The BBC posted an interview (well, part of it, I’m sure) with the Russian ambassador to the UK and it is a sight to behold. The interviewer shows the ambassador some video and images of some of the events from the war, including Bucha and Mariupol, and essentially asks if this is indicative of how Russia is conducting the war. The answers boggle the mind.
I was expecting the dissembling on Bucha and a shooting from another city, but the lies about Mariupol really got me. Mostly because (a) I’d been watching the images and reports coming out of Mariupol for the past three months, (b) I’m not an idiot, and (c) I’ve got an eye-witness in my house that contradicts his lies about what happened in 2014. He talks about a referendum in Mariupol in 2014 where (he claims) the people voted to leave Ukraine but then the army showed up and forced the city to stay. Utter crap.
Despite having a majority Russian-speaking population, Mariupol was then and had always been proudly Ukrainian. There was never a referendum and it was never part of the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR). Some Russian-support “separatists” took control of the city’s administration building (City Hall) for about three weeks, but that was it. People didn’t want them there, didn’t support them (especially after they set fire to the building), and never wanted anything to do with the DPR. (Given what has happening in Donetsk and Luhansk, you can’t blame them. It’s when the term “warlord” was being used to describe the leaderships of some of the factions in those locations.)
Mariupol always had an independent streak and for much of the past eight years just wanted to be left alone. They didn’t like the Ukrainian army being stationed there, but with Russian forces only a few kilometers away put up with it. They didn’t want to join Russia or the DPR; they were always Ukrainian through and through. For that Russian ambassador to say anything else is lies and propaganda.
This annual celebration probably has special significance this year. The city of Kyiv is 1540 years old, but there has only been a “birthday party” for the city for the past 40 years. At least, that’s what Wikipedia says, and who am I to doubt such an authority? And as for Kyiv versus Moscow? Really no comparison…
I remember seeing this comparison from sometime ago, well before the current conflict. Most likely during the 2014 invasion, though I don’t remember the context. (Kyiv wasn’t threatened then and I don’t recall Russian rhetoric about Ukraine never historically existing.)
Viktoria and I were actually in Kyiv during their Day of the City celebrations in, I think, 2013. Just happened by chance, because I didn’t know it existed and Viktoria didn’t know what day it would have been. (Mariupol’s City Day yes, Kyiv’s no.) I know I’ve got some really bad pictures of hot air balloons that were in the square in front of St. Michael’s Cathedral and I’ll try to post one below. That’s where the taxi had to drop us off because the crowds of people (and blocked off streets) made it impossible to get any closer to the apartment we’d rented. I recall that there were events going on for two or three days after that, though I don’t really know if they were all connected to Kyiv Day or not. Whatever the reason, that was my first extended time in Kyiv, and the first trip Viktoria and I took together, so it holds a special place in my heart and memories.
People of Kyiv greeting Viktoria and me on our arrivalScreens and a stage set up for something (different night)
Here’s a little video from Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) about some of the “Russification” actions happening in the occupied regions of Ukraine. The video starts in Mariupol, but also has some views/discussion of events in Kherson. These events are happening all over the regions, though some such events had already happened in the parts of Luhansk and Donetsk that were captured back in 2014.
The one thing I’m not really clear on from the video is the passports. Ukraine has two passports — a domestic version, which is an internal identity document, and an international version, which is the passport Americans are familiar with. I know from past reporting, that Russia issued domestic passports in Luhansk and Donetsk, which makes sense from an occupation standpoint. However, such passports are typically issued locally, because they serve as a registry of residence and population. In the video, a person talks about people going to Crimea to get their new passports, which doesn’t really make sense if these are the domestic passports. To my mind, that’s one way to make sure that people won’t get them — destroy their city and then require them to go somewhere else (probably at their own expense) to get your new identity documents.
Mariupol has been without water, gas, communications and electricity for about three months. All that was taken out early in the war, sometime around the beginning of March. There are still about 100,000+ people (estimated) living in and around the city who have been making do, somehow, without these basic elements of contemporary life. Now that the Russians are running the show, they are trying to get those utilities up and running again, but have made some really dumb mistakes in the process.
Apparently, they figured that all they really needed to do was put some water into the system and everything would work. So they connected up a feed and turned it all on. This ended up flooding streets and basements with untreated and undrinkable water so it was pretty much a failure all around:
Despite the Keystone Kops-like nature of this failure, the lack of water and sanitation are widely expected to lead to an outbreak of cholera in the coming months. I’ve already read some speculation that the Russians would then use the outbreak as “proof” that the US and Ukrainians were using chemical weapons.
