Regardless of where they are, most people in Viktoria’s life have been accounted for. The one glaring exception is her sister Inna. She has been MIA for quite a while. She wasn’t in any one place during the siege, and in the immediate aftermath, there wasn’t any information or leads on where she might have been and what might have happened. Apart from a single entry in a DPR humanitarian aid system (which, as I noted at the time, wasn’t necessarily a reliable or accurate source of information), there had been nothing.

Now, well, maybe there’s something. Inna’s cell phone has been off the grid for a while, but late last week, her account showed as online in the Viber messaging app. For this to happen, it would mean that the cell phone had been charged and was working, and that it was in a place with either wi-fi or a cell tower. (The latter would also require a SIM card for the telecom network in operation in the area.)

What does this signal about Inna? We don’t know. Although the cell phone is working — technically the Viber on the cell phone — and sent the ping, there’s been no follow up. Messages and attempts to call have not produced any results. It could have a been a brief, one-time thing. The phone might have had wi-fi for a moment, but has since been in a place with only cell service and a non-functional SIM card. (People in Mariupol previously had three or four cell networks to choose from. Those all stopped working during the siege, and the occupying forces set up a different, incompatible cell network when they arrived.)

I keep say “the cell phone” because that’s really all we know. Without any messages or phone calls being answered, we don’t know that Inna still has the phone, or if someone else found and accessed it. There’s still no information one way or another about Inna’s situation. There’s been a sign, but we don’t know what that means. The wait continues.