February 23, 2022
Today, Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky made a passionate plea to the people of Russia to avoid war. He gave the speech in Russian, his own primary language, and, reminding Russians of their shared border and history, told them to “listen to the voice of reason”: Ukrainians want peace.
“You've been told I'm going to bomb Donbass,” he said. “Bomb what? The Donetsk stadium where the locals and I cheered for our team at Euro 2012? The bar where we drank when they lost? Luhansk, where my best friend's mom lives?” Zelensky tried to make the human cost of this conflict clear. Observers lauded the speech and contrasted its statesmanship with Putin’s recent ramblings.
And yet, it will stand only as a marker. Tonight in America, but early Thursday in Ukraine, Russian president Vladimir Putin launched a “special military operation,” claiming, quite transparently falsely, that he needed to defend the people in the “new republics” within Ukraine that he recognized Monday from “persecution and genocide by the Kyiv regime.” He called for “demilitarization” of Ukraine, demanding that soldiers lay down their weapons and saying that any bloodshed would be on their hands.
He also promised to provide for the ”denazification” of Ukraine, a harking back to the period after World War II when Nazis and those who had worked with them were purged from society. Putin has repeatedly referred to Ukrainian leaders as Nazis, a charge Zelensky, who is of Jewish heritage, has pleaded with Russians to reject, citing Ukraine’s losses in World War II and his own grandfather’s service in that war. Putin’s chilling word here suggests that he intends to purge from Ukraine all those who worked with the Zelensky government.
Putin warned: “Anyone who tries to interfere with us, or even more so, to create threats for our country and our people, must know that Russia’s response will be immediate and will lead you to such consequences as you have never before experienced in your history.” This sweeping and vague threat seems to encompass everything from massive cyber attacks to nuclear war, but at this point it seems mostly to be an effort to deter resistance. Russia’s economy is already taking hits from Putin’s decision to recognize the breakaway governments, and it likely cannot withstand a long war. Putin needs a quick win.
As he spoke in a video, wearing the same clothes he wore in the prerecorded meeting broadcast Monday, suggesting this message might have been recorded at the same time, the U.N. Security Council was holding an emergency meeting in New York City to implore him not to go forward with war. At the Security Council meeting, the Russian ambassador claimed his nation was not “being aggressive against the Ukrainian people, but against the junta in power in Kyiv.” Rather than a junta government that took power by force, Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky was popularly elected in April 2019 in a landslide of more than 73%.
At 10:58 tonight, Eastern time, Ukraine foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba tweeted: “Putin has just launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Peaceful Ukrainian cities are under strikes. This is a war of aggression. Ukraine will defend itself and will win. The world can and must stop Putin. The time to act is now.”
By midnight tonight, Ukraine’s state emergency service said that ten regions were under attack.
Countries around the world condemned the attack. Danish Minister of Foreign Affairs Jeppe Sebastian Kofod said: “Denmark utterly condemns this horrific attack…. An abhorrent breach of international law. Russia bears full responsibility for this needless conflict[.] We will coordinate closely with allies, partners for strongest possible international reaction[.]”
In a statement, President Biden said, “The prayers of the entire world are with the people of Ukraine tonight as they suffer an unprovoked and unjustified attack by Russian military forces. President Putin has chosen a premeditated war that will bring a catastrophic loss of life and human suffering. Russia alone is responsible for the death and destruction this attack will bring, and the United States and its Allies and partners will respond in a united and decisive way. The world will hold Russia accountable.”
The administration increased sanctions today, adding the company building the Nord Stream 2 pipeline and its corporate officers. Tomorrow, Biden will meet in the morning with the other leaders of the G7: Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the U.K.—the world’s wealthiest liberal democracies. He will speak to the American people afterward to announce further consequences for Russia’s aggression.
Tonight, Biden reported: “President Zelenskyy reached out to me tonight and we just finished speaking. I condemned this unprovoked and unjustified attack by Russian military forces. I briefed him on the steps we are taking to rally international condemnation, including tonight at the UN Security Council. He asked me to call on the leaders of the world to speak out clearly against President Putin’s flagrant aggression, and to stand with the people of Ukraine.”
Zelensky told his people: “A minute ago I spoke to President Biden. The USA has started to unite international support. Today we need each of you to stay calm. If you can, stay at home. We are working. The army is working. The whole security and defense sector of Ukraine is working.”
