The Reality, and the Politics, of the Ukraine War

“Fight the numbness,” some of us have said since the beginning. Resist the temptation to get numb to the daily assault of Russian forces on Ukrainians.

A report from last week begins,

At least three people were killed and another six injured in a Russian missile attack on a five-story residential building in the city of Zaporizhzhya overnight on March 2, the National Police of Ukraine said in a post on Facebook.

Eleven people, including a pregnant woman, were rescued from the rubble.

Rescuers evacuated 20 people from the rest of the building, with the same number of residents provided with psychological support.

Over 10 apartments between the second and fifth floors were destroyed during the overnight strike. Nearby houses also suffered damage from the blast wave and debris.

This is not normal. It is, in the sense that it is routine, and long has been. Still: We should resist the temptation to get numb. To yawn, wearily, or indifferently.

• Does this induce yawns? “At least 6,000 Ukrainian children taken to Russian territory since beginning of war, many put in re-education camps.” That is an article from CBS News, about a report by the Conflict Observatory, a research group affiliated with Yale.

Here is a thread from the Ukrainian writer Oleksandr Mykhed, if you can bear it:

• Here is an article very hard to bear: “Russian defects from Wagner mercenary group, says it’s committing war crimes in Ukraine.” One U.S. senator reacted as follows:

Senator Ben Cardin (D., Md.) and Senator Roger Wicker (R., Miss.) have introduced legislation to declare the Wagner Group a terrorist organization.

• Here is a Republican congresswoman from Georgia:

It has been so strange to behold: Many on the right are sounding just like the college-town leftists of my youth.

In an interview last fall, Donald Trump, the hero of the Republican Party and conservative movement, blamed the United States for Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. (I wrote about this here.) “They actually taunted him, if you really look at it,” said Trump. “Our country, and our so-called leadership, taunted Putin. And, I would listen — I’d say, ‘You know, they’re almost forcing him to go in, with what they’re saying.’”

Jeane Kirkpatrick popularized a phrase: “blame America first.”

• Some have been circulating and citing a doctored video that has Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, saying that America’s sons and daughters will have to fight and die for Ukraine. GOP-ers in politics and the media, both, have been doing this: Mike Lee, Candace Owens, and so on. (Lee backed down, as this article says.)

Marjorie Taylor Greene did her part — her malign and mendacious part — at CPAC.

Those interested in a “fact check” may consult this one, by Cameron Hilditch, formerly of National Review, now with The Dispatch.

I knew CPAC, once upon a time. Ronald Reagan was a big hit there. Mitch Daniels was, too. (He gave a speech on the federal debt — “the new red menace” — and was introduced by George F. Will.) The CPACs of old would have hailed the Ukrainians, as they fight for their freedom and their lives. The CPACs of old would have decried Putin’s invasion as the evil that it is.

As we speak, there are “old” conservatives fighting for the soul of the American Right. I wish them all the luck in the world.

• Some recent news: “Hungary further delays vote on Sweden, Finland joining NATO.” Maybe other NATO members can get around Orbán — and Erdogan, for that matter. It is very important, NATO is.

• Another news item, from March 2:

This triggered a memory in me. In 2014, the G-20 meeting was held in Brisbane. This was about eight months after Putin’s initial invasion of Ukraine. At the meeting, Putin went to shake the hand of Stephen Harper, the prime minister of Canada. Harper said, “Well, Vladimir, I’ll shake your hand, but I really have only one thing to say to you, and that is, get out of Ukraine.” Putin, smirking that smirk of his, said, “I’m not in Ukraine.” (Remember when Putin and his apologists — including many in the American media — were saying that?) Harper replied, “Well, that’s why it’s a waste of my time to talk to you.”

Harper was good. Really good.

• Bless the name of Bill Ackman. I had never heard of him. I’m glad to know who he is.

Billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman has pledged $3.25 million to help buy more than a dozen ambulances for Ukraine as it defends itself against Russia’s invasion . . .

That is inspired, and critical, philanthropy. (For the article I have quoted from, go here.)

• I am also glad to know the name of Christo Grozev. In the Financial Times, Gillian Tett writes,

A few days ago, I received a message from a journalist friend. “In transit . . . just landing in Dublin,” he wrote, explaining that he was flying from Austria to North America. I felt a wave of relief.

Under normal circumstances, Christo Grozev’s latest transatlantic journey would have been unremarkable. Since the Bulgarian-born Grozev works for the investigative website Bellingcat, he often criss-crosses the globe for research.

But these are not normal times. During the past year, Grozev and his colleagues have repeatedly exposed dark events in Ukraine and Russia using a digital-sleuthing technique called open-source intelligence analysis (Osint). That prompted Vladimir Putin’s regime to put Grozev, a 53-year-old computer nerd with a keen sense of humour, on a “most-wanted” list.

This month Grozev learnt that Russian assassins were actively chasing him in his home base of Vienna with the help of local collaborators. “Austrian authorities are of the opinion that I am not safe [there],” he told me.

Grozev also said this, to Tett: “We cannot afford to be scared of Putin, or else he wins.”

• It is very important to know names — names and faces — so that the many dead are not just statistics. Here is one name, one face.