A month or so ago, the Russians decided to pull their forces out of the occupied town of Shirokino, which is about 20 kilometers to the east of Mariupol. Of course they did this out of the goodness of their hearts (and not at all to consolidate the weapons and soldiers that were involved in daily attacks on the Ukrainian forces there) and called on Ukraine to do the same. After the Russians were gone, the Ukrainians pulled back too, and a little over a week ago, the OSCE essentially called Shirokino a demilitarized town. (They could have also called it a ghost town, because there was literally no one still residing there and most of the buildings had suffered some sort of damage.) The Ukrainian Army was getting ready to fully withdraw from the Shirokino area, but that didn’t sit well with the people of Mariupol. Last weekend, there was a substantial rally in Mariupol that called upon the Army to remain in Shirokino.

Today, new shelling from the area of Shirokino resumed, proving that the Russians hadn’t bothered to leave after all. Shelling was done via 122mm and 152mm guns, which had been banned from the contact line area (which includes Shirokino) by the Minsk 2 agreement.  (No point in calling it a “peace treaty” these days, now is there?) The explosions were close enough to Mariupol that they could be seen (the smoke from them) and/or heard in the center of the city.

My wife spoke with her mother today, and everyone remains fine, but they still aren’t safe. Russian is still committed to military-based instability in Ukraine, even if they don’t actually take Mariupol and create a land crossing to the floundering Crimean area they stole last year. Given that they destroyed a couple million tons of food that were sanctions-prohibited in Russia, rather than giving it to the people in Eastern Ukraine whom they have supposedly been helping with “humanitarian” assistance, kind of proves that they (a) really don’t care about the people there, other than as pawns of their games, and (b) have only military “solutions” in their playbook.

I am so thankful that my wife was able to get out of there before things started to slide off the cliff; she has just celebrated 5 months in the US.  I only wish her family, the people of Mariupol (and the rest of Ukraine) were able to live as safely in their own homes. But I doubt that will ever be the case so long as there is a Putin-dominated Russia on their doorstep.