Sorry for the lack of updates; there’s always plenty going on, but I managed to do something to my shoulder a couple days ago, which is making sitting and writing at the computer a bit difficult. So expect some gaps in my posts. Sorry about that.
I’ll definitely keep you informed of any family updates or movements since that’s the overarching purpose of this blog at the moment. There’s been nothing to report on that front; bureaucracies move slowly. And you’ve probably heard the latest big news out of Mariupol — that all the women, children and elderly that had been sheltered at Azovstal have been evacuated (Ukraine war: Civilians now out of Azovstal plant in Mariupol – BBC).
Here are a couple things that caught my eye over the past few days:
I’ve seen assorted reports (I’ll find the links) of occupying forces changing road signs and renaming cities and streets back to their Russian or Soviet versions. Cheap theatrics at best.
You’ve probably heard or seen the news about people being evacuated from Azovstal. It happened over the weekend, and it took a couple days for some of the buses and cars to travel the usual 4-5 trip to Zaporozhia. You probably heard about this because it was getting a lot of coverage, and in truth, it really was a big event. But that’s only the case because Russia has been so intractable about ceasefires and green corridors and letting people leave the city. So I was waiting to see what was actually going to happen. The fact that the UN and the ICRC were actually permitted to arrive in Mariupol was a good sign, but one never knows.
156 people (156 evacuees from Azovstal arrived in Zaporizhzhia – PHOTOS, VIDEO – News May 3, 2022 – 0629.com.ua). That’s the total “official” count of people evacuated from Azovstal over the two-day ceasefire (one and a half days, really, because Russia decided to honor the ceasefire 5 hours later than they’d agreed to). This is out of a purported 1000 people who had been sheltering there. The number also didn’t include any wounded military. Personal cars were invited to join the evacuation, but since there are still an estimated 100,000 people in Mariupol, it would have taken a lot of cars to get them all out. So, yes, it’s good that 156 people were able to make it out. But there are still far more people still trapped.
Remember from last week, when supposed Putin directed forces to just button up Azovstal and stop trying to take it over? Yeah, that never really happened. Not only did the bombing and shelling continue almost unabated, but Russian forces continue to try to take control of the area (Russian troops begin to storm Azovstal plant – ukrinform.net, Video of assault on Azovstal plant released – ukrinform.net). So was that supposed stand-down order just PR, or does Putin not actually command the Russian armed forces? Seems like there’s a disconnect.
Just a little sidenote. I got in touch with a friend from Mariupol — an English teacher named Anna whom I’d met some years ago. She, along with her kids and parents, left Mariupol about the same time as Katya 2 and Vanya. They kind of had to, since their house was on fire. Her descriptions of living in their basement without heat or electricity, running out of food and water, is virtually the same as other reports from there. Fortunately, they’re all safe now, but as Anna noted, their life in Mariupol is gone and they have to start over now.
Viktoria has been working on getting information about her sister, but hasn’t come up with too much as yet. In a previous post I had noted that V found information that Inna had gotten some sort of assistance from a Russian/DPR source but (a) I personally wasn’t sure how accurate that site might have been and (b) that was from the beginning of April, so any aid received would likely have been used up by now. V has been using the contacts she’s been curating on the various Mariupol channels to try to dig up information. She had me look up the street address of Inna’s occasional boyfriend, which is presumably where Inna was staying when she wasn’t at the family apartment block. V tells me that people reported that building as also showing shelling and fire damage.
Viktoria is also formulating plans to get Artem out of Ukraine. V has been chatting with someone she knows who lives in the same area as Artem and Katya 1 and who may be able to get messages to them. Viktoria hopes that Katya would agree and be able to get Artem to Rostov or some other place in Russia, at which point Viktoria would travel to Russia and bring Artem back to the US (presumably under the US “Uniting for Ukraine” program). To say that this is a plan is probably a bit generous. It’s more of a sketchy notion, with a lot of “if’s” and assumptions. If anything comes of it, I’ll let people know.
It sounds like plans for a “victory parade” in Mariupol on May 9 has been cancelled by the occupying forces. Maybe the didn’t think they could get all the rubble and bodies cleaned up in time. Or couldn’t come up with a good propaganda line for why they were marching through a city with damage to 90%+ of the buildings, with half of them beyond repair. (Granted, a lot of the Russian people are ready to believe any of the swill coming from state media, but if the lies are too outrageous, some people are going to start questioning things.) Apparently, believing their own rhetoric, the parade is being cancelled because of a fear from Ukrainian shelling. More likely the shelling of the Azovstal plant wasn’t going to stop and people were either afraid of getting hit, or that it might just look bad (more?) parading through a ruined city that was still under attack. Hard to know what, since rational thought is not involved. (Scared of shelling. In the “DNR” militants canceled the “victory parade” on May 9 – News April 28, 2022 – 0629.com.ua)
The Azov Regiment — having a little time to kill in the Azovstal bunkers, listening to the ongoing barrages — did a little calculating and figure that Russia has spent over a billion dollars (so far) trying to take Mariupol. I don’t know about the accuracy of their numbers, but it seems possible, since they’ve been trying to take the city for two months. During that two months, there has been a lot of artillery, many overflights and bombs, some precision guided missiles, and assorted infantry prowling through the city. That does cost something for sure, so maybe a billion isn’t too far off the mark. If you take into account the other costs that weren’t included in that total — food, fuel, “humanitarian” assistance, digging mass graves, relocating the population by force, etc. — even if the number cited are high, the total cost so far might still be north of a billion. (Russia spends more than $1.1B to destroy Mariupol – Azov Regiment – ukrinform.net)
Of course, it’s not all nice or inspiring. I saw a post on Viber today about Black Sea dolphins washing up on shore. They don’t appear to suffer from the “typical” causes of death, such as netting. A marine biologist notes that not only are the dolphins in danger from mines and ship shelling, but the sonar also affects the dolphin’s hearing, causing disorientation. (Off the coast of Odesa region due to the Russian invaders, dolphins are dying en masse – ecologist — tsn.ua)
Another video that shows the family apartment block. Not much though, just the end. The car is driving down the cross street, coming up on Mira Prospect where the apartments are.
