The aftermath of the Kiev Bridge Explosion: a warning to Ukrainian officials and citizens from the height of the crisis on Monday, when President Putin was rejoint
An editor has noted that Michael Bociurkiw is a global affairs analyst. He is a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council and a former spokesperson for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. He is a regular contributor to CNN Opinion. His own opinions are expressed in this commentary. View more opinion at CNN.
To add to Putin’s sense of humiliation, the bridge explosion came amid a surging Ukrainian counteroffensive that has seized key pockets of Russian-controlled territory, including in regions Putin recently annexed.
Throughout the weekend, the Ukrainian military sought to target Russian forces as they tried to regroup after their retreat from Kherson. The Ukrainian air force launched strikes on the east side of the river, with the Ukrainian military saying it had fired on 33 Russian positions.
There is a video on social media that shows hits near the Taras Shevchenko National University, just a short walk from the Presidential Office Building. Five people were killed as a result of strikes on the capital, according to Ukrainian officials.
As of midday local time, the area around my office in Odesa remained eerily quiet in between air raid sirens, with reports that three missiles and five kamikaze drones were shot down. (Normally at this time of the day, nearby restaurants would be heaving with customers, and chatter of plans for upcoming weddings and parties).
Russian strikes hit the city of Kherson just hours before Zelensky delivered his Christmas address, hitting apartments and medical facilities.
In a video filmed outside of his office Monday, Volodymyr Zelensky said that most of the missile strikes acrossUkraine were aimed at the country’s energy infrastructure. At least 11 important infrastructure facilities in eight regions and the capital have been damaged; some provinces are without power, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said.
In scenes reminiscent of the early days of the war when Russian forces neared the capital, some Kyiv media outlets temporarily moved their operations to underground bomb shelters. A group of people taking cover on platforms when a small group sang Ukrainian songs in a metro station as it was serving as a shelter.
Millions of people will spend most of the day in bomb shelters at the insistence of authorities, while businesses are asked to shift work online as much as possible.
Just as many regions of Ukraine were starting to roar back to life, and with countless asylum seekers returning home, the attacks risk causing another blow to business confidence.
For Putin, the symbolism of the only bridge linking mainland Russia and Crimea cannot be overstated. That the attack took place a day after his 70th birthday can be taken as a blow to an aging autocrat’s ability to endure humiliation and shame.
Hardwiring newly claimed territory with expensive, record-breaking infrastructure projects seems to be a penchant of dictators. The longest bridge in Europe, the Kerch bridge, was opened by Putin. That same year, one of the first things Chinese President Xi Jinping did after Beijing reclaimed Macau and Hong Kong was to connect the former Portuguese and British territories with the world’s longest sea crossing bridge. The road bridge has been delayed for about two years.
Putin’s War with Ukraine: A Bridge Towards Security and Security in the Era of Security Security and Freedom in the Light of Kravets
The reaction among Ukrainians to the explosion was instantaneous: humorous memes lit up social media channels like a Christmas tree. Many people talked about their jubilation with text messages.
For Putin, consumed by pride and self-interest, sitting still was never an option. He responded in the only way he knows how, by unleashing more death and destruction, with the force that probably comes natural to a former KGB operative.
It was also an act of selfish desperation: facing increasing criticism at home, including on state-controlled television, has placed Putin on unusually thin ice.
Before Monday’s strikes, the Chief of the Main Intelligence Directorate at Ukraine’s Defense Ministry, Major General Kyrylo Budanov, had told Ukrainian journalist Roman Kravets in late August that, “by the end of the year at the minimum we have to enter Crimea” – suggesting a plan to push back Russian forces to pre-2014 lines, which is massively supported by Ukrainians I’ve spoken to.
What is crucially important now is for Washington and other allies to use urgent telephone diplomacy to urge China and India – which presumably still have some leverage over Putin – to resist the urge to use even more deadly weapons.
The humanitarian crisis that will be felt throughout Europe can only be worsened by the lack of these measures. A weak reaction will be taken as a sign in the Kremlin that it can continue to weaponize energy, migration and food.
Furthermore, high tech defense systems are needed to protect Kyiv and crucial energy infrastructure around the country. The need to protect heating systems is urgent because of the upcoming winter.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/10/opinions/putin-russia-war-ukraine-strikes-crimea-bridge-bociurkiw/index.html
Kiev War Report: Beeatings and thefts at the hands of Russian Solders in the South of the Dnipro-Novikov Bridge
The time has also come for the West to further isolate Russia with trade and travel restrictions – but for that to have sufficient impact, Turkey and Gulf states, which receive many Russian tourists, need to be pressured to come on board.
