Mariupol in the context of "Kalmius"

Greeks have been present in what is now southern Russia from the 6th century BC; those settlers assimilated into the indigenous populations. The vast majority of contemporary Russia's Greek minority populations are descendants of Medieval Greek refugees, traders, and immigrants (including farmers, miners, soldiers, and churchmen/bureaucrats) from the Byzantine Empire, the Ottoman Balkans, and Pontic Greeks from the Empire of Trebizond and Eastern Anatolia who settled mainly in southern Russia and the South Caucasus in several waves between the mid-15th century and the second Russo-Turkish War of 1828–29. As during the Genocide of the Pontic Greeks, the survivors fled to the Upper Pontus (in the USSR).

In former Soviet republics, about 70% are Greek speakers who are mainly descendants of Pontic Greeks from the Pontic Alps region of northeast Anatolia, 29% are Turkish-speaking Greeks (Urums) from Tsalka in Georgia, and 1% are Greek speakers from Mariupol in Ukraine.

Ukrainian Greeks are a Greek minority that reside in or used to reside in the territory of modern Ukraine. The majority of Ukrainian Greeks live in Donetsk Oblast and are particularly concentrated around the city of Mariupol.

According to the 2001 Ukrainian Census, there were 91,548 ethnic Greeks in Ukraine, or 0.2% of the population. However, the actual percentage of those with Greek ancestry is likely to be much higher due to widespread intermarriage between ethnic Greeks and those Ukrainian citizens who are Ukrainian Orthodox, particularly in eastern Ukraine, as well as the absence of strong links to Greece or use of the Greek language by many with Greek ancestry in these areas and who therefore are not classified as Greeks in official censuses.

On 24 February 2022, the Russian military invaded Kherson Oblast in southern Ukraine from Russian-occupied Crimea, quickly entering Mykolaiv Oblast and Zaporizhzhia Oblast amid battles with the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

Elements from the southern Russian offensive joined forces with elements advancing from the Donbas to jointly surround and bombard the city of Mariupol in Donetsk Oblast, which fell after months of siege.

The Battle of Donbas was a military offensive that was part of the wider eastern front of the Russo-Ukrainian war. The offensive began on 18 April 2022 between the armed forces of Russia and Ukraine for control of the Donbas region. Military analysts consider the campaign to have been the second strategic phase of the invasion, after Russia's initial three-pronged attack into Ukraine.

Russia's strategy in the sector was to encircle Ukrainian troops in the Donbas and to annex the entire Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts to the Russian-backed separatist states of the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) and Luhansk People's Republic (LPR). Russia claimed to have controlled 55% of Donetsk Oblast by 23 June 2022 and all of Luhansk Oblast by 3 July 2022, with Russian and separatist forces controlling the cities of Mariupol, Sievierodonetsk, Lysychansk, Rubizhne, and many others.

The Kalchyk (Ukrainian: Кальчик) is a river in the Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia Oblasts of Ukraine. It is historically known as the Kalka. It flows into the Kalmius, which it enters near the city of Mariupol.

Supposedly, the river was the scene of the Battle of the Kalka River between the Mongol Empire and Kievan Rus' in 1223. It was also the scene of the decisive Battle of the Kalka River (1381) between Mamai and Tokhtamysh which ended the Great Troubles (1359–1381), a war of succession within the Golden Horde.

The siege of Mariupol began on 24 February 2022 and lasted until 20 May, as part of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. It saw fighting between the Russian Armed Forces (alongside the Donetsk People's Republic People's Militia) and the Ukrainian Armed Forces for control over the city of Mariupol in southeastern Ukraine. Lasting for almost three months, the siege ended in a victory for Russia and the Donetsk People's Republic, as Ukraine lost control of the city amidst Russia's eastern Ukraine offensive and southern Ukraine offensive; all Ukrainian troops remaining in the city surrendered at the Azovstal Iron and Steel Works on 20 May 2022, after they were ordered to cease fighting.

Mariupol is located in Ukraine's Donetsk Oblast, and following the siege, it was initially controlled by the Donetsk People's Republic, supported by occupying Russian troops. However, it was later subjected to Russia's annexation of southeastern Ukraine, and remains under direct Russian control as of 2024.

During the Russian invasion of Ukraine (2022-ongoing), Russian forces and organizations have stolen and looted tens of thousands of art pieces from Ukraine, ranging from modern art to ancient Scythian gold. The Russians have also destroyed hundreds of cultural sites and monuments. The looting has been organized, with, in some cases, Russian art experts participating in the theft, and directing Russian soldiers as to which pieces to steal. In Mariupol alone, Russians stole over 2,000 works of art from the city's three main museums, after Russian forces occupied the city after a three-month siege in May 2022. In the Kherson region, shortly before fleeing the area to the north of the Dnieper river Russians destroyed, either fully or in part, over 200 Ukrainian cultural sites and stole around 10,000 art pieces from the city's museums, out of a collection of 13,000. Other sources put the number of stolen art works from Kherson alone at 15,000.

In occupied Melitopol, Russian troops stole a 4th-century golden helmet dating to the Scythian kingdom, worth millions of dollars. Russian soldiers attempted to force the local museum director to reveal the location of other Scythian gold artifact which she had hidden shortly before Russian army occupied the city. They threatened her at gunpoint and abducted her when she refused to cooperate. She was interrogated but ultimately allowed to leave Russian-held territory.