Continuing with the assorted postings I’ve collected over the past month-ish…

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August 17 – I’d mentioned the program proposed by the occupiers to appropriate cars from people unless they [a] still happened to be in the city, and [b] were willing to jump through assorted hoops to try to keep their property. Said proposal is now the law, because you can’t have a functioning kleptocracy without the stealing. See post.

There are still about 100,000 people living in Mariupol, excluding Russian soldiers and other occupiers. These Ukrainians were either unable or unwilling to get out of the city during the seige, and now they are just trying to survive on the meager help and ineffective rebuilding from the Russians. As bad as things are now, it’s only going to get worse when the fall and winter weather starts to arrive. See post. Watch video. (To help visualize 100k citizens, that’s about the same population as Green Bay, WI; Erie, PA; South Bend, IN; or Burbank, CA, per 2020 estimates.)

It should be no news that Russia and its proxies have had significant troop loses, and it’s basically gotten to the point where any warm male body found on the street will be “volunteered” into serving. Here’s video of a father from the Luhansk (Ukraine) region being “drafted” when he went to pick up his kid from kindergarten. From other reading I’ve done, it appears that this sort of scene is not completely uncommon, especially in the occupied areas of Ukraine. See post. Watch video.

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August 18 – After Russia invaded and annexed Crimea in 2014, I swore that I wouldn’t visit the area or buy Crimean products until it was back in Ukrainian hands. So the stories that had/have been coming out of the area are of some interest to me. Nice to know that Russia’s in a panic about the possibility of losing their illegal toy. See post.

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August 20 – This one annoys me. The rampant stealing by the Russians is just utterly barbaric and backward, but I find looting a museum to be particularly galling. (I felt the same way about the looting of the Baghdad museum during the Gulf wars.) Of course, if part of the purpose of your war is to completely erase the culture of a people from history, getting rid of their museums is probably part of the plan. See post. Watch video.

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August 21 – Apparently the Russians felt they were being way to generous with a pitiful humanitarian food box they were handing out (see my previous post). Now they’ll only be “helping” people that they can’t possibly squeeze anything from. See post.

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August 25 – No one who isn’t under the sway of Russian propaganda believes that the “referenda” votes they hold have any legitimacy. See post. (The text from Google Translate: “In the temporarily occupied Mariupol, the majority of citizens are not going to participate in the so-called ‘referendum’ – GUR.
* Local collaborators are conducting a population census in all districts of occupied Mariupol to establish the real number of people who remained in the city.
* They admit that the majority of the surveyed population in Mariupol refuses to participate in a possible ‘referendum’ or does not directly answer the question. Only 5-7% of the respondents clearly expressed their willingness to come to the ‘polling stations’ and ‘vote.’ The people of Mariupol are bitter towards both the Russian Federation and representatives of the occupation administrations.
* The decision regarding the ‘referendum’ itself and the date of its holding in the Kremlin has not been finalized. It is unlikely that it will really take place, as announced, on September 11.“)

As noted with my other infrastructure comments, there’s just no water. Even if they had water, I suspect that the occupying forces wouldn’t be bothering too much about putting out fires in the city anyway. See post. Watch video.

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August 27 – As I’ve noted multiple times, Mariupol looks destroyed and abandoned, but that’s not the case. Some buildings might be burned out or near collapse, but may still be homes for some of the citizens who remain. See post. Watch video. (The text from Google Translate: “Mariupol. And these houses are not abandoned, whole families live there. The were ‘liberated’ from civilization, comfort and basic things necessary for survival.“)

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August 31 – The Mariupol theater (opera house) remains the most visible reminder of Russian war crimes and atrocities. I’ve noted elsewhere how they’re working hard paper over what happened. Or rather “concrete over,” it would seem. See post.

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September 1 – I like this picture a lot, and I think I’m going to try to find or make a print of it. I’ve probably got a picture of the buildings somewhere (pre-war), but these were two iconic buildings (you couldn’t miss them because of the spires) that were across the street from the Mariupol theater. I walked by them many times during my visits there, and I would imagine that these buildings will probably get fully restored when Mariupol is rebuilt. See post. (The text from Google Translate: “‘Hometown is waiting for you.’ Mariupol houses with spires by the artist Volodymyr Sumarokov.“)

No surprise that the occupiers are finishing with knocking down buildings. First bombs, now backhoes. What makes this post particularly interesting is that it’s just down the road from the apartment Viktoria owned, back when she first moved out of the family house, got married and had her son. So, kind of sentimental (even if the place itself was less than idea). She sold it several years ago, but still considers the area “her” part of Mariupol. See post. Watch video.

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Happy to say, that’s everything that I had saved up. And got it all up before the long weekend even really started. Fortunately, with no more travel for the foreseeable future and the weather starting to cool down a bit, I think I’ll probably be able to stay up on stuff. Fingers crossed.