In southern Ukraine, the Dnipro has become the new front line and officials there warned of continued danger from fighting in regions that have already been occupied by the Russians.
The southern part of the city was the target of fire through the afternoon, stoking fears that the Russian Army would destroy the city if it were to lose it.
Mortar shells struck near the bridge, sending up puffs of smoke. There were thunderous, metallic booms from incoming rounds near the river. It was not possible to determine what had been hit.
The Ukrainian government is setting up evacuation routes to the cities of Mykolaiv and Kryvyi Rih, said Iryna Vereshchuk, a Ukrainian deputy prime minister. “We will not have time to restore power supplies enough to heat homes where children, the sick and people with reduced mobility live,” she said. “It will not be a mass evacuation. It will protect those who are sick, elderly and left with no one to care for them.
The mines are dangerous. Four people were killed, including an 11-year-old, when a family ran over a mine outside the city. Six railway employees were injured when they tried to restore service after lines were damaged. And there were at least four more children reportedly injured by mines across the region, Ukrainian officials said in statements.
Even as Mr. Zelensky made a surprise visit to Kherson, the threats on the ground still remained, an indication of Ukraine’s soaring confidence.
“We are, step by step, coming to all of our country,” Mr. Zelensky said in a short appearance in the city’s main square on Monday, as hundreds of jubilant residents celebrated.
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/11/14/world/russia-ukraine-war-news/kherson-residents-describe-beatings-and-thefts-at-the-hands-of-russian-soldiers
Ruling out Russian fire on a town that was recaptured by a Syrian army: a woman in Beryslav, Ukraine
Russian forces continued to fire from across the river on towns and villages newly recaptured by Ukrainian forces, according to the Ukrainian military’s southern command. The town of Beryslav, which is north of the critical dam, was hit by two Russian missiles. There was no word if any casualties had been reported.
“Occupants rob local people and exchange stuff for samogon,” or homemade vodka, said one resident, Tatiana, who communicated via a secure messaging app from Oleshky, a town across the river from Kherson City. They get drunk and more aggressive. We are afraid here. She asked that her surname be withheld for security.
Ivan said in a text message that Russians wander around and 888-609- 888-609- 888-609- 888-609- 888-609- 888-609-. He asked that his name not be used because he was worried about his safety. We try to make it possible for someone from the area to stay in the place. So that it is not abandoned and Russians don’t take it.”
The one-year anniversary of the start of this terrible war brings many emotions, among them deep admiration for the Ukrainian people and disgust over the Russian offensive. But another feeling comes up, too, that doesn’t get talked about enough: awe at the breathtaking waste of war.
A dark Ukrainian fairy tale with a happy ending but a sorrowful end: from marriage ceremony to funeral in Ukraine during 2018 Ukrainian War of Independence
Long nights with the promise of a miracle: December is the month of fairy tales, when we peer into the darkness only to be reassured of the “happily ever after.”
We used to joke about our life being like a dark fairy tale with a happy ending. Ievheniia, a Ukrainian woman who this December is caring for her two-month-old son and grieving for the child’s father, says that the war is over.
Ievheniia, who is from the east of their country, saw the war start after Russia invaded the east of their country. Her brother volunteered and served for four years in the Ukrainian Armed Forces; he too was killed on the front lines in 2018, as the international community turned a blind eye to Russian aggression.
In this dark Ukrainian fairy tale, pivotal moments – from marriage ceremony to funeral – take place via video link. This is what love looks like in a time of war, shifted to the digital space and disrupted mid-plot.
A sports medicine physician and reserve officer, Ievheniia has too been ready to join Ukraine’s army these eight years, if called upon. She said she is not the kind of person who would flee.
As we hurry to bring gifts to our friends and family, we have to remember that Europe was ravaged by Russia’s barbaric imperialist war.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/14/opinions/ukraine-christmas-fairy-tales-death-dovzhyk/index.html
The experience of fairy tales in Ukraine: a woman’s first contact with the army after she became a father,” she told her husband Denys
After driving across the country, Ievheniia finally got to an enlistment office. She was interviewed on a Friday and told to return the following Monday to sign a contract with the Armed Forces.
