I know it’s been a little while since I last posted. It’s not that the war is over or that nothing has been going on. The war continues, even if it’s not the lead story on the nightly news. I still read two or three summaries every day, as well as posts in the Mariupol Viber channel I follow. Things have definitely slowed down a bit, largely because of the weather (the cold, ice and snow in Ukraine make for unpleasant conditions to do anything, including fight), but also because of limits of men and materiel and the need to regroup and replan on both sides.

Additionally, as I’ve noted before I’ve (generally) got a fairly narrow focus for the things I post. I’m concerned about what happens in Ukraine as a whole because it impacts Mariupol, Viktoria’s hometown (and my hometown-in-law). There are still family and friends in Mariupol and the surrounding area, and we still do our best to stay up with what’s happening to them. Unfortunately, getting news from Mariupol is not easy. Not surprisingly, the occupation forces don’t really want to tell the world what a crap job they’ve been doing fixing and running the city. Why is that? Wasn’t Russia going to liberate Mariupol from the oppressive Nazi heel they were being ground under?

Russia has done little in the way of repair or remediation for the damage they inflicted during their four-month siege of the city. The citizens who chose to stay in the city or who were unable to leave haven’t yet seen any real improvement in their lives. The bombs and shelling may have stopped — which I suppose counts as an improvement — but they still (by and large) don’t have any of the basics of modern life, the things they had before the Russians came. Things like water, electricity, sewer service, communication with the outside world, ready supplies of the basic foodstuffs for life beyond bare subsistence.

Russia and their puppets in the DNR haven’t been able to provide any of that in any meaningful way. So naturally there’s little news coming out of Mariupol beyond the little “set pieces” the Russians create to show the home audiences.

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We’ve heard little from Artem, Baba Katya and Rodion. Viktoria spoke with Katya a little around the holidays (New Years and Orthodox Christmas) but I don’t think there’s been anything since. We have been able to send Katya money, so we know they’ve been doing about as well as can be expected, but that’s still a far cry from being “OK.” We haven’t had direct content with Artem; the news we get is from when Katya goes to visit his family. Maybe things will improve a bit in the spring, when it’s a bit easier for people to get around again.

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I’m sorry for not posting much of late. I never intended my blog to be a full, complete source for information about the war… though I’m sure I would have given CNN a run for their money had that been my choice. I will try to post a bit more regularly, especially as things heat up again in the Spring (literally and figuratively). There are already indications that year two of this war is not going to be any better for Mariupol (Invaders deliver about 20 tanks to villages near Mariupol (ukrinform.net)), and staying up with the family and friends still there will become more important than ever.