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Tim Mak Profile picture
@timkmak
Mar 23, 2022 • 22 tweets • 7 min read • Read on X
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Good morning from Ukraine.

Kyiv remains in Ukrainian hands, but was shelled overnight in the Svyiatoshynsky and Shevchenkivsky districts.

Meanwhile Mariupol has been shelled from the Sea of Azov…

This invasion turns a month old tomorrow…
Mariupol is still being contested by Ukrainian and Russian military forces…

Western intel had predicted it would fall by now…

Ukrainian officials have rejected Russian calls for surrender
Zelenskyy on Mariupol: 100k “live in the city in inhuman conditions, in complete blockade, without food, without water, without medicines and under constant shelling”

Humanitarian corridors “frustrated by Russian occupiers, shelling or deliberate terror”

google.com/amp/s/ua.inter…
Meanwhile the Biden administration is preparing to announce even more sanctions on Russia as the president travels to Europe…

“There will be hard days ahead in Ukraine," Jake Sullivan warned. "This war will not end easily or rapidly."

npr.org/2022/03/23/108…
The Biden administration will not only announce new sanctions but will also announce ways they intend to crack down on those who help evade sanctions

Zelenskyy is expected to address those assembled for a NATO meeting on Thursday

npr.org/2022/03/23/108…
We are traveling westbound today.

Everywhere we look there are massive trucks headed east, filled with aid, fuel and — I imagine —weapons.

More trucks than I have ever seen.

Some look brand new.
Over the last four weeks martial law has made it nearly impossible to get legal alcohol in Ukraine… last night this was lifted in Vinnytsia, which I was traveling through
The mood was buoyant early in the evening.

Oleg was bartending in this basement bar in the city center… three choices: Jäegermeister, a local lager or a kind of berry cider

As you can see there’s nothing on the shelves
It was wonderful to hear the laughter and the vibes of a joyful bar.

Want to get a sense of it?

Take a listen to some audio I recorded of what it sounded like:

soundcloud.com/tim-mak-453990…
As we sat there, some Ukrainians overheard us speaking English and asked us what we were doing in their city

Tanya grew up in Vinnytsia, but has Russian ancestry.

“My blood is Russian but my soul is Ukrainian. My friends are all in the war… in Kyiv. In Kherson. In Mykolaiv.”
This is Artyom, who also has Russian heritage.

“Our people over there are killing our people over here. And for what? For Putin? I hope that the war ends soon. The war is shit.”
People were in a good mood at first. They were clinking glasses and shouting “glory to Ukraine” amidst the sort of frenzied chatter you always hear in bars. I’ll repeat: it was so good to hear the laughter
I have still not been able to find pho in the last month but I did see a sticker here indicating at least that people who know about pho have been here
It was in this dimly lit basement bar, which smelled like whisky but had none for sale, that I learned I shared a name with Timati, a pro-Putin rapper that everyone there hated
Arytom and I spoke a little longer. His wife and child are out of the country but he has a critical IT job and isn’t allowed to leave.

A long sigh. He takes a long swig of cider. He says he doesn’t want to fight in the war.
“This war will end but my humanity won’t,” he said.

He spoke some English but for some of the more meaningful stuff we spoke through Google Translate.

Take a read:
It turns out he has already seen combat. “My skill is for sniper,” he said. With a dragunov rifle.

He began listing his friends who had been killed. His classmates.

Andrey in Donbas.

Alexey, in Kyiv.

Bogdan, in Donbas.
A deep sigh. And then a long gulp of cider made from berries.

Artyom was in Donbas. He describes seeing people without legs…

And he remembers this friend who was a teenager… 18 years old… who had his face blown off by shrapnel.
His friend was laying without his eyes…

Arytom gave him morphine after morphine dose in the initial minutes.

He is haunted by this guy saying, “am I going to be alright? I have a girlfriend.”

He started to get choked up.

“This war is shit,” he says.
He remembers an officer patting him on the back and saying “why don’t you take care of this,” and walking away.

His friend survived for two days without a face before dying at the age of 18.
We walked home in silence in the greyness of a city at war, trying to get back before curfew
Today’s dog of war is this stray pup who is sleeping in front of the WOG gas station… then marches around like he owns the place

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More from @timkmak

Tim Mak Profile picture
Oct 24
Good morning to readers; Kyiv remains in Ukrainian hands.