On the weekend, she decided to take a pregnancy test, just in case. “With war and evacuation, the ground was slipping under one’s feet,” she said with a laugh. “On top of that, it turned out that I was pregnant.”
The pregnant woman who wanted to defend her homeland joined the flow of refugees seeking safety in Poland because of the plot twist provided by the pregnancy test.
Separated by war, Ievheniia and Denys sought to validate their partnership in the eyes of the state. The everyday ingenuity of the country at war was at work; now, Ukrainian servicemen are allowed to marry via a video call. “Instead of (by) boring civil servants, we got married remotely by a handsome man in a uniform. Ievheniia didn’t have anything to complain about.
Over the following months, Denys used the internet to deliver flowers and professional photos from Ievheniia.
When one morning she did not pick up the phone, Denys raised the alarm all over Warsaw and a rescue squad found Ievheniia unconscious in her rented flat. A delayed death could have been fatal. A Caesarean section followed. Because the baby was born two months early, the father was able to meet his new son.
Ukrainian men are not allowed to leave the country under martial law. Denys crossed the border and spent five days with his family, which is appropriate for a fairy tale.
The time was filled with ordinary things: shopping, registration with a doctor and laughing. Then he left. It was his birthday on November 17 and we sent him greetings,” Ievheniia remembered. “The next day he was killed.”
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/14/opinions/ukraine-christmas-fairy-tales-death-dovzhyk/index.html
The time to be consoled is not yet come – it’s time to act. Ukrainians need military assistance in a decisive victory over Russia
Italo Calvino, the celebrated Italian journalist and editor of folktales, among other works, called them “consolatory fables” because it is that a rare fairy tale ends badly. If it does, it means the time to be consoled has not yet come. It’s time to act.
And we must not be deluded by the narrative logic of a fairy tale. The wily kid will not defeat the monster with the aid of magic. Like ten months ago, Ukrainians need military aid sufficient to bring a decisive victory over Russia, not just prolong the fight with enormous sacrifices. Ukrainian victory depends on our collective effort.
“As a teenager, I was reading a lot of fantasy books and wondering how I would act in a fight against absolute evil. Would I be able to continue my daily life? Ievheniia told me. Today is the day that all of us have a chance to find out.
Kyiv’s winter “normal” and the Russian assaults on Ukraine During the February 24 Ukrainian War-Torsion: a message to Ukraine and remind us to keep putting it together
Since Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, the country has been in a state of flux. Ukrainians have had to recalibrate their idea of what normal is monthly, weekly, daily — or even hourly.
During the summer months, at first glance, outward signs of the war were less apparent. “Normal” then meant bustling restaurants and bars — at least until curfew — and the mood throughout the city was jovial, as people celebrated Russian withdrawals and Ukrainian victories.
The summer’s chorus of birds and street musicians gave way in the fall to more ominous sounds, like the steady purr of generators. With the exception of water and electricity, Kyiv’s winter “normal” is largely related to the Russian assaults on the city.
As Ukraine nears the one-year anniversary of the invasion, Kyiv’s newest normal may be darker and colder, but life goes on: Volunteers sew camouflage netting and build power banks, soldiers go to church, and people visit Christmas markets, wearing headlamps to navigate darkened streets.
President Zelensky called on Ukrainians to have faith andpatience in the face of the Russian strikes in his Christmas address.
He urged the nation to stay strong in the face of a chilling winter, a threat of Russian attacks and the absence of loved ones.
Cities should be covered by wave of joy and hope on New Year’s Eve. Ukrainian cities are again covered by missile wave from Russia,” Zelenska tweeted.
There could be empty chairs around it. And our houses and streets can’t be so bright. And Christmas bells can ring not so loudly and inspiringly. Through sirens, gunshots, and explosions.
“And I want to thank everyone who helps Ukraine. We’ve made a lot of friends. It was necessary to go through bad things in order to understand that there were lots of good things. But so many people are doing real miracles for Ukraine.”
Addressing the Ukrainian people directly, he said the country would sing Christmas carols louder than the sound of a power generator and hear the voices and greetings of relatives “in our hearts” even if communication services and the internet are down.
“And even in total darkness – we will find each other – to hug each other tightly. We will give a big hug if there is no heat.
Zelensky concluded: “We will celebrate our holidays! As always. We will smile and be happy. As always. The difference is one. We will not wait for a miracle. After all, we create it ourselves.”
Orthodox Christian customs inUkraine state that Christmas is celebrated on January 7th in order to acknowledge the birth of Jesus according to theJulian calendar.
