although, of course, words about the culprit should not be taken at face value. But most importantly, thanks to the cameraman who filmed the building from both sides, there is no doubt that this is the same object that the BBC wrote about.

If you mentally continue the western facade, it will “lead” to St. Nicholas Cathedral (we outlined the outline of the new building in white):

When the cameraman films the northern façade of a building under construction, a large pipe and the top of a small one are clearly visible in the distance:

In the text under the video, the building is called a “Covid hospital.” The proximity to hospital buildings that survived the fighting speaks in favor of this version. The architecture of the building also correlates well with this statement. For example, for a similar project in the spring of 2020 there was built infectious disease center of the Ministry of Defense in Nizhny Novgorod - both buildings are U-shaped in plan, both letters P have a wider right “leg”, at the bases of both “legs” the vertical pillars are arranged in the same way (schematically: |_|___|_|___|_| and |_|___|___|___|_|).

During the COVID-19 pandemic, military builders were often engaged in the construction of prefabricated infectious diseases hospitals in various regions of the Russian Federation, so it seems reasonable to interpret the inscription on the roof “Russian Army to the residents of Mariupol” as “This facility was built by the Russian Army,” and not “This facility is a Russian Army base.” Of course, without additional research, it cannot be ruled out that military personnel (or even only them) are treated here. However, we can definitely say that the building mentioned in the BBC article is not a military base.

Cover photo: MAXAR.