For years I thought I was done with Maria Butina, the Russian agent linked with the NRA that I uncovered.

But after she was released from prison, she went back to Russia to become a legislator with Putin’s party... Image
… and I became a resident of Kyiv, a city being relentlessly attacked by the forces she so vigorously supports.

This is the inside story of how I came to unmask Maria Butina.
Every great investigative story starts with an unlikely tip.

Usually it sounds just a little too wild to be true.

Oftentimes, these claims are impossible to prove.
Read 14 tweets
Tim Mak Profile picture
Sep 21
Good morning to readers; Kyiv remains in Ukraine’s hands.

Poland and Ukraine are strong allies.

But unresolved historical tensions strain their relations, threatening Ukraine's accession to the EU.

Many Poles, like ambassador Bartosz Cichocki, cannot forgive the Volhynian massacre.Image
More than 80 years ago, Ukrainian nationalists killed thousands of Poles in the western regions of Ukraine. They targeted children, women, the elderly, and other civilians. In retaliation, Poles carried out numerous revenge attacks against the Ukrainian population.
It happened almost a century ago, but these historical events have real world implications for Ukraine’s future – it is a bitter point between two countries that are otherwise close allies due to Russian aggression, and a point of friction that could keep Ukraine out of the EU.
Read 14 tweets
Tim Mak Profile picture
Sep 12
Good morning readers, Kyiv remains in Ukrainian hands.

A Russian documentary that whitewashes the crimes of the Russian military in Ukraine has turned out to be funded by Canada.

Olha Glotka, who saw these crimes with her own eyes, is outraged by the film's debut in Toronto. Image
This Friday, a documentary film about Russian soldiers illegally occupying Ukraine will make its North American debut at the Toronto Film Festival.

The movie – titled 'Russians at War' – has been criticized by Ukrainians and pro-Ukrainian Canadians as overtly propagandistic.
Filmmaker Anastasia Trofimova not only did the film with the blessing of Russian troops in Ukraine, but also with hundreds of thousands of Canadian taxpayer dollars. Image
Read 14 tweets
Tim Mak Profile picture
Aug 14
Good morning to readers; Kyiv remains in Ukrainian hands.

So does the city of Sudzha.

Russia justifies its invasion by reclaiming “historic” territories.

But the past of Kyiv's seized areas in Russia, like Sudzha — a former Ukrainian city — shows the absurdity of such claims. Image
The history of Sudzha, like many cities along the Russian-Ukrainian border, has ties to both nations.

Putin’s imperial logic would suggest Ukraine would have a claim on this territory – something the Ukrainians themselves have rejected.
Sudzha was founded in the middle of the 17th century as a city of Cossacks – a semi-nomadic peoples who lived on the territory of Ukraine and are considered by many to be the ancestors of Ukrainians.
Read 13 tweets
Tim Mak Profile picture
Aug 10
Good morning to readers; Kyiv remains in Ukrainian hands.

The Red Cross’s job is to monitor/facilitate international law. In Ukraine, it’s obvious that it has failed.

Meet Illia: His family didn't know he was alive because the Red Cross lost his info while he was a POW. Image
When Ukrainians were beaten to death in Russian prisoner of war camps, the Red Cross was nowhere to be seen.

The organization left Mariupol early in the full-blown war when more than 300,000 civilians were surrounded by occupation troops, leaving them to their fates.
And it failed to do enough as evidence has piled up that Russia has violated international humanitarian law — time and time again.

That’s despite the ICRC’s role being to enforce the so-called “rules of war”, protecting humanitarian rights.
Read 17 tweets
Tim Mak Profile picture
Jul 8
NEWSFLASH: Children's hospital struck in brazen Russian daylight attack

Just a week ago we profiled the work of the Okhmatdyt Children's Clinic in Kyiv. Today, it was hit. We rushed to the scene to report. Image
In central Kyiv, you can hear the difference between outgoing air defense missiles, firing up over the city: a hollow ‘poof!’ sound.

And then there’s the kind of explosion you don’t want to hear:

…a crunchier, sharper sound indicating something on the ground has been hit.
Today, the sites hit include a children’s hospital.

Larysa Moisienko, a senior nurse at the trauma unit said:

"The blast wave completely blew us all away to the corner. At that time, all the windows and doors were blown out, absolutely everything was blown out," Larysa said. Image
Read 12 tweets

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