Zelensky: “Russian leader hides behind the troops, behind missiles, behind palaces and residences, and for civilians in Ukraine”
A total of 16 people had been killed in 71 Russian attacks on Saturday across the Kherson region, including 3 state emergency workers who were killed demining. Another 64 people received injuries of varying severity, he said.
“These are not military facilities,” he wrote on Telegram Saturday. This is not a war that is defined by the rules. It is terror, it is killing for the sake of intimidation and pleasure.”
In November, Russia’s military retreated from Kherson city, the only regional capital it had captured since the invasion began, in a major setback for Russian President Vladimir Putin. Since then, Russian forces have stationed themselves across the river and frequently shell the city.
Zelensky said “Russian leader is hiding behind the troops, behind missiles, behind the walls of his residences and palaces” and behind his people. “He hides behind you and burns your country and your future. No one will ever forgive you for terror,” Zelensky emphasized.
Zelensky made a change to speaking Russian in his address Saturday night as he sent a message to the Kremlin and Russian citizens, after Moscow launched a series of strikes that left many dead in several regions of Ukraine.
Russia has lost more men in the war than any other country and the result of the attack is the same: Russia has lost more men than any other country.
Shmyhal said on Telegram that Moscow plans to cause a lot of damage to the civilian infrastructure during the new year.
“There are attacks on civilian infrastructure in different regions of our country. Residential buildings, hotel, (a) shop, place for festivals were damaged. There are dead and injured,” he wrote.
Russian Air Forces Using New Years’ Eve Strikes in the Lyman-Kahmut and Avdiivka Directions
The deputy head of the Office of the President of Ukraine said three people died and three were wounded in the DONETSK region. Tymoshenko said it via Telegram.
One person is wounded in the region. Two were killed and one wounded in the Kharkiv region. In the Kherson region two people were wounded, while one died.
26 of the enemy’s air strikes were on civilians. The Shahed-136 were used by the tenants but they were shot down. The General Staff said that the enemy made 80 attacks from multiple rocket launchers and also hit civilian settlements.
It said that Russia “continues to conduct offensive actions at the Lyman and Bakhmut directions and is trying to improve the tactical situation at the Kupiansk and Avdiivka directions.”
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/31/europe/russia-ukraine-new-years-eve-strikes-intl/index.html
The city’s life-support system in the aftermath of the Russian Revolution: Alyona Bogulska, a 29-year-old financier
“The municipal ‘life support system’ of the capital is operating normally. Currently, 30% of consumers are without electricity. Due to emergency shutdowns,” he said on Telegram.
The red metro line in the city was checked to make sure it was free of remnants of missile debris.
I want to win and have bright impressions from that point on. I miss it every single day. I also want to travel and open borders. I think about personal and professional growth because they should not stand still. I have to develop and work for the benefit of the country,” said Alyona Bogulska, a 29-year-old financier.
“This year it’s a symbol, not that it’s a small victory, but a symbol that we survived the year” says an employee.
In his speech on New Year’s Eve, President Zelensky said he was fearful of Russia’s invasion but was hopeful for victory.
Standing in darkness with a Ukrainian flag rippling gently in the breeze behind him, Mr. Zelensky recounted in a videotaped speech many notable moments from the war — including the attack on a maternity hospital, the intense fighting at the Azovstal steel plant, the destruction of a Russian bridge to Crimea, the retaking of Kherson, the sinking of a Russian flagship — as the video cut to footage that underscored his words.
“This year has struck our hearts,” he said, according to a translated transcript posted on his official website. “We’ve cried out all the tears. All the prayers have been yelled. There are over 300 days. We have something to say each and every minute.
Ukranian defenders and protectors of Crimea: Israel, Ukraine, and the War in the Cold War (Extended Abstract)
The United States and other Western nations have been shipping tranches of arms, tanks and ammunition to Ukraine, steadily increasing what they are willing to provide in the hopes of changing the trajectory of the war. Zelensky wants heavier weapons and fighter jets.
All Ukrainians — those working, attending schools or “just learning to walk” — are participating in Ukraine’s defense, Mr. Zelensky said. He doesn’t think that it’s right to call 2022, a year of losses.
Mr. Zelensky said that the world has rallied around Ukranian interests, from the halls of government in foreign countries to the main squares of foreign cities.
