The only real location in this Russian war where the Russians have had a consistent advantage has been in the southeast of Ukraine. Since 2014-2015 there has been a line of contact between Russian-held territory (though they’d say it was DNR, as if there’s any real difference) and Ukrainian-held territory that has run only a few miles east of the cities of Mariupol and Volnovakha. That’s placed these cities on the front lines of this previously slow-burning war. Being so close to Russian-held territory has meant that these cities have been well within range of even short-range missile systems for a long time.

When Russia decided to amp things up, it was a simple matter to start shelling the bejeezus out of these towns. They didn’t have to commit any troops to gain land in order to place their siege equipment; it was already in position. And so, for days on end, Russian artillery has rained down on these front line cities, with either indiscriminate indifference or intentional malice to the targeted areas. When not actively attacking residential areas, the Russians have been working to take out the infrastructure — electricity, water, central heat and communications — making the situation for civilians trapped in these area even worse.

Mariupol has been without the basics for days and the situation is desperate. Volnovahka has been all but destroyed, and yet there are still people sheltering in the few remaining structures. Talks between Ukrainian and Russian delegates two days ago agreed (probably “in principle”) to the establishment of safe humanitarian corridors to allow trapped civilians to evacuate, and after a lot of discussion there appeared to be agreements that would allow the people of Mariupol and Volnovakha to leave.

When I went to bed last night (11pm PST, 9am in Mariupol), the temporary ceasefire was supposed to start but hadn’t yet. When I got up this morning to see where things stood, it seems that the shelling had stopped around 9:30-10am, so the city council sent out the “all clear” for people to assemble and be bused out of the city. However, prior to the buses leaving, the shelling resumed (around 12pm) including around the assembly points. The ceasefire that was supposed to last until at least 4pm was already broken. Additionally, it was found that the safe corridor wasn’t safe anyway. People lucky enough to have their own transportation were instructed on the route to take, but Russian military was shelling that route as well.

It would seem that Russia isn’t happy with the war crimes they’ve already committed, and want to do just about everything possible to show the world that Hitler was a piker. Of course the story in Russian media is that they tried — really tried — to let those innocent people get to safety, but that nasty old nationalist Ukrainian army prevented people from leaving and then started firing on their own people again. What an utter crock.

So, as of Saturday morning in the US, the situation for family and friends in Mariupol has not changed. If anything, it’s actually gotten worse, because now it’s been shown that the Russians cannot be trusted to keep their word and allow civilians to escape the horrors that they’ve brought to Ukraine.

Some reading:
What happened today in Mariupol is a war crime of the Kremlin – News March 5, 2022 – 0629.com.ua
Putin dials up threats against Ukraine and Western powers as stalled evacuations trap thousands – CNN
Russians fire towards area of green corridor in Mariupol – Defense Ministry (ukrinform.net)

If you’re already bummed out by what I’ve been writing about Mariupol, you should probably skip the video below. It’s from a couple days ago, when the situation was already dire, so you can bet it’s only gotten worse since. It’s an ITV news crew bugging out after electricity was lost in the city. Sorry, but felt I should share.

If you want to do something that feels positive (even if it won’t actually help), consider writing to your senators and representatives. In the past couple days, Viktoria has asked me to write them about the move to set up a no-fly zone over Ukraine, and the need/urgency to create “green corridors” for people to exit Mariupol. The US has already stated its position on the former and not really involved in the latter, and there’s limited things that reps and senators can do on or to influence the world stage, but letting someone in a leadership role know how you feel feels good. And maybe it will help in some way. It only takes a few minutes.

Still no updates or positive news to report from family/friends in Mariupol. The city remains largely cut off, with electricity, water, heat and communications not working, or barely working at best. Viktoria hasn’t heard from anyone, but there is something getting out of the area, somehow, because there are sporadic news reports and — this is my primary source for information — the Mariupol City Council continues to update their Telegram page (https://t.me/s/mariupolrada). The city website also gets updated (https://www.0629.com.ua/), so clearly there is some electricity and internet or mobile communications working, but apparently there’s not that much.

The most, and perhaps only, hopeful takeaway from yesterdays “peace” talks was the agreement that “green corridors” — safe passage from people to leave a war zone, or for humanitarian aid and supplies to be brought in — are probably needed. The Ukrainian side wanted a full cease-fire but were willing to go with the green corridors for now. Reports on the Russian response painted them as being fairly lackluster about it. A “well, I guess we oughta…” sort of response.

If accurate — and I have no reason to think not — it would explain why it’s taking forever to get something arranged for Mariupol. (Also this.) Sure, the Russians aren’t in any hurry; they’re warm and safe and able to shell soccer fields and kill teenagers at a distance. Why should they worry about making things nice for a bunch of scary women, children and elderly huddled in dark, cold basements? There’s already ample (and ever growing) evidence of war crimes; this should be part of that list.

