Today on the home page, I have a piece about Oleh Sentsov. He has led a turbulent life, you could say. He’s a filmmaker. (His breakout movie was Gamer, in 2011.) For five years, he was a political prisoner of the Kremlin. Now, he is in the army of his country, Ukraine, on the front lines, in the east. I was able to talk with him. My piece about him is here.
An excerpt — the last two paragraphs of the piece:
There is one other thing he’d like to say — say to me. He’s a little embarrassed about my writing about him. He has a measure of fame, owing to his movies. But there are so many other Ukrainians, doing more, deserving attention. I understand. I understand entirely. And over the years, many people such as Oleh Sentsov have said exactly the same thing to me.
I assure him that I have written about a variety of Ukrainians and will keep doing it. They all should have their stories told, in this nightmare they are living.
• Continuing with a theme: I highly recommend this piece by Anne Applebaum: “The Other Ukrainian Army.” Its subtitle reads as follows: “Imperiled by Russian invaders, private citizens are stepping forward to do what Ukraine’s government cannot.”
I think that if Americans knew more about the everyday heroics of the Ukrainians, they would admire them more, be all the more impressed by them. Why Ukraine is not more of a cause — especially on the right, I would say — is a very sore subject.
• The Washington Post has it exactly right: “There should be no impunity for Russia’s slaughter of POWs.”
• If you can bear it, here is an article by Luke Harding, in the Guardian: “‘Absolute evil’: inside the Russian prison camp where dozens of Ukrainians burned to death.”
(Harding had Putin’s number early. In 2011, he was the first foreign journalist since the Cold War to be expelled by the Kremlin.)
• Another article that is hard to bear — and very important:
After months of meticulous, painful and at times gruesome investigation, officials in Bucha said Monday that they had reached what may be the closest they will get to a final accounting of victims of the murderous rampage by Russian troops that set off worldwide outrage over alleged atrocities: 458 bodies, of which 419 bore markings they had been shot, tortured or bludgeoned to death.
• On Twitter, Yaroslav Trofimov, the chief foreign-affairs correspondent of the Wall Street Journal, circulated a video from the Russian media and wrote,
As teachers in Russian-occupied south Ukraine refuse to collaborate, Moscow commentator says they should all be imprisoned “in a Zaporizhzhia Gulag under the baking sun until they learn how to love the Fatherland.” Also suggests executing family members of Ukrainians who resist.
“Until they learn how to love the Fatherland.” That is an especially perverted nationalism, and all too familiar.
• Mention of Zaporizhzhia leads me to this article, from Reuters:
The head of Ukraine’s state nuclear power firm warned on Tuesday of the “very high” risks of shelling at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in the Russian-occupied south and said it was vital Kyiv regains control over the facility in time for winter.
• More news to know about:
Russians are turning the Mariupol Philharmonic into a prison. In addition to the cages, they are building a special bunker-garage to receive paddy wagons that will transport Ukrainian prisoners. This structure is being built exclusively for one purpose — the “tribunal”.
That is from Anton Gerashchenko, here.
• On the subject of Mariupol: The U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, Bridget A. Brink, tweeted,
Russia brutally and heartlessly destroyed one of Ukraine’s most forward-looking cities, killing, detaining, and forcibly deporting countless thousands. Still, as I saw at the I Am Mariupol Center, its people continue to pull together, help each other, and fight for their future.
Americans can be proud that their government is on the side of decency in this war. Obviously, American opinion is divided. There is a lot of pro-Putin sentiment. And anti-anti-Putin sentiment. I hear it all around. But I think that, when people know the fundamental facts about the Russian onslaught, they support the government’s support of the Ukrainians.
• There are Americans — and then there’s Steven Seagal. Max Seddon, the Moscow bureau chief of the Financial Times, circulated a photo and commented,
Steven Seagal, Russia’s special representative for humanitarian ties with the US, is in the Donetsk People’s Republic.
Here he is visiting a former site for prisoners of war in Olenivka, where Ukraine says Russia massacred dozens of detainees to cover up evidence of torture
Seagal is a Lord Haw-Haw of our time. I have no doubt he’d be a hit on certain circuits in his native country.
• I found this quite interesting: “Posters in the Moscow subway are trying to scare Russians away from using VPNs to access blocked Western sites and apps. . . .” I bet.
• File this under “human interest” — though the article relates to animals:
Natalia Popova has found a new purpose in life: rescuing wild animals and pets from the devastation wrought by the war in Ukraine.
Everyone doing his part, whatever it is.
• When you have time, I recommend an essay by Igor Pomerantsev, the Soviet-born poet. “Death Is a Master from Russia,” it’s called. It is something to read more than once, I think — literature, and burningly real.
• An item from RFE/RL:
Dire warnings of a new Russian offensive in the south have prompted government officials to order a mandatory evacuation of the Donetsk region, causing more misery for its weary inhabitants. Many of them must now decide whether to flee or risk their lives.
“RFE/RL” stands for that combination of Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty. This is one of the most valuable and noble projects of the U.S. government — has been for decades. In a world of lies, it strives to deliver the truth.
(In 2018, I wrote a piece about the “radios”: “Still Broadcasting Freedom.”)
What will the United States stand for in the world? On whose side will we be? What values will we support? These are questions to be answered day after day.