That includes not just the territory Russia has captured since the invasion began more than 10 months ago, but also Crimea, the peninsula that Russia illegally annexed in 2014 — “the area of independent Ukraine, as it was since 1991,” he said. “As it will always be.”
Editor’s Note: David A. Andelman, a contributor to CNN, twice winner of the Deadline Club Award, is a chevalier of the French Legion of Honor, author of “A Red Line in the Sand: Diplomacy, Strategy, and the History of Wars That Might Still Happen” and blogs at Andelman Unleashed. Previously, he was a CBS News correspondent in Europe and Asia. The views expressed in this commentary are his own. View more opinion at CNN.
How Russian Forces are Misusing Cell Phones in the Christmas and Christmas Holiday Seasons? The Implications for the Operations of the War in Ukraine
If the Russian account is true, the cell phones used by the novice troops were in violation of regulations which allowed Ukrainian forces to target them most accurately. Ukraine, however, has not indicated how the attack was executed. There are deeper implications for how Russia is conducting its war now.
The Orthodox Christmas holiday is when Putin called for a short-term truce days after an attack on Russian soldiers. The move was dismissed as a cynical attempt to seek breathing space amid a bad start to the year for Russian forces.
Russian officials said that four Ukrainian- launched rockets hit the school where forces were housed next to an arms depot. Russian air defenses shot down two more rockets.
The range for the satellite guided HIMARS is currently 80 kilometers. The 300-kilometer HIMARS have not been authorized yet despite repeated Ukrainian pleas. (The Biden administration has worried that the longer-range system could expand the war beyond Ukraine’s frontiers and lead to an escalation of hostilities.)
Russia meanwhile continues to stockpile arms and ammunition in large quantities close to the troops they will supply and well within range of enemy weaponry. Standard military practice dictates that large depots be broken up and scattered and that they be located far behind enemy lines — even within Russian territory that western powers have declared off-limits to Ukrainian strikes.
Chris Dougherty, a senior fellow for the Defense Program and co-head of the Gaming Lab at the Center for New American Security in Washington, has told me that Russia’s failure to break up or move large arms depots is largely a function of the reality that their forces cannot communicate adequately.
It is a view shared by other experts. James Lewis, the director of the Strategic Technologies Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told me that bad security communications are standard practice in the Russian Army.
Some of the troops killed in Makiivka seem to have been recent conscripts as part of the larger picture of Russian soldiers being shipped to the front lines with little training and sub-standard equipment.
Indeed, a number of the most recent arrivals to the war are inmates from Russian prisons, freed and transferred immediately to the Ukrainian front. One can only imagine how appealing the use of cell phones would be to prisoners accustomed to years of isolation with little or no contact with the outside world.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/06/opinions/russia-makiivka-deaths-cell-phones-andelman/index.html
What Has Putin Learned after the Makiivka Attack? The Military Establishment’s Eyes Widens after the Pegov-Pegov Error
Some of Putin’s most ardent apologists are beginning to look at the military establishment after seeing the blatant errors by the Russian military in the attack on the Ukrainian town of Makiivka.
The person who was personally awarded the Order of Courage by Putin two weeks ago, Semyon Pegov, criticized the Ministry of Defense for suggesting that the troops had their own use of cell phones.
He questioned how the Ministry of Defense could be “so sure” that the location of soldiers lodging in a school building could not have been determined using drone surveillance or a local informant.
The defense ministry had a shakeup a month before, when the deputy defense minister was named. The location of the arms depot, adjacent to the Makiivka recruits, would likely have been on Mizintsev’s watch.
Sergei Shoigu continued to serve as defense minister as recently as Saturday before the Makiivka attack, telling his troops in a video that the victory is inevitable.
How long Putin can keep himself out of the spotlight is the key question following Makiivka. The war has entered a new year and there is no sign that Ukrainian forces intend to ease the pressure on Russian forces.
And there seems to be little suggestion that the West will be letting up on its support for Ukraine. The US and Europe have recently committed to increasing funding by $2 billion in a few years and seem determined to see Ukraine through the winter.
The Biden administration made the announcement this week that the US was considering sending Bradley fighting vehicles to Ukraine. Light tanks would be sent by the French as well as heavier tanks by Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky. The pressure on Chancellor Olaf Scholz to add the Leopard2 tanks is increasing with each passing day.
