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LINK Letters From An American 02/23/2022

Heather Cox Richardson

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.

HippieChick58 9 Feb 24
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6 comments

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1

My Grandfather would have said that those "prayers for the citizens of Ukraine" are "as useful as tits on a bull."

We need to seize control of the airspace over Ukraine so we can efficiently get supplies in, and so the Ukraine Defenders can mount a better defence of their Nation.

1

No amount of talk will stop Putin. And neither will any sanctions. Until there are troops and missiles and tanks facing down Russians forces, Ukraine is lost and Putin won't stop there, because he knows the west is not willing to do that. So again Ukraine is lost. If the world was really willing to stop Putin, there would have been more done than just sanctions.

2

Putin will not stop at Ukraine. Today Ukraine, tomorrow Poland, Hungary and so it goes on.

If he isn't stopped you are probably correct.

@Alienbeing It will be tricky to stop him. China is quite happy with what he is up to as they are busy taking over the rest of the world and they are having their eyes on the US next.

@Jolanta Tricky indeed. I'm afraid I don't have the answer.

4

War has been an integral part of human kinds history from the very beginning. Unfortunately, it will not go away especially when we are now getting so many hits on our economy and environment. However, a full out war hitting the enemies economy and respectability might be a different kind of war. It seems Putin has gone tRump shit crazy and must be brought to his knees. Of course, the state sponsored media is only good for propaganda and the Russians know what the consequences will be should they speak out. There were several, unsuccessful, attempts on Hitlers life but perhaps people have learned how to avoid mistakes and find a way to eliminate this mad, rabid dog.
It seems funny how Communists always rail against fascists (and republicans condemn 'socialists' ) but, in the end, for the people there is no difference.

Oh there is a BIG difference. When we won WW2 we allowed Germany and Japan to form their own governments and after a short period of occupation gave the countires back to their population. Communist Russia did not, and apparently still does not want to.

@Alienbeing I lived in Europe for 15 years and know of the history. The Russians were going to occupy Austria but, as the country had oil reserves, it opted for Austria to pay war reparations. When the debt was paid Austria's economy took off. I'm also well aware of the Marshall plan and how our 'allies' got upset at us for helping the enemies more than the allies. Of course forgetting about Lend Lease and all the material we gave to the allies, including the Russians. We tried to punish the Germans severely after WW! and look where that got us.

@JackPedigo Everything you said in your reply proves my point. We were VERY different than the Soviet Communist government who did nthing such s YOU correctly described we did.

Thank you for corrrectig yourself.

@Alienbeing Communication is a funny thing. You can come a totally different conclusion than what another said or wrote. Of course that happens a lot when people judge what another writes from a subjective viewpoint.

@JackPedigo there is nothing subjective about recognizing the vast difference between Communist and Democraric governments after WW2. If you can't recoginze rthat vast difference you are hopeless.

9

What Putin is doing is going to come back to bite him right in the ass.
It may not be today or tomorrow, but it will.
Hopefully, that fucking asshole winds up dead much sooner than he could have ever anticipated.

5

This will effect all of us in one way or another for a very long time. As for democracy, let it be understood that democracy is an experiment. An ideal in which everyone has an equal opportunity. Some governments do not allow this and the experiment is ongoing in America, boosted largely by FDR as many changes came to us.

Putin is wrong here, but he thinks he is right. He wants territory back that the old Soviet Union had before. He wants nothing to do with NATO. Many are going to die if this all continues. Sanctions against Russia is about the only thing we can do outside of all out war. We do not need or want all out war. It would destroy everything. Who would win if we had a war with Russia? Name a country or nation or province that would be better off after nukes are used.

While I agree we should not go to war over this, your post makes a mistaken assumption that if we did go to war, a nuclear exchange would take place.

Putkin is agressive, but not stupid. He knows (and I remind you) about MAD. That is "Mutually Assured Destruction". Any nuclear exchange between Russia and NATO results in MAD.

@Alienbeing Who says he is not Mad. More and more it seems he is.

Our choice is to let our economic system reign and turn tail or understand it's better to suffer an economic downturn and maybe even go to rationing goods and services or losing another war with thousands of us being killed.

@JackPedigo I said it. Do you have other information or are you just mouthing off?

@creative51 Let's make sure the first blast is over your head.

What a stupid reply you made.

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