As I’ve noted previously, Mariupol has been getting short-shrift in the war news. Not that it’s a competition, of course, and the destruction happening to Kyiv and Kharkiv are important subjects to cover. But things are categorically worse in Mariupol and have been for the better part of a week. Kyiv and Kharkiv get little breaks for their attacks; Mariupol was just shelled for 26 hours straight.

I noted yesterday that the city was largely surrounded, and its electricity and heat had been cut off by attacks. It seems that news organizations are starting to notice the situation down south and start reporting on it. The BBC has had a couple stories in the past day:
Ukrainian city of Mariupol ‘near to humanitarian catastrophe’ after bombardment
Mariupol under siege: ‘We are being completely cut off’

CNN had a story as well:
Key city of Mariupol under siege as Russia tightens grip on Ukraine’s south
One thing I don’t like about CNN’s story is the map they’re using that shows the city already under Russian control, which it’s not. But the situation is not good and that might be the case soon.

Unfortunately, the city’s electricity, heating and water are all largely out, and because of the near-constant shelling, repair crews are having trouble getting things back up. Also, consistent with Russia’s shift the other day to target communications around cities (I guess you sometimes have to take a break from bombing schools and hospitals), contact with Mariupol has been spotty at best because of various attacks. As a result, Viktoria hasn’t been able to contact family or friends for well over a day.

This means that the group in Mariupol hasn’t gotten some relatively good news. You may recall from a previous post that Katya 2’s father and grandmother were essentially trapped in Volnovakha. (Katya 2’s aunt and cousin also live there and were similarly trapped.) The cousin was able to get a message to Zhenya yesterday that father, grandmother, aunt and cousin have all be safely evacuated. Evacuated to where wasn’t told, because that information isn’t supposed to be given out at this time, but people are safe. Unfortunately, Katya 2 and her mother Nellie haven’t gotten this news yet, so they’re probably still worried about that as well as their own situation.

UPDATE: I’ve gotten some clarification on the above, and things aren’t quite a good as I’d written. Katya 2’s aunt, cousin (and apparently, a daughter of the cousin) were evacuated, but her father and grandmother were not. Initial evacuation was women and children. That excludes the father, obviously, and the grandmother has difficulty getting around, so she was probably skipped in the initial round for expediency. So slightly good news, but not as good as originally hoped.

An article yesterday on the BBC website followed by one on CNN today pointed out the snowjob being given the Russian people. While we are seeing images of cities being targeted by Russian missiles, people in Russia are being told all is good, except for those crazy Ukrainians who are killing their own citizens.
BBC: “Ukraine: Watching the war on Russian TV – a whole different story”
CNN: “I spent an entire day watching Russia’s propaganda network. Here’s the warped reality I saw presented to viewers”

I was also struck by the “starting point” demands of Russian for their peace talks today. Typically one might expect that such meetings would be a dialogue, with each side making compromises to achieve an agreeable solution. And, with this being the second of such talks, the beginning positions should like reflect some moderation from where things stood at the beginning of the first set of talks. Unfortunately, that’s just a rational view of things and doesn’t describe the Russian position at all. Their demands: Crimea is ours, those separatist regions are independent countries (once they take over the rest of their oblasts), you Ukrainians give up all your weapons so we feel safe, and stop letting Nazis run your country and attack your people. In other words, Russia wants everything in their war propaganda to be acknowledged and addressed. Which can never happen, since none of those things are real, and in the case of that last point, you can’t “stop” doing something that doesn’t even exist.

Since Russia is demanding their own reality, I don’t see these talks going anywhere.

Just a quick comment. There have been reports today of shelling in Kyiv near the south railway station. It’s an area I’m very familiar with, having spent far too much time there during past trips. It sounds like the damage wasn’t too bad, but it was still weird to see all the broken windows on a place I know pretty well.

The situation in Mariupol is becoming more dire each day. They’ve been on the front lines for 8 years, since the first invasion back in 2014, and the city came under a rocket attack in early 2015 (just before Viktoria came to the US) that killed a dozen and injured scores more. Although it had then been relatively quiet and stable since that time, the last few days have thrown the city back into the thick of things.

Viktoria’s family and friends remain safe for now, but the city is under increasing attack. Mariupol, like other larger cities, has been the target of shelling and is being encircled by forces to the north, east and west. Pavlo Kyrylenko, the head of the Donetsk Regional Military Administration, wrote on Facebook that “Mariupol is under the Russian rocket barrage. The occupiers attack all districts of the city. Shelling does not stop … According to operational information, 21 wounded are already known. The number of dead is still unknown.”

About half of the city was without electricity and heat last night because rockets (Grads) had taken out some high-energy transmission lines. City crews were able to get them repaired but not until daylight. Hopefully they’ll be able to keep the heat and electricity tonight, because it is rather cold over there.

