Obviously, this is a hard time for Viktoria. She likes to be a problem-solver, and I think she sometimes feels personally responsible that people she knows in Mariupol are in danger. I tell her to stop thinking that way, because it’s not true and it’s not good for her physical, mental, or emotional health. I don’t think she really listens to me. [Insert your own wife not listening to husband joke here.]
Something that’s almost equally hard to deal with is the fake news that she gets. I’m not sure what all her sources are — some stuff she reads, some stuff she hears — and often regardless of how outlandish the story is, she’ll believe some part of it, or think that there’s some small possibility that it could be true, or something. The other night she was in tears because she’d heard that Russian forces in Kherson had rounded up 50 men and just killing in cold blood, and that they were planning to do the same to 30 additional men each day. No way that could have been true, but she was in tears for about a half-hour until coming to the same conclusion. Today it was a story about how everyone (literally everyone — which is kind of clue) in Mariupol was taking shelter in the Azovstal steel factory; she found this particularly troubling because she feels that Azovstal is likely to be destroyed by advancing forces. Even as she was crying about it, she was telling me she knew it wasn’t true. It’s very frustrating.
No real updates from Mariupol for today, and hopefully no news is good news. Posted reports from general sources indicate that there had been a lot of shelling last night and/or today, and that electricity was again out throughout much of the city. It should be on again tomorrow, after the latest repairs are done, but it probably won’t stay up, given the pounding this poor city keeps taking.
The only “good” news to report is, well, not news yet; it’s a work in progress, but Viktoria may have a notion to get people to more safety. V has a cousin with a farm to the northwest of Mariupol, not quite north or west enough to be in an direct line of attack from forces in those directions. The two big issues are (1) it’s a little dicey to travel anywhere in the area, and (2) the family/friends in Mariupol would need a couple cars and gas to get there, neither of which is readily available. It’s an idea that may not come to fruition, but if it could, it would move nearly a dozen people out of immediate danger. I’ll post updates if there are any.
I got a few pictures and couple videos. First up, Zhenya’s farm adventures. I mentioned that he was in the boonies, staying with the sister of Viktoria’s friend, and while he’s there he’d helping with some of the chores. (It’s also been interesting for him, since he’s a Russian-speaker and the family speaks Ukrainian; he pointed out that it’s a great chance for him to practice.)
As I noted the other day, the shelves are getting bare in the city, which could cause a serious situation soon. Here are a couple pictures from the weekend.
Here’s a view of some of the damage from the past few days.
And lastly, a couple pictures that Viktoria took. I think she sent them to show the people in Mariupol that they weren’t being forgotten.
