A lot of Viktoria’s days are spent reading and interacting with various groups (mostly on the chat/communications app Viber) that have been set up to request or provide information about people and events in and around Mariupol. Some people post photos of family and friends that they’re seeking information about, and other post information that know about those people, their buildings, their district or what have you. Some of it is first-hand, but a lot of it is second-hand or more. Not always super-reliable, but it can sometimes be helpful.

Using information gleaned from one such channel, Viktoria found her way to a DPR (the “Donetsk People’s Republic,” a Russian-controlled and -supported gun-fetish group pretending to be an “independent country”) website with the names of people who they’ve given humanitarian assistant to (typically food). V did a search, and Inna’s name came up as having received something on April 6. Viktoria showed me the results page, but I didn’t see the process by which she got there, so it’s hard to say how accurate the information is. By that I mean, the page V showed me had Inna’s full name, but I don’t know if that’s what Viktoria had to enter to do her search. If so, the page could just be echoing that back, rather than actually looking something up. If the search just involved the last name, for example, then the results would be more definitive. If so, then Inna is still alive and in the Mariupol area, at least as of last week.

The other tidbit arrived today, but the information being relayed is from March 31. The information comes via one of the groups, from a woman that Viktoria says she knows in some manner. This woman says that she saw Artem, Katya 1, Sasha (Katya’s husband) and Sasha’s mother on March 31 in their home’s neighborhood. Information is that the mother’s house had been destroyed (or, I’m guessing, at least unlivable) and that everyone was staying at Artem’s house now. Additionally, Sasha’s father Nikolai had been killed by Russian forces as he was driving the family car; soldiers shot at the car, killing Nikolai.

It’s difficult to know how reliable either of these tidbits of information are, but that’s probably to be expected. If the information is correct, then there is some hope that V’s family (“her blood,” as she says) is surviving this ordeal.