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).