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.)

It appears that the siege of Mariupol is now coming to an end. Multi-party negotiations have reached some sort of accord to evacuate the soldiers from Mariupol and then exchange them for captured Russian POWs. Several of the severely wounded soldiers have already been evacuated, and it’s my understanding that more will be evacuated in the coming days (Evacuation of Ukrainian defenders from Azovstal plant – ukrinform.net). There is already movement in Russia to nullify this UN/Red Cross brokered agreement. Some members in the Russian Duma (parliament) are saying that they need to halt the exchange/return of any members of the Azov Regiment, as well as put them to death after they’ve been tried and found guilty (In the aggressor country, they want to ban the exchange of azovstal defenders and for their sake lift the moratorium on execution – News May 17, 2022 – 0629.com.ua).

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:

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.

Sorry for the lack of updates; there’s always plenty going on, but I managed to do something to my shoulder a couple days ago, which is making sitting and writing at the computer a bit difficult. So expect some gaps in my posts. Sorry about that.

I’ll definitely keep you informed of any family updates or movements since that’s the overarching purpose of this blog at the moment. There’s been nothing to report on that front; bureaucracies move slowly. And you’ve probably heard the latest big news out of Mariupol — that all the women, children and elderly that had been sheltered at Azovstal have been evacuated (Ukraine war: Civilians now out of Azovstal plant in Mariupol – BBC).

Here are a couple things that caught my eye over the past few days:

• Not Mariupol, but the survival story and descriptions are almost identical: ‘We tried not to watch’ – escapees recount terror of Russian-occupied Izyum – BBC
• It had been an on-again/off-again question about a “Victory Day” parade in Mariupol, depending on who was doing the talking — Russia or the DNR. Russia said no, but apparently the DNR did have some small demonstration. (May 9 in Mariupol. With cries of “Hooray!” the occupiers carried a striped cloth – PHOTOS, VIDEO – News May 9, 2022 – 0629.com.ua)
• I’ve seen assorted reports (I’ll find the links) of occupying forces changing road signs and renaming cities and streets back to their Russian or Soviet versions. Cheap theatrics at best.

You’ve probably heard or seen the news about people being evacuated from Azovstal. It happened over the weekend, and it took a couple days for some of the buses and cars to travel the usual 4-5 trip to Zaporozhia. You probably heard about this because it was getting a lot of coverage, and in truth, it really was a big event. But that’s only the case because Russia has been so intractable about ceasefires and green corridors and letting people leave the city. So I was waiting to see what was actually going to happen. The fact that the UN and the ICRC were actually permitted to arrive in Mariupol was a good sign, but one never knows.

156 people (156 evacuees from Azovstal arrived in Zaporizhzhia – PHOTOS, VIDEO – News May 3, 2022 – 0629.com.ua). That’s the total “official” count of people evacuated from Azovstal over the two-day ceasefire (one and a half days, really, because Russia decided to honor the ceasefire 5 hours later than they’d agreed to). This is out of a purported 1000 people who had been sheltering there. The number also didn’t include any wounded military. Personal cars were invited to join the evacuation, but since there are still an estimated 100,000 people in Mariupol, it would have taken a lot of cars to get them all out. So, yes, it’s good that 156 people were able to make it out. But there are still far more people still trapped.

Remember from last week, when supposed Putin directed forces to just button up Azovstal and stop trying to take it over? Yeah, that never really happened. Not only did the bombing and shelling continue almost unabated, but Russian forces continue to try to take control of the area (Russian troops begin to storm Azovstal plant – ukrinform.net, Video of assault on Azovstal plant released – ukrinform.net). So was that supposed stand-down order just PR, or does Putin not actually command the Russian armed forces? Seems like there’s a disconnect.

Just a little sidenote. I got in touch with a friend from Mariupol — an English teacher named Anna whom I’d met some years ago. She, along with her kids and parents, left Mariupol about the same time as Katya 2 and Vanya. They kind of had to, since their house was on fire. Her descriptions of living in their basement without heat or electricity, running out of food and water, is virtually the same as other reports from there. Fortunately, they’re all safe now, but as Anna noted, their life in Mariupol is gone and they have to start over now.

Viktoria has been working on getting information about her sister, but hasn’t come up with too much as yet. In a previous post I had noted that V found information that Inna had gotten some sort of assistance from a Russian/DPR source but (a) I personally wasn’t sure how accurate that site might have been and (b) that was from the beginning of April, so any aid received would likely have been used up by now. V has been using the contacts she’s been curating on the various Mariupol channels to try to dig up information. She had me look up the street address of Inna’s occasional boyfriend, which is presumably where Inna was staying when she wasn’t at the family apartment block. V tells me that people reported that building as also showing shelling and fire damage.

