It has been almost a year since Russia launched its all-out attack on Ukraine: an attack meant to obliterate Ukraine’s nationhood and independence. The Ukrainians are still standing, fighting for their lives. Setting an example for others around the world. I admire them a great deal.
By refusing to surrender — by insisting on fighting — the Ukrainians inconvenienced much of the world. The world likes to appease, look away, “move on.” The Ukrainians made that difficult, by taking a stand: a stand for freedom and against subjugation and tyranny.
Good for them.
• “Russia hits civilian targets anew,” an Associated Press headline reads. The article says,
The latest strikes in Kramatorsk came as rescue crews searched for survivors in the rubble of an apartment building hit late Wednesday by a Russian missile that killed at least three people and wounded 21 others. At least one more victim was thought to be under the debris . . .
It is important not to get numb — not to get numb to war crimes. It is important not to yawn, if you know what I mean.
• From CNN:
An American volunteer aid worker, Pete Reed, was killed in the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut on Thursday while aiding civilians, according to a statement from Global Response Medicine, the humanitarian aid group he founded.
Reed, a US Marine veteran, was listed as “killed while rendering aid” on a mission with another organization . . .
(The full article is here.)
I admire Pete Reed a great deal. GRM (the group he founded) said in a statement,
This is a stark reminder of the perils rescue and aid workers face in conflict zones as they serve citizens caught in the crossfire. Pete was just 33 years old, but lived a life of service to others, first as a decorated US Marine and then in humanitarian aid.
Yes.
• There are so many names to know — especially names of the dead. Here is one: “Dmytro Sharpar.” A report in Newsweek begins,
A Ukrainian figure skater, who once competed at the Youth Olympic Games, has been killed in combat as he helped defend his country from the Russian invasion, according to a Ukrainian official.
Dmytro Sharpar, who was just 25 years old, died in fighting near Bakhmut, a city in the heavily contested region of Donbas.
• A headline: “Germany, Denmark, Netherlands pledge Ukraine Leopard 1 tanks.” (Article here.) A tweet from the office of the British prime minister, Rishi Sunak:
The Prime Minister and President @ZelenskyyUa have signed the London Declaration, fortifying the partnership between the United Kingdom and Ukraine.
To read the London Declaration, go here.
Evidently, there’s life in the old gal yet. Life in the West. The West has not given up.
• Sunak himself tweeted out a photo, showing the two leaders — Sunak and Zelensky — greeting each other on a tarmac. To my knowledge, British Conservatives have not complained about, or mocked, Zelensky’s clothing, as many on the American right did, when Zelensky came to the United States.
• At Buckingham Palace, Zelensky met King Charles. Speaking to Parliament, Zelensky said, “The king is an air-force pilot. In Ukraine today, every air-force pilot is a king.” (To read about this, go here.)
• At a press conference was a journalist with the Ukrainian service of the BBC. She abandoned objectivity, which I find understandable, given the ongoing assault on her country. She is on a side. She is not a neutral.
She said, “Hello, Mr. President. Thank you for coming. I would like to hug you and thank you, but I can’t.” Zelensky said, “Why? Come and hug me.” She said, “Won’t I get shot?” He walked over to her and embraced her.
(See it here.)
This is the kind of thing that makes Zelensky’s many enemies — including his American ones — gag. But he has the admiration, and gratitude, of many.
• A report from the Wall Street Journal, to note: “China Aids Russia’s War in Ukraine, Trade Data Shows: Despite sanctions, Moscow equips its jet fighters, submarines and soldiers with help of Chinese companies.”
• In the West, the usual parties have called for an immediate ceasefire and “negotiation.” Writes Anne Applebaum,
Do people who think the Russian war in Ukraine should be ended for “humanitarian” reasons not understand what is happening in Russian-occupied Ukraine? They haven’t read about the torture chambers? The mass murders? Deportation of thousands of children?
I think of what Oleksandra Matviichuk said to me, last fall. She is the executive director of Ukraine’s Center for Civil Liberties, which in December shared the Nobel Peace Prize. Matviichuk emphasizes that Ukrainians are fighting not merely for territories — for land — though those territories are Ukrainian, and Ukrainians have every right to them. Ukrainians are fighting for the people in those territories. Their countrymen.
Said Matviichuk,
This war started not in February 2022 but in February 2014. I had been documenting war crimes for eight years already. I am very aware of what Russians did to people in the occupied territories. I have interviewed hundreds of people. They have told me how they were beaten, how they were raped, how their fingers were cut off, how they were crammed into wooden boxes, how they were tortured with electricity. One lady reported that her eyes were dug out with a spoon.