As was noted in one of the above articles, you actually need to have the electricity working before the water, because you need the electricity to run the pumping and water treatment stations. (They also need to fix the piping, but what’s good piping if you don’t have good water to put in them?) However, the Russian’s attempts to get the electricity going haven’t fared much better than their plumbing efforts: Apartments are burning in Mariupol due to the attempts of the occupiers to restore power supply – PHOTOS, VIDEO – 0629.com.ua.
(I have to say that I do rather like the snark that many of these local news stories get written with. Clearly the people running the city website are not fans of the occupation.)
The looting of Ukraine continues. There’s been stories about massive amounts of grain being stolen by the Russians. From the Kherson region, I saw a story about farm equipment being stolen as well. (Some of the farmers were able to remotely disable their tractors and combines, which makes me happy.) But even in Mariupol — a city that the Russians bombed to rubble as a way to “liberate” its citizens — the Russians are still finding stuff to steal. Some of the occupation efforts are to fix up — or at least clean up enough of — the port to allow ships to be loaded with loot – In Mariupol, the invaders are trying to resume the work of the port in order to take out the loot, – PHOTOS – 0629.com.ua. In addition to potential grain exports, they also want to take the previously finished steel products from Azovstal – In mariupol port, Russian invaders want to take out stolen metal on stolen ships – 0629.com.ua. Basically, if it wasn’t nailed down before and hasn’t yet been blown up, the Russians will try to take it.
This is not really a surprise. Russian forces and “separatists” took over the city of Donetsk eight years ago, and there is still un-repaired damage from that. I’m not even talking about the airport (which had been newly built in 2012, and was utterly destroyed in the 2014 conflict); there are buildings in downtown Donetsk that still have boards and plastic covering broken windows. (Sorry, I don’t have an article to cite, but this was an eye-witness account by Baba Katya during her visit there a few weeks ago.)
I’ll have to find something that I can link to or translate, but I’ve seen a couple Telegram posts today about at least one Mariupol story that appeared in a Russian newspaper. In it, the Russian military was lauded for taking Mariupol with only limited damage. It is such a crock it boggles the minds. Here’s a video from someone driving near and around the city center of Mariupol (it’s kind of long, about 4 minutes). It’s been reported that 90+% of the buildings in Mariupol had been damaged (over half of that beyond repair), and from the video, I don’t think I saw a single place without some sort of damage. So, yeah, “limited damage.”
Two comments about the video. One, toward the end you can see the area around the Drama Theater/Opera House. Mostly the camera is looking across the street, but that is where the video ends up, so you have a frame of reference. Two, there are actually a lot of bicycles in the video, especially for a destroyed and occupied city. I saw almost no one on bikes when I first visited Mariupol. They had grown in popularity since then and people saw that as proof that they were truly becoming a modern, European city (think Amsterdam). It would be nice if the rebuilt, Ukrainian Mariupol went all-in on bikes; I think that would be nice.
Technically, Russia invaded Ukraine in 2014, so this war has been going on for over 8 years. But it’s been three months since the latest round of actions has begun. Back in 2014, Russia was hiding/lying about what it was doing — suspiciously-accented Russia soldiers in new, unbranded fatigues showing up in Crimea, and “off-duty volunteers” showing up with tanks and weapons in Eastern Ukraine — but this time they’re out in the open about it. Still lying, of course; remember how initially Putin was saying that they had no intention of occupying Ukraine? They were just there to “de-Nazify” the country, put in their own puppet regime, and they were out of there. That line has since given way to various ways of subsuming portions of the east and south into existing oblasts or create a new, region Russian territory from them.
Giving up land for peace has never worked, ever, and I applaud President Zelensky for taking a stand on this. I would also like to see Ukraine’s 2014 borders made whole again, and I think that should be the ultimate goal. I’m not one for war — it’s a failure of diplomacy, common sense and basic humanity — but I believe the rules are meant to be followed if we’re going to call ourselves civilized. In this case the “rules” are internationally agreed-upon borders, and Russia stomped all over those rules.
I’ve been to Ukraine many times, and almost without exception have found the Ukrainian people to be welcoming and generous to me. I think they were a little amused — An American! And so far away from Kyiv! Is he lost? — but they were friendly and open. Despite the differences, I “clicked” with Mariupol, even before I met Viktoria. In some ways, it was always similar to Portland — climate, a port city, etc. I’m saddened to have seen what’s happened to it, and I really want to see it restored — a fully European and Ukrainian city.