Richard Engel of NBC News reported on this speech by Zelensky and in the report he noted that much of the Russian news flying around Ukraine appears to be false, designed to get Ukrainians to panic and give up quickly.
I’m cutting the news in this letter off at midnight, Maine time, to keep the record clear. And, while we’re at it, a lot happened domestically today, but I am holding it for the future. Today’s invasion of democratic Ukraine by authoritarian Putin is important. It not only has broken a long period of peace in Europe, it has brought into the open that authoritarians are indeed trying to destroy democracy.
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Notes:
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/02/23/world/russia-ukraine-putin
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-48007487
https://www.axios.com/putin-delares-war-on-ukraine-5a28dbd5-362f-4e97-91e1-84272f7390fd.html
https://www.businessinsider.com/putins-suit-war-declaration-ukraine-possibly-pre-taped-2022-2
"The lamps are going out all over Europe, we shall not see them lit again in our life-time", British Foreign Secretary Sir Edward Grey remarked to a friend on the eve of the United Kingdom's entry into the First World War.
Woke up this morning at 6:30 to find out the world has gone to hell. Of course we were expecting it but still hard to grasp. Ukraine will now experience what the people of Donbas have endured for 8 years, thanks to Putin.
We are organizing to hunker down but have packed go-bags just in case. Even Lucky knows something is wrong as he wouldn't eat, just ran around his yard barking at everything. He'll eat tonight.
Gas stations are closed here to conserve fuel in case of evacuation. We are safe so far but who knows how fast the front will move west or north.
Do not believe unconfirmed videos or tweets as Russia is spreading a great deal of misinformation to panic people. For example there is no confirmed amphibious landing in Odessa. Some of the videos of explosions are faked.
Tell Biden to keep on keeping on!
"Trump and his supporters praise Putin and dismiss Biden as crisis unfolds
By Meryl Kornfield
February 23 at 7:45 PM EST
As the United States seeks to rally its allies and impose tough penalties for Russia’s aggression toward Ukraine, a vocal group of Republicans and right-leaning commentators is expressing praise and admiration for the president’s strength and shrewdness. President Vladimir Putin, that is."
We should not underestimate the aod, comfort and encouragement that former President Donald Trump and his supporters have given Putin to undertake this assault o. Ukraine both when Trump was in office and up through today. Not only has Trump incited an attack on our Capitol that threatened US Congress men and women, which led to the deaths of Capitol police. But Trump is now responsible for giving Putin the expectation that he can get away with the deaths and destruction of Ukainian citizens and their country.
Right wing US media, probably with Russian support, has concocted all kinds of fake history and reasons why Russia is justified. Such as, Ukraine has always been part of Russia. Or that "Nazis" and "fascists" took over Ukraine, oppressing the people of Ukraine. Stalin and Russia attacked independent Ukraine in 1917, taking possession of this independent nation, starting the formation of what would become the Soviet Union. Russia has dominated, oppressed and imposed itself on Ukraine for 100 years. Russia starved Ukrainians for a period as it destroyed Ukraine's farming culture, to force development of state owned farms while sending people off to work in state factories. Ukraine's economy crumbled along with Russia's. After WWII, Stalin persecuted, rounded up and sent off to the gulags everyone in Eastern Europe, including Ukraine, who were not loyal to Stalin. Thus included both those labeled "Nazis", people who might have attachments to Germany and Europe, and national communist party members loyal to their country. These were countries ravaged by Nazi Germany and then by Russia as WWII was conducted back and forth.
Ukrainians deserve to live in peace in their own nation. This is why they on good terms with Russia after the dissolving of the Soviet Union, gave up their nuclear weapons, with promises by Russia to protect them. Now every smaller nation in the world from Morth Korea to Iran and Isreal will not give up their existing pr potential nuclear weapons. What Putin with support from Trumo and other right wing extremists around the world has done is make our world that much more dangerous. The dangers are both potential for severe wars and total distraction of attention and resources needed to address all of our domestic and international challenges like sustanable economic development and climate change. Our own Republicans have been selling us out, to covid19, to rewriting our elections for o e party control, and now to the expansion of Russia and other authoritarian nations. In the end, Americans may well kill ourselves with misinformation, supporting the spread of pandemics, oppressive authoritarianism and destruction of our climate and planet.