Dispatch from Kharkiv, from Professor Marina Petrushko, Dr Vladimir Pinyaev and Dr Taisiya Yurchuk, who are sheltering at a doctor's clinic in the second-largest city in Ukraine. They write:
"On the fourth day we live in HELL" 1/4
"Our lives have narrowed to the limits of basements. Our Drt Clinic, where life was born, has become a shelter for patients with young children of employees. Thank God - the house has thick walls and a solid basement." 2/4
"The Russians are destroying everything: residential neighborhoods, kindergartens, hospitals, even a blood transfusion station," these three doctors write. "Our guys from the ARMED FORCES of UKRAINE have been defending our lives for the fourth day." 3/4
Глядя на Путинские атаки на Украину снова и снова, меня поразила мысль, что он извлёк неправильный урок из ошибок Афганской войны. И что он совершенно неправильно понимает современную Украину, Украину президента Зеленского. 1/
У меня не сложилось какое-то конкретное мнение о Путине, несмотря на то, что я прочитала много написанного о нем. Написанного людьми намного умнее меня. Но я знаю современных русских, украинцев и украинских евреев. 2/
И я думаю, что Путин до сих пор живёт в мире до 1991-92 года. В мире если и нефункционального, но целостного СССР, частью которого была Украина. Вот в чём дело! Он потерял связь с действительностью. Привет, бункерный менталитет! 3/
Zelenskiy drops two more videos this morning. I will translate key bits of the first. It is in Russian, and he speaks directly to Belarusians who are voting today in a "referendum" on allowing Russia to host nuclear weapons on their land. 1/?foreignpolicy.com/2022/02/26/bel…
"My words are addressed to the citizens of Belarus. You've been called today to the ballot box to vote in a referendum. This could've looked like a normal political process, but now clearly there's nothing normal. Now, decisions are being taken on a very different level." 2/?
"The past night in Ukraine was cruel. Again, shootings, again bombing of civilian areas, civilian infrastructure ... [invading forces] are fighting against everyone. They are fighting against everything living. Against kindergartens. Against homes. Even against ambulances" 3/?
So, Putin expected a cake walk but there's no cake to be seen. What's he to do? Try to kill Zelenskiy? He'll die a martyr. How do you control a country of 44 million Ukrainians who suddenly have something to believe in? 25/?
This isn't a quick, clean, hit. There are mass civilian casualties, missiles raining down on a country on the European continent. A country that's next door to NATO and EU members - Baltics which have been warning about this for years, and now they know ... 26/?
Watching Putin's attack on Ukraine play out, I am struck by the thought that Putin learned the lesson from the wrong Afghanistan war. And he has also vastly misunderstood post-Zelenskiy Ukraine. 1/?
I don't have any particular insight into Putin - though I have read a lot of things much smarter people than I am have written about him. But I do know Russians, and I know Ukrainians, and I know Ukrainian Jews. 2/?
Putin, I think, lives in a pre-1991/92 world. A world in which the USSR was one whole, if dysfunctional package, of which Ukraine was a part. But here's the thing. Putin has lost touch - hello, bunker mentality. 3/?
Thread of latest Zelenskiy Telegram video, posted midnight Kyiv time. He looks exhausted, but maintains composure. Speaks only in Ukrainian this time. 1/14
"Today was a difficult but brave day," Zelenskiy says, wearing the same khaki shirt and sweater as in his other videos from today. "We are fighting for our state absolutely on all fronts In the south-east, the north, in many cities of our beautiful Ukraine around the clock." 2/14
Gives update of world leaders he has spoken to - Macron, Scholz, Biden, etc, who have "agreed on new help, new support. Significant help for our country. I thank all the leaders separately," Zelenskiy says. 3/14