A quick family update and recap:
Katya 2 and Vanya are still in Vienna and getting closer to migrating to Canada. They’ve both been approved for temporary visas, but Katya’s had a typo that needs to be addressed first, and Vanya needs to get an authorized travel document from their visa center. So still moving forward, but with a couple bumps.
Artem, Katya 1 and family are still in the Mariupol area, so contact has been spotty at best. It sounds like they’ve been “processed” by the occupying forces and fortunately haven’t been re-located to some unknown part of Russia. Not the best of safest situation, but stable for now.
Baba Katya and Rodion are also in the Mariupol area, a few miles east of Artem’s family. We’ve been trying to get in direct contact, but so far our phone systems haven’t wanted to talk to the occupier’s phone system, which is the only thing working around there. (Viktoria was able to contact Rodion’s teacher — now in Kherson — who was able to contact Katya. Some relaying involved, but it worked.) Katya’s son/Rodion’s father, Roman, is also there, though his wife and their kids have gone to Russia. Again, not a great place to be, but things are stable. I know that Katya and Rodion had gone to Donetsk a few weeks ago, so they can move about a bit and have some resources to get the things they need.
Inna is still unaccounted for. Apart from one brief blip back in March, there’s been no information.
Katya 2’s parents and grandmother are still in Volnovakha and seem to be getting by OK. I posted some video of when they came to Mariupol, so they’re able to get around somewhat. They are in regular contact with Zhenya and Katya.
Zhenya remains on that farm. He may not like helping out with the chores, but he’s safe — well, as safe as anyone can be in Ukraine. I think he should just hunker down for the duration, but Viktoria still seems convinced that he’s going to be drafted and sent to the front lines at any moment. (I try to tell her that just having martial law in place does not mean that’s going to happen, but sometimes you just can’t argue reason.)
(Just a reminder that you can find a relationship tree with all these names under Family in the menu at the top of the page.)
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.
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.
So, again — do they not know, or do they just not care?
(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.)
Here are some images from the courtyard side of Zhenya’s apartment block. What’s left of his balcony can be seen in the first image; his is the burned-out A/C unit that’s third down from the top, left side. Viktoria was in Mariupol when that was installed in his apartment; Zhenya was at work, so Viktoria came by to supervise the workmen. (Viktoria’s mother’s apartment would be further to the left of the image.)
All these photos came from neighbors or friends of a neighbor who came to check on an apartment. These last two are from the inside, from the apartment one floor above Zhenya’s place.
I’d mentioned the other day that Katya 2’s parents (Nellie and Anatoly) had gone to Mariupol to get things from Katya’s old apartment. At the time, they’d tried to get into Zhenya’s apartment as well, but couldn’t because of the rubble. I don’t know if they stayed in Mariupol or if they returned, but they were able to get into Zhenya’s apartment on this second visit and we have this video from the inside:
As you can see, between the shelling/bombing and fires, there’s really nothing left. (There could very well have been some looting as well.) I don’t have all the details as yet; Viktoria will be talking to Katya later and will get some more information. For example, we’d sent Zhenya a small safe a couple years ago, and we don’t know what happened to that. Viktoria relayed that it “burned down,” but that doesn’t completely make sense, so hopefully there will be some details.
It’s also rather interesting how Nellie and Anatoly got into Zhenya’s apartment. It wasn’t through the front door because the stairwell rubble had been cleared. No, they actually came from an adjoining apartment — the apartment next to Viktoria’s mother’s apartment — because the walls had been knocked down.
Unfortunately, this video pretty much ends any hope that Viktoria’s family items had survived the Russian invasion. I’d noted previously that after Viktoria’s mother’s passing, Zhenya had taken possession of several family items — photo albums, knickknacks jewelry and some things of significance. It would seem that all those are gone now — destroyed or stolen. Naturally, Viktoria is quite heart-broken by all this.
The BBC has had a couple good articles up over the past couple days. This first one looks at the timeline of Mariupol’s place in the war: Mariupol: Key moments in the siege of the city. It seems to pretty well cover the events.