We will never leave our people alone in these occupied territories. I know what I’m talking about. It would be inhuman to leave them in this gray zone without any protection.
• In the U.S. House, Matt Gaetz (R., Fla.) and other Republicans have introduced what they call the “Ukraine Fatigue Resolution,” saying that the United States should cut off aid to the Ukrainians. Gaetz and the other GOP-ers may be “fatigued.” But Ukrainians, obviously, can’t afford to be. They get fatigued, they lose their nation.
Leopoldo López, the opposition leader and former political prisoner from Venezuela, has a slogan: “El que se cansa, pierde.” “He who tires, loses.”
• A message from Gabrielius Landsbergis, the foreign minister of Lithuania:
Lithuania is only 3 million people, but this week we crowdfunded 6 million euros to buy air defence systems for Ukraine. No sign of fatigue here. We will stand with Ukraine until victory is achieved.
The Balts can’t afford to be fatigued, or naïve. They know full well what Russian occupation is. What it means.
• A fascinating story, from Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty: “Russian Fighters Explain Why They Took Up Arms Against The Kremlin.” One fighter in the Free Russia legion says of Putin’s men, “I feel sorry for the poor guys. I would like to be able to tell them: ‘You have no enemies in Ukraine. There are no enemies in Paris or New York. All of your enemies are sitting in the Kremlin.’”
• Also from RFE/RL:
A new exhibition of anti-war posters in St. Petersburg by Russian artist and activist Yelena Osipova has been closed the day after it opened after police confiscated all the works.
She told @CurrentTimeTv that her protests against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine will continue.
To watch the report from Current Time, go here.
More than 20,000 Russians have been detained since February 24, 2022, for protesting the Ukraine war. Incredible bravery. How many of us would have such courage?
• I don’t mean to shock you, but: According to Swiss records now made public, Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, worked for the KGB in the 1970s. (To read about this, go here.) Patriarch Kirill is, of course, a close ally of Vladimir Putin and a strong backer of the assault on Ukraine, which he has blessed as holy work.
• Here is something to be aware of:
A new bust of Soviet leader Josef Stalin has been unveiled in Volgograd ahead of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit to the city on February 2, the 80th anniversary of the Soviet Army’s victory over German forces in a key World War II battle in the city then known as Stalingrad.
For the complete article, go here.
• Here is the story of one Russian pop singer:
The Russian Justice Ministry has placed Zemfira, one of post-Soviet Russia’s most popular singers, on a list of “foreign agents” on the grounds that she has supported Ukraine and criticized Russia’s “special military operation” in that country.
And here is Yaroslav Trofimov, the chief foreign correspondent of the Wall Street Journal, writing about a different Russian pop singer:
Ah, the hard life of Russian pop musician Kirkorov. Get a present from Putin for your birthday, go to occupied Crimea and ask your audience to stand up and clap for the “hero” soldiers of the war against Ukraine, then party it up at the Grammy awards.
God bless Zemfira.
• Do you know about the “railway guerrillas” in Belarus? The Belarusian railway workers who sabotaged the tracks, so as to delay the transportation of Russian arms and troops to Ukraine? Two have been sentenced to 22 years each in prison. (To read about this, go here.) With gratitude, the Ukrainians will remember the railway guerrillas for years to come, I wager.
There is such a thing as noble civil disobedience.
• During the Cold War, there were many celebrities in the West who were tools for the Kremlin. The same phenomenon is apparent today: “Russia asks Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters to speak on Ukraine arms at UN.”
• This is an interesting story:
Fur coats purportedly given to widows of soldiers fighting for Russia in Ukraine as compensation for their deaths were taken back after the women were filmed expressing their gratitude for them, it has been reported.
• Here is a thread from David Frum, discussing an effort in his neighborhood to gather supplies for people in Kherson: diapers, infant formula, blankets, sweaters, etc. Such vital and blessed work.
I think of my friend Martha Apgar, of whom I wrote an appreciation three years ago. Her parents owned a hotel in DeLand, Fla. I’ll quote from my appreciation:
One December, Martha sent me a tin, saying, “Merry Christmas. Enjoy Jill’s shortbread.” Jill? She was a lady from Britain. During the war, Martha’s mother, Sarah, scooped up the leftover soap at the hotel and sent it to our British cousins. She did this through the Red Cross. The Brits were experiencing a severe soap shortage. Sarah’s contact, on the other side, was Jill.
After the war, they became fast friends, visiting each other. Jill made shortbread, which wowed one and all. She shared the recipe.
Enough news and observations for now.