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.)

I haven’t used this site much over the past few years, but it seems like a good time to restart. Since it was mostly for travel — which turned out to be mostly to Ukraine — and there hasn’t been much travel — to Ukraine or most anywhere else — there hasn’t been much to post. Now, though, there’s a lot going on in Ukraine and I’ve got a connection to it, so travel or not, it’s time to post.

When things first started, I sent some text messages, but the thread I used didn’t include everyone. I don’t think I need to post those here, but I can if anyone feels left out. I was doing an update for everyone today, and switched over to a different app (my cell phone instead of the house phone app) so I’ve been able to send word to all family members (I hope!). But I’m going to start putting those messages here too, just for a record. Plus, it will messages and posts about the current crisis in the same place with what I wrote back when Russia first invaded. It will be interesting to see if my perspectives have changed over that time.

For now, though, here’s the current update. I won’t include most of the readily available news, because the news organizations have that covered. No, these are more personal updates, about the people and places most dear to Viktoria and me.

Not a lot has changed in Ukraine for Viktoria’s family and friends. They are all still safe, by and large, but the situation around Mariupol is changing. Viktoria’s son is still stuck out west on a farm, a few hours outside of Lviv. It’s owned by the sister of one of Viktoria’s oldest friends. We’re not sure what will happen next for him, because travel in any direction is difficult. Mariupol is being surrounded on three sides. They’ve been on the eastern side of the city for several years; a push from that side is probably happening, but I haven’t read any updates regarding that direction. Still, being only a dozen miles away, it’s probably one of the shorter haps that the Russians have to make. Russian forces have moved in from the west and are currently at Berdyansk, a ‘resort’ town along the coast that I’ve been to a couple times. That puts those forces only a couple hours from Mariupol, so a push from that direction could come at any time (and probably sooner rather than later). To the north, fighting around Volnovakha (about an hour away) has been back and forth; Ukraine controls it right now, but it’s under heavy shelling. It’s a key railroad junction so it does have significant strategic importance. There is lots of news about Kyiv, Kharkiv and Kherson, but seems like the only Russian gains are along the coast and that’s what’s putting Mariupol in the greatest danger.

[Update 2/27/2022: the content below has been edited to include people’s names — not just their abbreviations — and for a little extra clarity because of this change.]

Viktoria has been in touch with her son Zhenya and both directly/indirectly with people in Mariupol. Her nephew Rodion, his grandmother (Baba Katya), and Baba Katya’s niece Oksana and family are staying at Viktoria’s mother’s apartment. Zhenya’s girlfriend Katya 2, her son Vanya, her mother Nellie and her mother’s friend are staying at Zhenya’s apartment. Both apartments are in the same building, so everyone’s together and can help each other out. Katya 2’s father and grandmother are in Volnovakha and can’t leave, and naturally everyone is worried about them. Although he has a car, his mother is 92 (a concern) and the road between Volnovakha and Mariupol is not that safe. Their electricity is out right now, so he’s probably using his phone sparingly. Another concern — as if people needed another one — is that neither Viktoria nor Zhenya have been able to contact Zhenya’s son Artem or his mother, Katya 1. Their house is on the eastern side of Mariupol, which is rather close the shelling coming Mariupol’s way. A smaller village that direction (Sartana) has already taken a lot of damage. There have been organized evacuations from that part of the city/suburbs, so hopefully they are just caught up in the shuffle of all that and haven’t yet been able to communicate out.

I’ll do a post at some later point with all the person abbreviations. [Ed – no longer needed.] I’ll also post some links to news sites that tend to watch. Like I mentioned above, you’ll hear a lot of news about Kyiv and a couple other big cities, and while I do know a couple of programmers in Kyiv, I tend to be more focused on Mariupol. (I will say that CNN seems to have a pretty good feed about the events in Ukraine.)