The explosion of a 60-year-old woman in a street corner in Ukraine: the elderly’s face and eyes flinches
An elderly woman in black pants, heavy shoes, and a dirty grey overcoat and headscarf shuffles up the street. There is an explosion rings out. She flinches, her eyes open wide, but she doesn’t miss a step. A crowd of several dozen elderly residents were bundled up against the cold.
The roads have mud and rubble thrown up by incoming rounds. Vehicles have to avoid water-filled craters where bombs were dropped. The upper floors in some of the apartment buildings have been rendered useless and barely a window on the street is intact. Telephone and electrical wires are dead in the ground.
On the edge of the crowd, standing alone, is 72-year-old Lubov Bilenko. Her face is flat, devoid of emotion, her dark eyes have a thousand-mile stare.
We were scared before and she said that in a low voice. “Now we’re used to it,” she says of the shelling. We no longer pay attention.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/08/europe/ukraine-siversk-postal-service-pensions-intl-cmd/index.html
Pensions in Ukrposhta: Its a little different than what Bilenko had to do at the Postal Service Pensions operation in Siversk
A mobile unit of Ukrposhta has brought Bilenko’s monthly pension from her apartment to the main road. Bilenko’s pension is just short of $80 a month. It’s just enough to buy a bit of food from one of the few shops still open.
Anna Fesenko is the head of the mobile unit. As she and her colleagues check documents against a list of people they are handing out money to, Anna makes townsfolk smile and occasionally laugh.
Before heading the mobile unit, Fesenko worked at the post office in Bakhmut, about 22 miles south of Siversk. The fighting around the town became so intense in the fall that she and her colleagues had to leave.
She understands that her job is not just to give pensions; it is also to remind the people in Siversk they have not been forgotten. She believes we are the only link between them and the rest of the world.
“I live within a 20-minute walk from here, but my wife is afraid to come here,” says 63-year-old Volodymyr, who declined to give his full name, pulling on a cigarette before joining the line.
Olha, 73, has made it to the front. In the war zone, she has spent months in the basement of her buildinghuddling with other people. It’s a cramped, uncomfortable existence. Yet she is willing to put up with it.
The head of the Siversk military administration is seen by the operation. He is worried that there are so many people gathered out in the open.
Russian forces are just across a wide valley, occupying hills visible from the pension distribution point. The area is about six miles to the north.
They are trying to find the right time and place for the handout. That means every time the mobile unit comes, it’s a different place and time to avoid being targeted by the Russians.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/08/europe/ukraine-siversk-postal-service-pensions-intl-cmd/index.html
The War Between the West and the United States as Revisited by Joe-Biden: A Cold War Dynamic Report from the Kiev Palace
She said that there was no one injured, but her colleagues did not want anyone to know. She said they quickly gave out cash to those still waiting and then left.
The point when Biden and his team hoped to avoid depicting the Ukraine conflict in a simplistic way was over by this week. Biden accused Putin of genocide and of being a war criminal in his speech at the castle.
Nearly a year later, Biden returns to the Royal Castle this week to mark the anniversary of a war that has increasingly put him directly at odds with the Russian leader, a Cold War dynamic underscored by Biden’s highly secretive visit to Kyiv a day earlier.
Biden was in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv to mock Putin for failing to conquer the country.
This week, the carefully planned strategy is showing in the fight between Biden and his counterpart in the Kremlin. Each of the two men will give important speeches to mark one year since Russia launched its invasion.
Biden hopes to show Putin and Russia the resolve of the west by returning to the region this week. He will reiterate his commitment to the security of eastern Europe in meetings with Poland’s President.
Unlike Biden’s last appearance in Warsaw, which came as Putin’s forces appeared in retreat and observers expected the Russian economy to crumble under the weight of Western sanctions, the war now appears poised to stretch at least another year. There are currently no serious efforts at negotiating an end to the fighting.
Biden announced the new sanctions on Moscow and the security assistance package for Europe, which will add to tens of billions already committed this year.
The White House said that before Biden left that he would speak by phone with other Western leaders, including the Prime Minister of the UK and the President of France.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/21/politics/joe-biden-poland-trip/index.html
What is the cost of winning? What is it worth fighting for, and what does it take to make the end of the Cold War come to an end?
“Freedom is priceless. It is worth fighting for, for as long as necessary. And that’s how long we’re going to be with you, Mr. President – for as long as it takes,” Biden told Zelensky in Kyiv on Monday.
This week, Biden has not been able to say precisely how long that will be, but the year ahead is going to be more important than the past 12 months.
