A report from CBS News begins, “Families in the small northeast Ukrainian village of Hroza were trying to process horror and loss Friday morning after a Russian rocket strike hit a grocery store and café, killing at least 51 of the town’s remaining 300 or so inhabitants.” A police official said, “We only found bits and pieces of some bodies.”
The headline over that report reads, “U.N. probes deadly Russian strike on village, with Ukraine ‘100% worried’ about wavering U.S. support.”
Vladimir Putin has made a stark statement: “If Western defense supplies are terminated tomorrow, Ukraine will have a week left to live as it runs out of ammunition.”
“A week left to live.” As I said: stark.
• About Hroza, a bit more. These are not statistics. Rather, they are people:
Police identified all those killed in missile attack on cafe in Hroza. Russia is responsible for death of 59 local residents. All victims are local residents. Entire families of several generations are gone.
19 people were identified using mobile DNA laboratories. One victim, a… pic.twitter.com/Mz0iU2Rq1L
— Maria Avdeeva (@maria_avdv) October 12, 2023
• A report from Reuters begins, “Russian occupiers tortured Ukrainians so brutally that some of their victims died, and forced families to listen as they raped women next door, members of a U.N.-mandated investigative body said on Monday . . .”
• This one, too, is tough to read — as they all are, really: “A Ukrainian Woman Protected Her Daughter from Russian Soldiers — and Was Accused of Collaborating with the Enemy.” (Here.)
My view is, a person does not have to read every gruesome detail. But owes it, somehow, to be generally aware.
• An article by Oleksandr Mykhed, headed “Russia is taking my friends one by one — and now I struggle even to write about them.” Yet he does, as a service, and an obligation.
• Another kind of service, and obligation: “Bakhmut, Before It Vanished: The world first heard of my hometown only after Russia destroyed it.” By Haiane Avakian, here.
• Speaking of vanished towns, i.e., towns that Putin’s forces have destroyed:
Mariupol was an uplifting example of Ukraine's democratic success story
Until the Russians came & razed the city & killed an untold number of civilians in order to "liberate" them from the democratic, pro-Ukrainian future they'd chosen for themselves
— Nolan Peterson (@nolanwpeterson) September 27, 2023
• A small thing, maybe, but not small to the people involved:
This was my hotel. I dreamed of building a beautiful, modern promenade in Odessa. I've invested millions of dollars, bought out a stake from private investors, and despite the war, went on to finalize the deal with the government. pic.twitter.com/nOCcVJivNH
— Stavnitser Andrey (@stavnitser) September 25, 2023
• Of interest, from Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty: “Chief Rabbi Says Ukraine’s Jewish Community ‘Invalidates Russian De-Nazification Narratives.’” This article is here.
• I admire the spirit of these people — I know that many others around the world do too: “A Ukrainian Officer’s Captured Russian Tank Wasn’t Working. So He Called Tech Support — in Russia.” (That article comes from Forbes: here.)
• Yes, I admire their spirit. This is a report from the Associated Press:
Blinded by a Russian mortar shell, Ukrainian veteran Ivan Soroka couldn’t see his bride when she walked into his family home in a shoulderless white dress, a bouquet of white flowers in her right hand.
But when Vladislava Ryabets, 25, stepped toward him, Soroka wept with joy at the new chapter of life starting months after enemy artillery stole his sight.
“The first thing I said after I was wounded was, who will want me now?” said Soroka, 27, sitting inside his family home in a village on the outskirts of Kyiv.
“I succeeded in rebuilding myself,” he said. “I am seeing with my feelings, with my emotions.”
They are still standing, the Ukrainians. They are not dead yet, as a nation, despite the best efforts of Putin’s Russia and its partners and enablers around the world.