Viktoria is also formulating plans to get Artem out of Ukraine. V has been chatting with someone she knows who lives in the same area as Artem and Katya 1 and who may be able to get messages to them. Viktoria hopes that Katya would agree and be able to get Artem to Rostov or some other place in Russia, at which point Viktoria would travel to Russia and bring Artem back to the US (presumably under the US “Uniting for Ukraine” program). To say that this is a plan is probably a bit generous. It’s more of a sketchy notion, with a lot of “if’s” and assumptions. If anything comes of it, I’ll let people know.

It sounds like plans for a “victory parade” in Mariupol on May 9 has been cancelled by the occupying forces. Maybe the didn’t think they could get all the rubble and bodies cleaned up in time. Or couldn’t come up with a good propaganda line for why they were marching through a city with damage to 90%+ of the buildings, with half of them beyond repair. (Granted, a lot of the Russian people are ready to believe any of the swill coming from state media, but if the lies are too outrageous, some people are going to start questioning things.) Apparently, believing their own rhetoric, the parade is being cancelled because of a fear from Ukrainian shelling. More likely the shelling of the Azovstal plant wasn’t going to stop and people were either afraid of getting hit, or that it might just look bad (more?) parading through a ruined city that was still under attack. Hard to know what, since rational thought is not involved. (Scared of shelling. In the “DNR” militants canceled the “victory parade” on May 9 – News April 28, 2022 – 0629.com.ua)

The Azov Regiment — having a little time to kill in the Azovstal bunkers, listening to the ongoing barrages — did a little calculating and figure that Russia has spent over a billion dollars (so far) trying to take Mariupol. I don’t know about the accuracy of their numbers, but it seems possible, since they’ve been trying to take the city for two months. During that two months, there has been a lot of artillery, many overflights and bombs, some precision guided missiles, and assorted infantry prowling through the city. That does cost something for sure, so maybe a billion isn’t too far off the mark. If you take into account the other costs that weren’t included in that total — food, fuel, “humanitarian” assistance, digging mass graves, relocating the population by force, etc. — even if the number cited are high, the total cost so far might still be north of a billion. (Russia spends more than $1.1B to destroy Mariupol – Azov Regiment – ukrinform.net)

I’m always a little interested in the animal stories that occasionally appear. There are some nice stories, like those about Patron, the mine-sniffing dog that’s helping in some of the de-occupied areas (Meet Patron, the dog who loves cheese and sniffs out mines in Ukraine – msn.com). Or some of the stories out of Kharkiv or Kyiv about how the animals of their zoo were successfully evacuated (Rescue under fire: Animals evacuated from ecopark near Kyiv – ukrinform.net). On the Mariupol city website was a brief article about the zoo/ecopark in Mariupol. The animals there could not be evacuated, but the staff of the zoo stayed to take care of them (How mariupol zoo survives in the besieged city – VIDEO – News April 27, 2022 – 0629.com.ua). Here’s a version of the story from the AP, along with a video – Mariupol zoo animals caught in crossfire (yahoo.com).

Of course, it’s not all nice or inspiring. I saw a post on Viber today about Black Sea dolphins washing up on shore. They don’t appear to suffer from the “typical” causes of death, such as netting. A marine biologist notes that not only are the dolphins in danger from mines and ship shelling, but the sonar also affects the dolphin’s hearing, causing disorientation. (Off the coast of Odesa region due to the Russian invaders, dolphins are dying en masse – ecologist — tsn.ua)

I’ve mentioned the Russian filtration camps a couple times. DW, a German news service (I was there looking for the zoo story), has an article about what these camps are and how they work (Russia′s humiliating ′filtration′ of civilians fleeing occupied Ukraine | Europe | News and current affairs from around the continent – DW – 28.04.2022).

Another video that shows the family apartment block. Not much though, just the end. The car is driving down the cross street, coming up on Mira Prospect where the apartments are.

Here’s a little map with the apartment circled and an arrow for the direction of the car. Not shown on the map, but if you followed Mira (“Myru Ave” on the map) to the right, you would come to the theater that was bombed. Walking, about 20 minutes or so, by bus, only about 5 minutes away.

You’ve probably heard the name on the news. Currently it’s the last Ukrainian-controlled area of Mariupol, and it’s been housing the Ukrainian forces as well as a number of civilians who have sheltered with them. Prior to all this — and, really, prior to the Coronavirus pandemic — it was easily the largest employer in the Mariupol area. One of four steel plants located in Mariupol, it was also one of the largest steel plants in Ukraine. (Its parent company, MetInvest, is probably the largest private company in Ukraine.)

It had been operating for decades, and four generations of Viktoria’s family had worked there. Viktoria worked there for 30 years, and before that, her paternal grandmother, V’s father and even her mother for a short time worked at Azovstal. Until about the end of last year, Zhenya worked there as well.

Apparently that place really is massive, both in terms of horizontal area, but also by vertical depth. According to Viktoria, some of the tunnels were open and regularly used by employees to get around the plant. Other parts were a little more restricted. Being part of the electrical crew, Zhenya spent some time in the less public tunnels. A few years back, when there was a lot of metal and wire theft happening at the plant, Zhenya was actually accosted by some of the bandits in the tunnels. And according to Viktoria, her father told her about some of the discussions he’d have at breaks with his coworkers about possible chemical labs and secret development areas the Soviets ran under the plant.