The war has left an indelible mark on nearly all aspects of Biden’s presidency and he has left his mark on the war, from the billions of dollars in arms shipments to the newly invigorated Western alliance. It has caused convulsions in the global economy and created political problems at home while still providing Biden an opening to demonstrate his oft-recited claim that “America is back.”
The Obama administration has been looking toward this week for a long time, saying that one year ago, as Russian troops massed on the border with Ukraine, there were plenty of people who predicted it would fall in a matter of days.
The Russian forces’ incompetence and the resilience of the Ukrainian people have prevented a full takeover. Instead, the war has become what NATO’s chief Jens Stoltenberg described last week as a “grinding war of attrition” without a discernible end.
“I think it is wise to be prepared for a long war,” German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who will visit Biden at the White House early next month, told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour on Friday.
Zelensky might be willing to accept some parameters in a peace negotiations, but the US has not defined what that may look like beyond saying it will be up to Zelensky to decide.
While polls show support for the war effort is waning, new concerns about the available supplies of weapons and Ammunition have emerged in the past week, showing that the West cannot provide unlimited support forever.
There is a concern regarding the staying power of the US in Poland and Ukraine, despite the current administration. This war would look entirely different without the support of the US,” said Michal Baranowski, the managing director in Warsaw of the German Marshall Fund.
“The fact is that we are fighting with time, right?” Baranowski said. “I mean, it’s really whether time is on the side of Russia, who is losing but has a lot of resources to deplete us in the West. That’s what gives me pause. I hope we have the staying power.”
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/21/politics/joe-biden-poland-trip/index.html
War is Death in a Muddly Foxhole: Newly Weds and Newlyweds Tell the Tale of Two Worlds
In an indication of the massive number of refugees Poland has absorbed since the start of the war, his remarks will be translated into both Polish and Ukrainian.
John Kirby, the strategic communication co-ordinator at the National Security Council, said the president would be talking to people all around the world.
Newlyweds who separated hours after they said their vows so that the groom could back to the front are some of the stories I heard a year ago. A tax preparer in Boston who quit her job to return to Ukraine with suitcases full of medical supplies. The wife of a border guard who lived in western Europe and was stationed at the Polish border dropped off fleeing women and children on a daily basis.
How sad that human beings survived deadly waves of Covid only to get right back into the business-as-usual of killing one other. It’s stupid to spend tens of billions of dollars on missiles, tanks, and other military aid when communities are still adapting to rising oceans and drying rivers. It is incomprehensible how farmers in a breadbasket of the world have gone hungry. It is madness that Putin ordered his army into the country after it was accused of killing and raping civilians.
Governments gussy up war. They talk about victory because soldiers are hoping and will be able to fight on. But in the end, war is death in a muddy foxhole. It’s an existential fight over a frozen field with no strategic value. It’s a generational grudge that begets new generational grudges. It’s an $11 billion, roughly 740-mile pipeline laid across the Baltic Sea rendered useless overnight. It is the largest steel plant in Europe that is unable to produce a single metal sheet. Bombs and siege have left a charming seaside city empty.
The Ukrainian Wedding Day after the First Russian Invasion: CNN’s Fareed Zakaria and her Observation of the City Hall Town Hall
The town hall with two key members of the US President Joe Biden’s national security team is hosted by CNN’s Fareed Zakaria. Jake Sullivan and the Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development,Samantha Power, will be answering questions from Americans and Ukrainians.
The Ukrainian couple got married on the day Russia launched a full-scale attack on their country. Ukraine is still at war a year later. People are dying as missiles fall from the sky.
They say that there isn’t much to celebrate. Arieva told CNN that she and Fursin started to see some memories again after a year.
She said that, for months, she avoided wearing a suit she got just days before the invasion because it was bringing back memories of the darkest moments of her life.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/23/europe/ukraine-married-couple-anniversary-russia-war-intl-cmd/index.html
Joseph Biden and his wife, Arieva Fursin, in Kyiv: a battleground for a new generation of soldiers
The couple rushed to tie the knot in February before their wedding in May. They would like to be together, whatever the next step is. The place has since become a favorite spot for visiting foreign dignitaries on their show-of-support trips to Kyiv. Most recently, US President Joe Biden was photographed there with Ukraine’s leader Volodymyr Zelensky during his surprise visit on Monday.
When Russian troops withdrew from the Kyiv region in early April, Arieva and Fursin’s time in the territorial defense came to an end. The military decided it needed to make the volunteer units more professional and only those with previous military experience were allowed to stay.