Here’s a little map with the apartment circled and an arrow for the direction of the car. Not shown on the map, but if you followed Mira (“Myru Ave” on the map) to the right, you would come to the theater that was bombed. Walking, about 20 minutes or so, by bus, only about 5 minutes away.
You’ve probably heard the name on the news. Currently it’s the last Ukrainian-controlled area of Mariupol, and it’s been housing the Ukrainian forces as well as a number of civilians who have sheltered with them. Prior to all this — and, really, prior to the Coronavirus pandemic — it was easily the largest employer in the Mariupol area. One of four steel plants located in Mariupol, it was also one of the largest steel plants in Ukraine. (Its parent company, MetInvest, is probably the largest private company in Ukraine.)
It had been operating for decades, and four generations of Viktoria’s family had worked there. Viktoria worked there for 30 years, and before that, her paternal grandmother, V’s father and even her mother for a short time worked at Azovstal. Until about the end of last year, Zhenya worked there as well.
Apparently that place really is massive, both in terms of horizontal area, but also by vertical depth. According to Viktoria, some of the tunnels were open and regularly used by employees to get around the plant. Other parts were a little more restricted. Being part of the electrical crew, Zhenya spent some time in the less public tunnels. A few years back, when there was a lot of metal and wire theft happening at the plant, Zhenya was actually accosted by some of the bandits in the tunnels. And according to Viktoria, her father told her about some of the discussions he’d have at breaks with his coworkers about possible chemical labs and secret development areas the Soviets ran under the plant.
Here’s a video of some of the people hiding in the tunnels. You can probably fast-forward over a lot of it; it is mostly static shots of the people talking about the conditions and such. For non-Russian speakers (and yes, most of the people in Mariupol speak Russian — the same people the Russian attacks were supposed to be in support of), just take a look at the conditions. Compared to some other photos and videos I’ve seen, things aren’t as bad, but we still aren’t talking about anything that good either.
While seeing Mariupol getting destroyed has been hard on Viktoria, especially when she gets images of “our” apartment block, watching and reading about the events at Azovstal have been painful as well. She put in 30 years of her life at that factory. She knows and understands what a key part of the city it was, not just for her family, but for many, many of the people and families in Mariupol. I’m sure there were days when she hated going to work, but even on the worst of those days, it’s clear to me that she never would have wished for something like this.
The US finally came out with their “Uniting for Ukraine” immigration application website today. It’s the “fast-track” immigration program that was promised a while ago to allow about 100,000 Ukrainians to come to the US, provided they have a sponsor to cover their costs. Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like we’ll be able to take advantage of it.
While sponsorship is not a problem, the program requires that refugees coming here have a passport with which to travel. That seems to ignore the reality that a lot of people — including Katya 2 and Vanya — had to leave their homes without such documentation (for any number of reasons). While Katya and Vanya have had international passports issued to them, they aren’t in possession of them and the Ukraine government isn’t able to supply replacements at this time.
At present, it would appear that the Canadian program is going to work better. Their program does account for people not having all their documentation and is willing to work with that. Staying with us would be preferred, but getting them to Western Canada is second best; at least we and/or Viktoria would be able to visit regularly (and a US dollar may go farther in Canada than it does in the US).
The Mariupol City website has an article up comparing the occupation of Mariupol during WWII by German forces to what the Russians are doing today. It’s rather interesting, as there are some definite parallels between then and now. In some ways, the Germans come off looking better than the Russians, though when it’s a race to the bottom, is there really a “better?”
A little bit of news to relate — Zhenya got some messages from Artem and Katya 1. They’re all still alive and in the Mariupol area. Apparently they are being “processed” by occupation forces, but haven’t been deported to a filtration camp. At least that’s my understanding of Viktoria’s understanding of what she got from Zhenya, so take that third-hand news for what it’s worth. But at least they’re alive and together.