There’s been a lot of discussion about evacuations for the people sheltering at Azovstal, but nothing has come to pass so far. It was widely reported just yesterday that Putin had agreed “in principle” to an Azovstal evacuation with the UN (Putin agrees “in principle” to UN, Red Cross involvement in evacuations from Mariupol – UN chief’s spox (ukrinform.net)), but Russia is out today denying that any such plans are in the works (Russia denies agreement with UN to evacuate civilians from Mariupol’s Azovstal – News April 27, 2022 – 0629.com.ua). Meanwhile, Russian artillery continues to pound the area (Russian forces carried out 35 air strikes on Azovstal in past 24hrs, civilians injured (ukrinform.net)).

Here’s a video of some of the people hiding in the tunnels. You can probably fast-forward over a lot of it; it is mostly static shots of the people talking about the conditions and such. For non-Russian speakers (and yes, most of the people in Mariupol speak Russian — the same people the Russian attacks were supposed to be in support of), just take a look at the conditions. Compared to some other photos and videos I’ve seen, things aren’t as bad, but we still aren’t talking about anything that good either.

While seeing Mariupol getting destroyed has been hard on Viktoria, especially when she gets images of “our” apartment block, watching and reading about the events at Azovstal have been painful as well. She put in 30 years of her life at that factory. She knows and understands what a key part of the city it was, not just for her family, but for many, many of the people and families in Mariupol. I’m sure there were days when she hated going to work, but even on the worst of those days, it’s clear to me that she never would have wished for something like this.

The US finally came out with their “Uniting for Ukraine” immigration application website today. It’s the “fast-track” immigration program that was promised a while ago to allow about 100,000 Ukrainians to come to the US, provided they have a sponsor to cover their costs. Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like we’ll be able to take advantage of it.

While sponsorship is not a problem, the program requires that refugees coming here have a passport with which to travel. That seems to ignore the reality that a lot of people — including Katya 2 and Vanya — had to leave their homes without such documentation (for any number of reasons). While Katya and Vanya have had international passports issued to them, they aren’t in possession of them and the Ukraine government isn’t able to supply replacements at this time.

At present, it would appear that the Canadian program is going to work better. Their program does account for people not having all their documentation and is willing to work with that. Staying with us would be preferred, but getting them to Western Canada is second best; at least we and/or Viktoria would be able to visit regularly (and a US dollar may go farther in Canada than it does in the US).

The Mariupol City website has an article up comparing the occupation of Mariupol during WWII by German forces to what the Russians are doing today. It’s rather interesting, as there are some definite parallels between then and now. In some ways, the Germans come off looking better than the Russians, though when it’s a race to the bottom, is there really a “better?”

From the article, Mariupol 1941:

And Mariupol 2022:

I’ve added a visual representation of our Ukrainian family under the Family link, in the menu above. Where appropriate, I’ve shown the referenced name followed by their real name. Mostly it’s just all the Katya (which is short for Katheryn and Ekaterina — basically Catherine.) (Viktoria’s family also has a lot of Alexanders; thank goodness I don’t have to show them.)

Supposedly the Russians have taken Mariupol and Putin has called for a halt to any more efforts to take the Azovstal area and plant. Of course, that was all said yesterday, and the shelling continued, so… sure.

The war crimes and attempts to cover them up continue:

• UN representatives document dozens of executions of civilians in Bucha
• Up to 9,000 bodies of slain civilians could be buried in mass grave spotted near Mariupol
• Another mass grave of dead residents discovered in Mariupol (yeah, another one)

A more positive store from the BBC: Mariupol: Driving into the ‘apocalypse’ to save mum and dad – BBC News. For some added context, the events described in the article happened about the same time that Katya 2 and Vanya left Mariupol on foot, walking about 12 miles to a neighboring town.

Although “Mariupol” is being heard a lot these days, if your news is anything like mine, you’ve probably been hearing the name of city pronounced in a few different ways, usually wrong. I think the version I hear the most often is “MARY-opal.” The other night I heard “MARY-you-POLE.” It hurt my ears so much I sent an email to the channel (a local station) and gave them some pronunciation tips (while casually noting that my wife is from there, so, c’mon guys, get it right). Never heard back, but also haven’t heard any recent news about Mariupol on the newscast I typically watch.

In case you were wondering, it’s a four-syllable name — Mar-i-u-pol — with the emphasis on the third syllable. Proper pronunciation would be “mahr-ih-YOU-pull,” but that “ih” isn’t something that shows up much in English. So a close “Western” pronunciation is “mahr-ee-OO-pull,” without too much “ee” coming through. And it’s OK if the second and third syllables end up pushed together; most of the time it does almost sound like the city’s name only has three syllables.

Given everything that’s been happening there — some of which is only starting to be known — it seems only proper to try to pronounce the name correctly.