There are many stories out of Ukraine — every day, every hour. Some people want details, some people don’t. It is enough to know the general picture: mass murder, mass rape, mass terror. War crime after war crime, depredation after depredation. But for those who want stories, details — they can have as many of them as they want.
• A heading in the New York Times reads, “A family of six walks for days to escape the besieged city of Mariupol. Here is their story.” That article is here, for those who want it.
• Anne Applebaum tweeted, “Harrowing, terrifying video of the children and families sheltering beneath the Mariupol steel factory . . .” Here.
• The Ukrainians are taking a brave, even a heroic, stand at Mariupol. Some people are reminded of Thermopylae. You would think the attention of the world would be riveted. But people, naturally, have their own concerns.
• Do you remember the Yazidis, trapped on the mountain, as the wolves circled (human ones)? Mariupol reminds me of that.
• Have a look at Anastasia Gulej, a 96-year-old Auschwitz survivor. “I survived Hitler,” she says. “I survived Stalin. And I will also survive this asshole Putin.” I hope she does.
• Another story, headed “91-year-old Holocaust Survivor Perishes in Mariupol Basement.” The article begins, “As she lay dying in a Mariupol basement, freezing and pleading for water, Holocaust survivor Vanda Semyonovna Obiedkova wanted to know only one thing: ‘Why is this happening?’”
• Oksana Ostapchuk circulated a video, on Twitter, and said,
This soldier of the #Mariupol territorial defence is being held captive by #RussianArmy. His mother Olga Novykova, a director of children’s film festival, is demanded to pay #RussianSoldiers €5 000 till Monday otherwise the next video will depict his execution.
• An article in Time is headed “Ukrainians Are Speaking Up About Rape as a War Crime to Ensure the World Holds Russia Accountable.” I will quote a little:
Rape as a weapon of war may date to the dawn of conflict. But in Ukraine, female lawmakers are waging a campaign to turn sexual violence by Russian soldiers against the invaders.
“No one thought that such cruelties and atrocities could happen in the middle of Europe,” says Lesia Vasylenko, a Ukrainian Member of Parliament who in March traveled from Kyiv to London, where she and three other female lawmakers urged Prime Minister Boris Johnson to stop U.K. trade with Russia on the grounds that it was funding the rape of their countrywomen.
A few weeks later, they took their message to Paris, raising the same issue with President Emmanuel Macron. On April 21, they will head to Brussels, seat of the European Union.
“It’s important that people do not avert their eyes from this crime,” says Vasylenko.
It’s important that people do not avert their eyes. Yes. Very important.
• Mass graves — one after another. Here is satellite imagery.
• Meet the mayor of Mykolaiv, courtesy of a piece by David Patrikarakos. The mayor is Oleksandr Syenkevych, and he says things such as, “I move constantly. I sleep in different places. All I need is my gun and a place to wash.”
In the West, many people drool over Vladimir Putin and his “Z” forces, as manly men. Real men. Well, Putin is no man, in my book. He is a bully, who maims, imprisons, or kills his critics and invades and ravages his neighbors — all to assuage his ego and fears. People needing some examples of manhood may look to Ukraine, where such examples abound.
They may look to Russia, too, and in particular its prison cells, where many dissenters are confined. They stuck their neck out. They didn’t have to. But they did.
• Here is a ten-year-old boy named Vova, at the funeral of his mother — a victim of the murdering in Bucha.
• Hanna Liubakova circulated a photo, saying, “Ukrainian firefighter saves books from a building destroyed by Russians in Chernihiv.” Once more, a phrase occurred to me: civilization versus barbarism.