There’s been a lot of reporting today about a “storage depot” in the Russian city of Belgorod being hit by Ukrainian missiles. There’s been no confirmation of this from Ukraine, it’s just what the Russians are saying. It should be noted, though, that the Russian army had a mishap all their own just a few days ago on a military base just outside this city. So it’s not completely implausible to think that this was a Russian-generated “attack” and subsequent fire.
Some Russian official said that this was “bad move” from the Ukrainians, what with peace talks going on. Well, boo-freakin’-hoo. If this was the Ukrainians striking back, good for them. Taking out a fuel depot (which appears to be what it was, despite all the “storage depot” descriptions) has a direct impact on the ability of the Russian military to send their forces to Ukraine. So if it was Ukraine, good for them and may there be a few more of these events.
Some British analyst was saying that Mariupol could fall “within days,” which is the same sort of insight that’s been on the airwaves since the beginning of March. To take that assessment with a grain of salt is giving it too much validity. Things do not look good and have not looked good in Mariupol, but they’ve held out an amazingly long time, and inflicted some serious damage on the Russian forces trying to occupy the city. The main factor against them has been the artillery and bombing raids that have devastating the city since the beginning. Had the Ukrainian army been able to address those issues, Mariupol wouldn’t be a city known around the world as the “new Aleppo.”
Yes, Russian troops are slowing making advances in the city, and without reinforcements, it’s likely that the Ukrainian forces there will eventually be overwhelmed, but to claim now that it’s going to happen “within days” is neither insightful nor helpful in understanding what’s been happening there.
Back at the start of the war, when Russia was first working to decimate the little city of Volnovakha, I’d posted a picture of the damage done to the church there. Since then, Russia has gone on to damage or destroy at least 59 churches or religious structures — nearly two for every day of the war. The people who start wars almost always claim that “God is on their side,” but this would seem to indicate something completely different.
I read over the weekend (and I so wish I could find it now; I didn’t bookmark it at the time) that when a Russian talking head responded to the destruction of a synagogue, it was justified because the synagogue was storing war materiel. Said spokesperson even noted that pictures of destruction proved them out because there were weapons cleverly disguised as rubble (well, cement blocks). When you have to go to such extremes to justify your actions, clearly God is not on your side.
(Just a note about the pictures in the linked article, which includes some pictures of St. Michael’s Cathedral in Mariupol. I’ve been there [click for photo]. It was actually one of the place Viktoria took me during one of my early visits and on one of our first dates. She said it was newly built then — it would have been about 15 years old at the time, so still fairly new in cathedral terms — and it really was a striking, beautiful and peaceful place.)
![I’ve been there [click for photo].](https://2jmz.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/DSCF0022.jpg){kind=link}
In the latest Katya 2 and Vanya news, it looks like the plans have changed just a little bit. They’re still going to Vienna, but now they’ll be going via private transport (a small, semi-commercial transport van) out of Lviv*. Probably a much better plan than just showing up a border and hoping things work out. Also, it might be helpful for some documentation. Both Katya and Vanya have (international) passports, but in the rush to leave Mariupol, they didn’t get packed. Katya grabbed a big package of documents, but they weren’t in it. Since they won’t be going to Vienna for a week (you need a reservation for the van, and it was full-up until then), Katya and Zhenya are going to see if they can visit the MFA office in Lviv and see what sort of replacement can be obtained for the overlooked passports.
There’s also been some planning around what happens in and after Vienna. Going back to Mariupol won’t be an option for a while, and staying in Europe doesn’t really appeal to Katya, so North America will be the goal. Without her and Vanya’s passports, getting to the US seems unlikely. (There had been talk of them getting to Tijuana and claiming asylum in the US at the border, but a passport would have been needed to make that happen.) So now they’re looking at Canada, which seems to have a pretty open arrangement for Ukrainian refugees. Katya does have some documentation and it sounds like that will be sufficient to get to Canada, and there is a center (as well as an embassy) in Vienna to assist with this. Hopefully, Katya and Vanya would be able to get to Vancouver, BC; they wouldn’t be with family, but we’d be just a short-ish drive away.
* No cost for the van to Vienna because they were in Mariupol and everyone knows about what the people of Mariupol have been through.