This second article is definitely a more reflective one, and has some great pictures of what Mariupol used to look like: Mariupol: The 80 days that left a flourishing city in ruins. One of the people interviewed confirms something that I had been thinking. It seemed odd to me that Russia was spending so much effort taking down Mariupol. Grinding it down, destroying the people and the culture, wiping it from the face of the map. If all Russia had wanted was a land-bridge to Crimea, they had control of enough land surrounding the city to do that. So why the intense focus on Mariupol? From the article:
...[W]hile Mariupol flourished, rebel-held Donetsk mouldered. When the rebels returned to Mariupol, Volodymyr, the paramedic, believed they were driven by revenge to destroy the city. "'If we live in sh[*]t, then you will live in sh[*]t as well,'" Volodymyr says they told him at a checkpoint as he finally escaped the city. "They just looked at us and envied how we lived."
I think you kind of see that in the stories of the Russian soldiers who took anything and everything they could get their hands on. Ukraine was becoming the paradise that Russia could only hope to be, and Mariupol was one of the crowing jewels of that success.
I only got to see the start of some of the public works and improvement projects the last time I was there. It’s sad that I didn’t get to see the results, but Viktoria was there a lot last year and has told me that things were looking great. (And that’s from someone who had lived in the city all her life.)
I know that Mariupol will be in Ukrainian hands again, and I hope that’s sooner than not. Russia’s had 8 years to turn the portions of Donetsk and Luhansk that they controlled into examples of the “Russian world,” and perhaps that’s just what they did. If Mariupol is their idea of “rescuing” the people of Ukraine, the sooner they’re gone the better.
One quick add-on: I’m not a big fan of this cartoonist, but in this case I think he nailed it.
Don’t know what was up with my shoulder — felt like I’d whacked it along with some muscle strain, but I don’t think either of those things happened — but it’s doing much better now.
I’ll start with good news: both Katya 2 and Vanya have now been approved to travel to Canada. I didn’t really expect that they would be denied and it’s nice that Canada has acknowledged that. Slight issue to be worked out with Katya’s visa (there was a typo), and they still have to get a special travel document since they don’t have international passports. It will probably be another month-ish before they actually get on a plane, but every step to that end is progress.
Viktoria had been hoping that she could arrange for Artem to come to the US (through the US’s “Uniting for Ukraine” emergency parole program), but it doesn’t look like that’s going to happen. Using a contact in one of the groups she’s been following, Viktoria sent a message to Katya 1 (Artem’s mother) proposing a plan where they and Viktoria would meet at a Russian city just over the Ukrainian border, Viktoria would take custody of Artem, and they’d travel to Poland or a Baltic country to make the arrangements for Artem to come to the US. Katya 1 didn’t agree with the proposal, that’s all off the table for now.
(I think I mentioned it before, but in case not and if you were wondering, Katya 2 and Vanya don’t qualify for the US program because they don’t have those international passports. Canada’s nice in that they are making some exceptions, but the US rules say you have to have legal documents that would let you travel to the US.)
While it would have been amazing if the soldiers in Azovstal had ultimately prevailed, here’s a look at the sort of thing they were up against.
This was going on all the time. Last week I saw a post noting that 30 or more bombing missions were being carried out on most days. This would mean a bombing run every 20-30 minutes during daylight hours, filled in with artillery and on-shore bombardments. And if conventional munitions weren’t enough, they also had to deal with white phosphorus bombs.
Some views of Mariupol:
(Not a fan of the music; I don’t think it’s needed.)
This post is video-heavy, but I have to include this one. This video is from someone who was probably checking on people who lived up the stairs from Viktoria’s mother. The video is rather dark, but in the stairwell you can see some of the destruction from the bombing and fire(s). There are little peeks inside an apartment too; there’s not much left to see. Right around the 1:10 mark you will see Viktoria’s mother’s apartment doorway. The outer door frame is lying on the landing (after the landing with the umbrella). It’s definitely not clear what of this apartment might have survived, but things do not look good.
Katya 2’s parents visited Mariupol the other day; it’s dicey to travel anywhere, but since they’re older and have already been “processed” by the Russians, they have generally good mobility. They had hoped to gather things from Katya’s old apartment and from Zhenya’s apartment. The former had been completely ransacked, with anything of potential value or use taken. We don’t know the status of Zhenya’s apartment because they couldn’t get to it; the stairwell was blocked by rubble. They will try to return in a few weeks and hope they can get in then. I suspect that once people are able to make their way into the stairwell, Zhenya’s place will be similarly burgled, so there might not be anything left to recover.