Beyond that, not a lot of positive news out of Mariupol. President Zelinsky made some mention the other day of liberating Mariupol “likely soon,” and while I don’t doubt that he means it, there haven’t been any visible actions. The bombing and shelling of the Azovstal area continues, and the Russians continue to block any attempts at humanitarian evacuation. There had been some arrangements and agreements for Saturday, but the evacuation buses were shot at, the people gathered to evacuate were dispersed from the agreed gathering point*, and later different buses were available for people to go to city in Russia instead. Unfortunately, after weeks of being deprived of the basics, some people are so desperate for food and water that they are willing to do anything.
(* Given the lack of electricity and communications in Mariupol, I’m amazed that word gets around about the evacuations. I feel bad for the people who each time gather their things and get to the meeting point, only to be turned away for whatever reason.)
Viktoria got this picture, below, the other day; it’s of the family apartment block, as seen from the courtyard side of the building. (The other side faces Mira Prospekt, one of main streets through Mariupol.) This shows the third and fourth elevator/entrances for the building. This means that Zhenya’s apartment would be off to the left, just out of frame, and V’s mother’s apartment even further to the left of that. I’m sure whomever took this picture was trying to show the pretty tulips that someone had planted were still there and blooming, despite the destruction around them. Viktoria says that, to her, this looks like a graveyard.
I’ve added a visual representation of our Ukrainian family under the Family link, in the menu above. Where appropriate, I’ve shown the referenced name followed by their real name. Mostly it’s just all the Katya (which is short for Katheryn and Ekaterina — basically Catherine.) (Viktoria’s family also has a lot of Alexanders; thank goodness I don’t have to show them.)
A more positive store from the BBC: Mariupol: Driving into the ‘apocalypse’ to save mum and dad – BBC News. For some added context, the events described in the article happened about the same time that Katya 2 and Vanya left Mariupol on foot, walking about 12 miles to a neighboring town.
Although “Mariupol” is being heard a lot these days, if your news is anything like mine, you’ve probably been hearing the name of city pronounced in a few different ways, usually wrong. I think the version I hear the most often is “MARY-opal.” The other night I heard “MARY-you-POLE.” It hurt my ears so much I sent an email to the channel (a local station) and gave them some pronunciation tips (while casually noting that my wife is from there, so, c’mon guys, get it right). Never heard back, but also haven’t heard any recent news about Mariupol on the newscast I typically watch.
In case you were wondering, it’s a four-syllable name — Mar-i-u-pol — with the emphasis on the third syllable. Proper pronunciation would be “mahr-ih-YOU-pull,” but that “ih” isn’t something that shows up much in English. So a close “Western” pronunciation is “mahr-ee-OO-pull,” without too much “ee” coming through. And it’s OK if the second and third syllables end up pushed together; most of the time it does almost sound like the city’s name only has three syllables.
Given everything that’s been happening there — some of which is only starting to be known — it seems only proper to try to pronounce the name correctly.
Some positive news out of Ukraine: Viktoria was finally able to reach Baba Katya! V had been trying to call her phone every few days, and did occasionally get a blip of response but nothing more substantial. When she tried yesterday (April 18), she was able to connect and they talked for a few minutes. Both Katya and Rodion are doing OK, but they aren’t quite where we thought.
Probably because of a misunderstanding on my or Viktoria’s part, we’d thought that they had left the apartment block base and gotten to a rural area northwest of Mariupol. In fact, they had gone to Oksana’s house in Talakivka (Talakovka in Russian) that had been damaged during the earlier days of the attacks. Talakivka is to the northeast of Mariupol, just past the “suburb” of Sartana. At the beginning of March, it probably seemed like Mariupol was the safer option, given the shelling that had happened in that area, but since attention has been focused on Mariupol for awhile, those outer areas are now relatively calm.
Katya, Rodion, Oksana and her family have been there for about three weeks now, but because they’re still in the Mariupol area, communications have been spotty at best. Being on the Russian-controlled side of the front, Katya was able to go to Donetsk the other day and had been staying with her sister there (Oksana’s mother, I believe) while she did some shopping for supplies and clothes for Rodion.
So that group has now been found, relatively safe and relatively sound. It’s not a great situation, but I’m sure there are alternatives that are far worse. If possible, Katya will try to get in touch with Artem and Katya 1, who aren’t that far away from Talakivka, but getting around is something of a challenge and concern. Still no word on Rodion’s mother Inna.
The New York Times has had a couple things of interest recently. A couple of maps depicting the damage in Mariupol caught my eye the other day. This first map hasn’t been updated for a couple weeks — and the past couple weeks have had some intense attacks — but the extent of the damage to the city is vast.
The family apartment block would be to the left of the leftmost pointer at the bottom.
This other image is a closer look at the damage to the west of the Azovstal area. Zhenya used to live out in this area, and a lot of the drone footage I’ve seen appears to have come from this part of town. This is almost exclusively residential housing, save for the typical shops, schools and places you’d find in any neighborhood.
I thought this video was good, though it’s not from around Mariupol. It was taken in a few of the smaller villages to the west, between Mariupol and Zaporozhia. There are a couple mentions of Vasylivka, which was one of the towns on the evacuation route that Katya 2 and Vanya took.
And lastly, something not from the New York Times, but an composite images posted in one of the channels I’ve been reading.
