Zhenya was able to get through to Katya 2 on the phone yesterday. Everyone of our group is alive and surviving in the bomb shelter of their apartment building. (The only exception to this is Viktoria’s sister, Inna, who we have no information on; it’s believed that she’s probably staying with her boyfriend.) People of the building are sharing food and resources, but that won’t last much longer. The apartment building is along one of the main streets in Mariupol, and shelling of that street has destroyed the facing windows in Zhenya’s apartment.

In addition to news reports today of the maternity hospital that was bombed, there are also reports of a university building being destroyed. This was really painful news to Viktoria and Zhenya; it’s the place where Zhenya was studying not that long ago and got his Master’s(?) degree, so it has particular meaning to both of them.

Viktoria says that the maternity hospital bombing site is three bus stations from Zhenya’s apartment. I looked it up on the map; it was about 3300 feet away, just over a half mile. I’ve walked by that area in the past. It is really quite close. I’m sure in her thoughts about all this news, Viktoria is thinking about how close those bombs came to our family and friends.

I know that the US and NATO want to avoid being dragged into this war; if they aren’t involved it’s still a regional issue, not a world war. But if the Russians are just going to drop bombs wherever they want — or, even worse, deliberately target hospitals, schools and civilian centers — then all the “high-level” agreements about the need to “facilitate ‘timely humanitarian assistance'” are meaningless. When does the West decide that enough innocent people have suffered and died?

The weather improved over the city today, so there are some satellite before and after images to see: New satellite images show homes, buildings, grocery stores and shopping malls destroyed in Mariupol (cnn.com)