Although Mariupol is largely disappearing from the headlines now that the city has been fallen under Russian control, there are still a number of things happening there which Viktoria and I are both watching. Viktoria essentially says the city is “gone” and not coming back; I’m not as fatalistic. I feel that it will be back in Ukrainian hands and be rebuilt. (I wouldn’t mind being a part of that effort in the future, but that’s aways off and there would be a lot of things to consider surrounding any move to go there and help.)

In the mean time, there’s still news coming from Mariupol. The Russians are trying to make it a victory showcase and propaganda win with the Russian people, but the images and stories continue to show a far different view. What are they supposed to say, “Look at this attractive pile of ‘liberated’ rubble?” For the most part, these “recovery” efforts are about as inept as the Russian military campaign has been.

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One of the biggest stories of the past couple days has been the discovery of a couple hundred dead bodies in the rubble of an apartment building on Mira Prospekt, the same street of the family apartment block. I haven’t seen the address so far, but it’s not 110 Mira. There definitely were some buildings that were more damaged (like this one, where Katya 2 used to work), so most likely one of them. Given the elapsed time since the people died and the fact that most of the Ukrainians still around aren’t willing to help clean this up, the situation is rather unpleasant. – About 200 bodies found when dismantling rubble of apartment block in Mariupol – ukrinform.net, The stench is heard almost throughout the quarter. 200 dead found in basement of high-rise buildings in Mariupol – PHOTOS – 0629.com.ua.

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Sometimes you have wonder if “they don’t know” or “they don’t care.” Back in March, Russian forces attacked and fired on a nuclear power plant. This is different from their actions around the Chernobyl plant, where soldiers where moving around, digging trenches and camping in the highly contaminated Red Forest area. No, this was a plant in the southern part of Ukraine, and the actions of the Russians could have caused a significant nuclear disaster. Did they not know, or did they just not care. I bring this up because the same can be asked about the Russian shelling of and future plans for the Azovstal steel plant.

Azovstal had been around for nearly 100 years, and its environmental record had been spotty at best. On the south side of the plant, bordering the Azov Sea, there’s a huge containment berm holding back who knows what sort of pollutants and processing waste. In the center is a pile of detritus “affectionately” known as Slag Mountain. There’s been concerns that the shelling of the Azovstal area could or could have affected the berm and created the potential for leakage of the industrial waste into both the Azov and Black Seas – Due to the shelling of Azovstal, the Sea of Azov may die, – city council – 0629.com.ua. While this does not appear to have happened (yet? – The Ministry of Environmental Protection has no confirmation of the leakage of hydrogen sulfide into the Sea of Azov – 0629.com.ua, Pollution of the Azov Sea due to the shelling of Azovstal has not yet been confirmed, – Minister of Environmental Protection – 0629.com.ua), if it were to leak, almost all sea life would be killed off. Even without that, the potential for significant ecological damage is there, just waiting for the next big rain storms – Poisoned Sea of Azov area – ukrinform.net.

Even if the war has managed to avoid an environmental disaster, reconstruction plans could still bring one about. Metinvest, the parent company of Azovstal, has indicated that they want to rebuild the plant (once it’s back in Ukrainian hands), but the occupiers think it would make a much better resort. The area may be razed and turned into a park, office buildings or houses – The leader of the “DNR” Pushilin promised Mariupol technopark on the ruins of “Azovstal”, resort city and new houses – 0629.com.ua. Since the Russians won’t want a mountain of slag and a neon green lake messing up their view, they’ll try to do something dumb to clean it up, which could still cause a massive environment disaster – Thousands of gallons of deadly chemicals from the damaged Azovstal plant could leak – causing the TOTAL extinction of life in the Sea of Azov and affecting as far as the Mediterranean, experts warn – www.dailymail.co.uk.

So, again — do they not know, or do they just not care?

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(Looks like I need to break this up into a couple parts — there’s just too much… and I haven’t even gotten to the truly inept stuff. So I’ve updated the title of this post and will get more information about what’s going on in Mariupol in my next posting.)