Oleh Paushenko, Andriy Peun

LVIV (Ukraine) – Sofia Telehina’s grandmother, Sofia Telehina, called Sofia in tears from Mariupol in Eastern Ukraine more than a year ago. She asked if Sofia was hiding from bombs. This was her last contact with her grandparents.

According to Ukrainian authorities, the project manager is one of those trying desperately to reach some 100,000 people still trapped in Mariupol under Russian rule.

She said everything had been bombed. Telehina, who was in relative safety in Lviv’s western suburbs, said she had been crying the whole time.

“Since then, I have not been in a position to reach her.”

After the Russian invasion of Mariupol on February 24, heavy bombardment destroyed Mariupol’s utilities. Those looking for information are unable to find out if those they need are dead or hiding in the rubble of Mariupol.

Russia says it is not targeting civilians, and that the invasion was part of a special military operation.

Telehina asked for volunteers to find her grandparents. The ninth floor is home to her grandmother (a music teacher in a kindergarten aged 69) and grandfather (a retired steel worker age 70).

She stated, “Neither of them could reach home because of the shelling in the vicinity,” and shared a photograph of herself hugging her grandfather.

“WE WANT HIM BACK ALIVE”

Many people have shared similar photos on social media and pleaded for info about missing family members.

Mariupol Now on Telegram is now sharing information regarding evacuations and civil rights in Mariupol, which used to be home of over 400,000 civilians before war.

One recent post read: “Mariupol, Zelinskoho Street 13. Vika Morozova, her twin boys Sasha & Sergei, are pictured with their children. They lived together in a basement. Write or call me if you have any information.”

Magnolia Ukrainian Human Rights Group has received around 2000 reports from missing Ukrainian children, many of them in Mariupol. Marina Lypovetska said that the organization had previously registered approximately 300 of these cases each year.

    Over 145,000 people have signed up to a group on Facebook (NASDAQ:) called “The search for relatives and friends Mariupol 2022,” where members share contact details and photos of missing people.

    One member shared a post tagged ‘Survivors, maybe you’ll recognise relatives’ with photos of people who looked like evacuees, clutching blankets and bags.

    “Where are these people? One user replied, “The woman wearing a black cap and a kitten seems like my friend.”

    Others are searching for news about relatives defending the city, which Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday his forces had “liberated”, though a last contingent of Ukrainian troops were holding out at a steel factory.

Kristina Kravchuk has heard nothing from Mykola, her uncle, since March 25.

She told Reuters via video from her Mykolaiv village that she was searching for him. “I would like him to know that we all wait for him and want him back alive.”