It was probably a coincidence, but two sources I follow had new postings in the past couple days about the mass graves in and around Mariupol. I know it’s not a fun topic to dwell on, but it’s something that comes up (in some form or another) fairly frequently in our house.

The first thing is this post from one of the Mariupol channels I follow. New satellite images has shown that the mass graves in and around Mariupol just continue to grow. I suppose that’s not a surprise, given than an estimated 20,000 people were killed there earlier in the year.

Here’s the text that accompanied the image: “*💔Біля Маріуполя з’явилось понад 1 500 нових могил.* Супутники Maxar сфотографував масові поховання в Старому Криму, Мангуші та Виноградному, що постійно збільшуються.” (Translation from Google: “*💔Bile of Mariupol appeared over 1,500 new graves.* The Maxar satellites photographed the masses in Stary Krym, Mangush and Vinogradny, which are constantly growing.”) Stary Krym is a suburb northeast of the city; Mangush and Vinogradny are communities a bit further away. I’m not sure which location the image shows.

Part of the issue with the mass graves (other than the mere fact that they exist) is laid out in a BBC article from probably the same day: The agony of not knowing, as Mariupol mass burial sites grow – BBC. This is exactly the situation we’re in with Viktoria’s sister Inna. Because of the nature and timing of her death, she’s probably one of the many unidentified bodies that has been laid in one of these mass graves. I know that Rodion gave a blood sample for possible DNA matching, but who knows what sort of records might exist that could be matched to. I’m sure the Russians and DNR occupiers aren’t that concerned with identification; they just want things cleaned up for prettier pictures to show on the Russian newscasts. It’s quite likely that the “not knowing” will be a permanent thing for a lot of people, including Viktoria.

That was going to be the end of this post, but we just got some bad and unfortunately related news. Baba Katya remains our eyes and ears over there, and she went out to the cemetery where Viktoria’s mother, grandmother and a few other family members are buried. (As a reminder, Viktoria’s mom passed away in January, just before the start of the war. Viktoria wasn’t there for her burial and, of course, hasn’t been there since.) Katya tells us that the cemetery is all but destroyed, by artillery and tank movements. We don’t have pictures — that would probably make things worse — but I’m sure you can imagine what a bunch of tanks running roughshod over a cemetery would leave in their wake.

I’ve said previously that it’s like the events of this year have been engineered to specifically hurt Viktoria, and this is just another to prove my point. Viktoria had been hoping that, in perhaps a couple years, she could go to Mariupol to see the damage and recovery, and to finally visit her mother’s grave. This after losing her mother, her mother’s apartment to fire, her son’s apartment to fire, all their family documents and photographs and her sister. Now, it would seem that visiting her mother’s gravesite will never be possible. It’s like she’s lost her mother all over again.