He and other volunteers were forming the second line of defense north of Kyiv, in Irpin, Hostomel and other areas that quickly became key battlegrounds.
Fursin was put in charge of a group of 10 people, mostly other very young men. His qualifications? Only one of the 11 held an automatic weapon before.
“The commander watched how I handled the weapon and said: ‘Take these people and make shelters and ambush positions and think about which way you will run,’” Fursin related. We were digging trenches. All night, just digging and digging.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/23/europe/ukraine-married-couple-anniversary-russia-war-intl-cmd/index.html
Crimean married couple-anniversary-russia-cmd-itu-days-of-the-day — russia war in Ukraine: Fursin and his wife
“The first night when I was waiting for my husband, when he left for his first battle, I think it was the scariest night of my life, because of course, I couldn’t call him because he had to turn his phone off,” she said.
Fursin graduated from university this summer. He began his degree in Crimea, but when his family fled the occupied peninsula in 2019, he had to start over. He is now working on and off on software development projects.
Arieva worked in a small office that was open from 7 a.m to 10 p.m. There were three small tables with barely enough space for the computers, let alone the people. Cigarettes and tobacco sticks became hard currency during that time.
“In our dreams, when we were imagining it, we were so heroic and strong. She said there was a lack of sleep and sometimes food in the home and that it was hard to wash once a week.
“Everyone forgot who they are, if they were very famous or very, very rich or very [influential] politicians, they were just helping each other, standing together smoking and not knowing what was going on,” Arieva said.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/23/europe/ukraine-married-couple-anniversary-russia-war-intl-cmd/index.html
A Crimean-born couple in Ukraine: Valentin Fursin and Valentin Valentin Valentinovichenko, when Vladimir invaded Crimea in April 2014
For Fursin, last year’s invasion was the second of his life. He grew up in Crimea and was living on the Ukrainian peninsula when Russia forcibly annexed it in 2014. His grandmother was too ill to travel at the time, so they stayed.
The couple describes the shock of coming back to Irpin after it was liberated in early April. The town north of Kyiv became the front line during the battle for the capital city. The attack was repelled by the Ukrainian forces.
The couple began volunteering in the civilian world back in the 1960’s and 70’s, bringing food and supplies to liberated settlements north of Kyiv. The demand was so overwhelming that sometimes they had to make multiple trips a day.
“I remember Katyuzhanka, because we brought a lot of bread and macaroni and some pasta sauce and batteries and there was a huge amount of people waiting. We gave out everything we had and we had to go back and bring more bread because more than half [of the] people didn’t get anything Arieva said that they didn’t have bread in that town.
They had their official town hall wedding and a small celebration in May, mostly because the deposit was paid and non-refundable. Arieva finally got to meet her great-grandmother.
They had both lost their jobs right at the beginning of the invasion. Fursin was working for a housing co-op while Arieva was working for the Committee of Voters of Ukraine.
Arieva focused on learning to code. Tech is the only sector that is still growing, because it allows people to work from home.
When Russia launched attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure, the plan to study remotely got derailed. Working was quickly becoming impossible.
“We would have two hours of electricity, then five hours without electricity, then three hours of electricity, it was really demoralizing,” Arieva said.
The streets weren’t lit, the worst thing about that. Some people don’t use torches or reflective jackets to see the road. And every week I would see a car crash from my balcony and some people died,” she added.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/23/europe/ukraine-married-couple-anniversary-russia-war-intl-cmd/index.html
“It’s all mine,” Arieva and Fursin explained at the Ukrainian Orthodox Primary School in Krasnoyarsk
It makes sense. It was more symbolic and I really liked it. And also it feels good that we are not celebrating with Russians anymore,” Arieva said.
Normally, the whole family has a full spread of 12 dishes for Christmas dinner, but they didn’t have it because of the power being out that day. They cooked Kutia, the traditional Ukrainian porridge-like Christmas meal that consists of wheat or rice, raisins, walnuts, honey and poppy seeds, using the emergency gas cylinder.
Arieva said she is completely different from everyone else. I became less naive and more grown up. It might have made me a stronger person. She said that what doesn’t kill us makes us stronger.
“Only when you see this, you understand the value of life. And for me, this is 100%,” Fursin said. I understand how different we are after what we went through together. He said, “Maybe the biggest sign that it is true love, is that we still love each other.”