Although I made a couple stabs at writing something, there really hasn’t been much news or information to post for the past couple days. A writer on some site (I’ve forgotten which) also noted that there was a comparative “lull” in news coming out of Ukraine. Not that there isn’t a lot going on and not that — despite Russian claims to the contrary — the fighting has slowed down. There’s still a lot happening every day and all of it is tragic.

Some more good news for Katya 2 and Vanya (and the cat). As noted previously, they’d made it to Zaporozhia and were waiting out the weekend in order to catch an evacuation train heading west. On Monday they got over to the train station early, got in line, and got seats in one of the second-class cabins heading to Lviv. Usually these cabins are for 4 people (because there are four sleeping berths — most trains in Ukraine are overnight trains) but because of the evacuation necessities, 8 people were riding in these cabins. The train left around noon and, about 18 hours later, pulled into the station of the little town where Zhenya has been staying. Although the travel time was about twice what it normally would have been — because of delays, re-routing, zig-zags and whatnot — Katya and Vanya arrived safe and sound.

The plan now is for them to spend a couple days on the farm and then drive over to the Hungarian or Slovakian border. (Also staying at the farm is Dima, who is the son of Viktoria’s friend in Vienna, Tanya, and the nephew of farm’s owner, Tanya’s sister Nadia. Dima has a car.) After getting over the border — again, Zhenya can’t go with them because of martial law in Ukraine — Katya and Vanya will go on to Vienna, where Tanya will help as best she can to get them settled or to the appropriate resources.

Beyond that, it’s hard to say. Things may not be getting substantially worse in Ukraine, but they also aren’t getting that much better and probably won’t for a while. I know that Mariupol will be rebuilt, but that’s going to be years of work (it’s not a positive testament to humanity that 30 days of destruction requires years to undo). I want to see Ukraine made whole again, and I have tremendous respect for those fighting to make that happen. But it’s not a safe place to be, and if you don’t have to be there you shouldn’t. Even the relative safety of Lviv and western Ukraine isn’t a guarantee. Here’s a picture following a missile attack on Lviv; the smoke from the resulting fires made for a hauntingly beautiful scene. But Russia doesn’t have any compunction about wiping out a population center, regardless of what they might claim.

There really hasn’t been any additional information about other family and friends. Viktoria did hear from one other friend, Angela, someone she had worked with for many years at Azovstal. Angela and family had left Mariupol a week or two into the bombardment, but instead of going west, they went southeast a bit. They went to a small beach town just off the main highway toward Russia. Probably as safe as anywhere and likely has not be subjected to the shelling that Mariupol has. However, electricity and cell service were interrupted there as well, and I don’t know how things were for food and water. I’m sure the area is technically under Russian control now, but (fingers crossed) no immediate danger.

If V could just get some good news about Artem and Rodion and the rest of the groups from the apartments, then I think she’d be able to weather the destruction of her city a little better. She’s said multiple times that it’s too bad I didn’t get to see all the improvements they’d made to Mariupol.