9/27: Ukraine News Round-up
President Biden: Strong statement of Support of Ukraine
President Biden used the PDA to allocate remaining $5.5bln that had been appropriated by Congress. Additional air defense and Patriots to be sent to protect Ukrainian citizens from Russian bombing and other key items. Unfortunately, still no statement on allowing Ukraine to use all weapons as it deems necessary to win the war.
Thank you, President Biden for the support.
Key quote: Through these actions, my message is clear: The United States will provide Ukraine with the support it needs to win this war.
Congratulations to the American Coalition for Ukraine which completed its Ukraine Action Summit. 500 volunteers from both parties and every state came to DC to advocate for Ukraine.
NYT: President Zelensky in US: Controversy around visit due to factory visit in PA.
President Zelensky arrived to address the UN as well as meet with President Biden and candidates Harris and Trump. Unfortunately, President Zelensky ended up in a partisan squabble due to a factory visit in Pennsylvania.
Support for Ukraine is bi-partisan. A majority of Americans of both parties support Ukraine. A majority of Congressmen in both parties support Ukraine. (Check their voting records here: https://www.amukrpac.org/report) Despite the partisan rhetoric around this visit, supporter of Ukraine should reach out to allies on both sides of the aisle.
The Economist: Yuval Harari- What is at stake in Ukraine:
"If Russia wins, no state, and no border would feel secure. And the world would enter a new era of imperialist wars of conquest."
The NYTimes Magazine had an extended, hi-profile, front page article about a Russian soldier. Why did the editors of the NY Times commission a sympathetic portrait of Ivan and Anna who served as cogs in the war crime machine?
The Russian Army is a persistent violator of human rights and routinely commits war crimes as part of its standard operations. Not individual soldiers, but as part of its operating manual.
Ukraine supporters are familiar with the crimes of Bucha and the indiscriminate bombing of civilians in Ukraine. This is not unique to Ukraine. The Russian military launched cluster bombs in Syrian civilians and was found to have committed war crimes by the UN. Similar atrocities happened against its own civilians in Chechnya. These are simply examples during Putin’s reign, but the practice has been going on for decades, if not centuries.
Even odder is the subtle echoing of Russian talking points and use of the passive voice when speaking of Russia’s wars of conquest.
I admit, I couldn’t get to the end of the extended piece. But if history tells us anything, this piece is a favorite for a Pulitzer.
Key quotes- note the passive voice to disguise Russia military actions: unrest roiled or Chechnya pacified. How Putin and Russia tried to meet the West but were unfairly pushed away: rebuffed and rebuke. How other countries don’t have agency: prevent Georgia from joining NATO and thwart Ukraine’s ambitions. but the Russian citizens are innocents in the maelstrom, a modern Madame Bovary. 81% support the war, but “Russians didn’t know what to think of the invasion of Ukraine.”
When Putin came to power, he too was eager to work with the West on security issue, even flirting with joining NATO. But he was repeatedly rebuffed.
The war in Georgia: ostensibly to stop Tbilisi from asserting control over the breakaway regions Abkhazia and South Ossetia but more to prevent Georgia from joining NATO.
in Chechnya, which Putin pacified by destroying its capital, Grozny.
Moscow’s early attempts at rapprochement with the West were nearing their finale.
Moscow took advantage of Ukraine’s domestic unrest and internal divisions to annex Crimea
When unrest roiled eastern Donbas in 2014
the Kremlin was able to thwart Ukraine’s aspirations for ascension to the European Union
The Kremlin sent in unmarked troops to support the separatists
After successes in Crimea and Donbas, Russian forces deployed to Syria in 2015 to help Moscow’s embattled ally, Bashar al-Assad, stay in power.
Putin’s early attempts to partner with the West ended in rebuke and shame.
Collectively, Russians didn’t seem to know what to think — the independent Levada Center found that while 81 percent told pollsters they supported ‘‘the actions of the Russian armed forces in Ukraine,’