Being largely cut off from the rest of Ukraine means that supplies in the city are getting rather low. Katya 2 and Oksana’s husband (V told me his name but I’ve forgotten) went out yesterday to several stores for water and groceries. They ended up going to 3-4 different places because the cupboards are getting rather bare. They did score some water and a few other things; picked up some food for their cat, too. The city has some water and bread distribution points, but according to Viktoria, they aren’t close by.

Sadly, this is all taking its toll on Viktoria. She was telling me last night that she just felt numbed all this. She thinks this means that there’s something wrong with her, but I was trying to tell her this was normal. Emotional burnout and such. I don’t think she was overly convinced. It probably doesn’t help that one of the astrologers she watches on YouTube was predicting that the Russian war would last for 8 months. I’ve pointed out how wrong this person has been in the past, but part of Viktoria’s numbness may have come from the thought that, this time, the prediction might be right.

I’ll try to get some photos and videos from Viktoria and share those. As I’ve mentioned before, the news coverage of the big cities is pretty thorough, but news (and images) out of Mariupol aren’t as widespread.

Viktoria talked to her son, Zhenya, late last night or early this morning, and there’s some positive news to relate. (Well, “positive” might not be the right word, but at least this isn’t bad.) Zhenya was about to get hold of his ex-wife Katya 1, and it sounds like she and Artem are OK for now. Katya 1, Artem, Katya 1’s mother (Natasha) and family are hunkered down in someone’s basement/bomb shelter. They’re still in the Mariupol area, so definitely not out of danger, but I guess they’re safe enough for now.

When I first started posting content involving family people who weren’t me, I tended to avoid using their names. Posts from 7-8 years often refer to “my wife,” but since the only likely audience for my ramblings know me and her, there’s not much point to not say “Viktoria.” I mean, if the deep state really cared, they’d already know who I was, as well as everyone around me.

So I’ve decoded I’m just going to put people’s names in my posts, as best I can, unless there’s some reason I can’t or shouldn’t. I mean, I’m not going to be a name-dropper, mostly because I don’t know anyone whose name I would drop, but there’s no reason to go to confusing extremes to avoid names. Especially since knowing the names will help keep everyone and their relationships easier to follow.

I’ll go back and update my previous post with complete names, but here’s a rundown of people in Ukraine that Viktoria (mostly) is talking to:

• Zhenya, aka Eugene (the English version of his real name, Yevgen) – Viktoria’s son
• Katya, referred to as Katya 2 – Zhenya’s girlfriend
• Vanya – Katya 2’s son
• Nellie – Katya 2’s mother
• Rodion – Viktoria’s nephew
• Katya, referred to as Baba Katya – Rodion’s (other) grandmother
• Oksana – Baba Katya’s niece
• Artem – Zhenya’s son and Viktoria’s grandson
• Katya, referred to as Katya 1 – Zhenya’s ex-wife and Artem’s mother
• Inna – Rodion’s mother and Viktoria’s sister

Also, here’s a quick list of sites that I’ve been watching for news out of Ukraine. I’ve added notes as appropriate.

• cnn.com – they’ve had a regularly updating feed for every day of the invasion/war. Reporting seems reliable and the information is in English.
• twitter.com/RichardEngle – he has been based in Mariupol, so some of his tweets initially were pretty helpful/informative. He hasn’t had much lately, just repeats of news from elsewhere, so I’ll probably be dropping him of the list soon.
• ukrinform.net – a platform of English-language Ukrainian news. A little more focused that CNN (which tends to include more global-related stories), but often where I first see content that later appears at CNN. Reporting seems reliable, but being single-sourced, could be subject to fake news at times. (I haven’t specifically seen any, but just be wary.)
• 0629.com.ua – the city website for Mariupol. You will have to translate and they just — like yesterday — switched from Russian to Ukrainian. Mostly updates during Ukraine’s day, so things will be old when you read them. Written for the people in Mariupol, so some content won’t make sense or be too relevant on this side of the world.
• ukr.net – a Ukrainian news aggregator. Pulls in headlines from multiple sites, so quite a range of content is covered. Unfortunately, it’s all in Russian and Ukrainian, so again, you’ll have to translate. Currently, the first two sections of the main column are relevant.

And, of course, I’ve got a great news resource in Viktoria and all the people listed above. Hopefully they will all stay safe and continue to be able to relate what is happening to and around them.

(A note on translations: if you use a Chromium-based browser, such as Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge, you will probably be offered to see the page translated automatically. The quality of the translated content will vary quite a bit, but the gist will usually come through. The translations for the Mariupol website tend to be the most difficult, since I think the writing style there is pretty informal, but it’s usually not too bad. No worse than those Chinese-to-English translations you read about sometimes.)