In the east of Europe, the Ukrainians are struggling to fight off a monstrous invasion — an invasion that seeks to wipe out their nation, their independence, their identity. This is a contest that interests some around the world. It is a contest that stands for the larger struggle of freedom, democracy, and human rights against tyranny. Ukraine has the support of many. So, of course, does Putin’s Kremlin. Authoritarians have always had support in free and democratic countries, a jarring fact, but a fact all the same.
Some items:
• “Survivor of Russian strike on Kramatorsk train station: ‘Dead people were everywhere.’” That is a heading in the Kyiv Independent. Above the article is a photo that is hard to bear, because it reflects reality.
Here is some more information:
Russian forces hit a train station in Kramatorsk, Donetsk Oblast, with Tochka-U ballistic missile systems on April 8, 2022, killing 61 people and wounding 121, including children. At the moment of the attack, there were thousands of civilians waiting for evacuation at the site . . .
• A report from Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty:
The United States has accused Russia of war crimes through the forcible transfer of up to 1.6 million Ukrainians to Russian-controlled territory in the current conflict, prompting senior UN officials to demand international access to the so-called filtration camps.
Some more:
The U.S. ambassador to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, told a UN Security Council meeting late on September 7 that Russia and its proxies were inflicting “a series of horrors” in a process overseen by officials from President Vladimir Putin’s office.
This is no doubt true. People everywhere ought to pick a side. Most have. Neutrality grows ever harder, I would think.
• “The Russian Federation has not provided access to prisoners of war,” said Matilda Bogner, the head of the U.N. human-rights mission in Ukraine. “This is all the more worrying since we have documented that prisoners of war in the power of the Russian Federation and held by the Russian Federation’s armed forces or by affiliated armed groups have suffered torture and ill-treatment.”
(For an article on this subject, go here.)
• Another article from RFE/RL:
The head of Ukraine’s atomic agency, Enerhoatom, has accused Russian occupation troops at the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant in war-torn southeastern Ukraine of torturing and killing some of the facility’s Ukrainian staff and abducting around 200 of them.
Does anyone doubt this is true? Ukrainian, Russian, pro-Putin, anti-Putin? I mean, it’s of a piece, isn’t it?
• Here is a report from the Wall Street Journal, by Isabel Coles: “Russia Destroyed Mariupol. Now It’s Using It for Propaganda.” “Mariupol” is a name that will make the blood run cold for generations. It will be a byword for atrocities.
• Inch by inch, Ukrainian forces are clawing back some of Ukraine from the Russian occupiers. Here is a clip of some local women, greeting liberating soldiers. “Boys, we have some pancakes left,” says a woman. “Would you like some?” “A bit later, please,” says a soldier. “Better to keep hiding. Shelling is still possible.”
Incredibly moving, for those capable of being moved by such things.
• Putin’s guys said that Paul Urey, a British aid worker, had died from “illness and stress.” That’s one way to put it. They of course tortured him to death. For a report in the Guardian, go here.
• “Xi, Putin Set for First Meeting Since Russia Invaded Ukraine.” (Article here.) More news: “Russia buying weapons from North Korea to use in Ukraine.” (Article here.) A bit more: “U.S. Puts Sanctions On Iranian Companies For Helping Russia Procure Drones For War In Ukraine.” (Article here.)
Russia, China, North Korea, Iran — a natural axis.
• New Hampshire has a Libertarian Party, and these guys put a Hitler mustache on Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president. To see their handiwork, go here. Most of the pro-Kremlin, anti-Ukraine people I know are anti-libertarian rightists. American politics is very confusing these days, or so it seems to me.
In a podcast with me earlier this year, Radek Sikorski made a point about this Hitler business: The Nazis’ slogan was “Ein Volk, ein Reich, ein Führer” — “One people, one realm, one leader.” Whose vision and behavior does that fit today? Zelensky’s? Or Putin’s?
• Zelensky said something warm — and true — about the British prime minister who left office on Tuesday: “I know it has not been an easy ride for Boris Johnson as he had to deal with many internal challenges. Prioritizing support for Ukraine demanded a great courage and determination.” (For an article on Zelensky and Johnson, go here.)
• Here is a piece by Rikard Jozwiak, the Europe editor of RFE/RL: “Russia Sanctions, The Hungarian Veto, And The Long Road Ahead.” An important, tricky subject. Hungary under Viktor Orbán is the best friend of the Kremlin in the EU, and, wielding its veto, can block action against Russia, as well as its other friend, China. This is a problem of some years’ standing, and its solution is not easy to see.
• Orbán is possibly the No. 1 hero of the American Right after Donald Trump — another problem of some years’ standing whose solution is not easy to see.
• “Why there can be no neutrality on Ukraine.” That is the title of a column by Daniel Hannan, and he explains, as promised. I will paste his closing paragraphs:
Putin’s autocracy would be immediately recognizable to almost any king going back to Hammurabi. It is the West’s open societies that seem odd. This is why collectivists claim that they alienate us from our true natures. Yet, however odd, they have delivered prosperity along with democracy, knowledge along with freedom.
Hence the battle now playing out on Ukraine’s bloody steppes. A battle between the usual way of doing things — arbitrary and monarchical but offering something of what Emile Durkheim called “collective effervescence,” the joy that can come from losing yourself in a group — and the almost accidental creed of Western liberalism, which, for all its faults, has created the healthiest and wealthiest societies known to our species. That is why none of us can afford to be neutral.