Russian strikes leave apartments icy. People wake up shivering, warm their hands by ovens, and wear 3-5 pairs of socks just to get through the day.
Tetiana from Kyiv: Cold. Very cold. Everything is icy. I turn on the oven and stand there to warm myself. That’s life.
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Daria: With a child, it’s impossible to stay in the apartment. We came yesterday for two or three hours, and I froze so badly my throat started to hurt.
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Yeva: How many pairs of socks? One, two, three and boots. At home, I put on two more pairs. It’s extremely cold.
Applebaum: A Russian victory in Ukraine would endanger not only countries on Russia’s borders, but all of Europe.
Putin has said that anywhere a Russian soldier has ever been could be Russian again. That is not only Warsaw or Riga. That also means Berlin. 1/
Applebaum: Europe faces pressure from two sides. On one side, a rearmed and radicalized Russia using hybrid warfare.
On the other, an American administration whose strategy defines European liberal democracy itself as an adversary. 2/
Applebaum ironically: We can give up [on Europe and Ukraine].
We can let American negotiators prolong the war, using talks with Russia to plan business deals. We can allow Europe to become a continent of warring states, manipulated by Russia, America, and China. 3X
Ben Hodges: It's naive to believe Russia wants to be a responsible global player.
The Kremlin represents a government killing Ukrainians daily, including civilians and children. To say they were “almost friends” is absurd and deeply misguided. 1/
Hodges: U.S. has not shown real commitment to Ukraine, and Ukrainian leaders rightly doubt any promises.
Trump administration hasn’t delivered weapons or guarantees. European allies must show their support, as the U.S. risks destroying trust with its inconsistent actions. 2/
Hodges: If Russia gets more of Donbass, Ukraine won’t be satisfied, and Russia won’t stop.
The U.S. should provide security guarantees, but this requires acknowledging Russia as the aggressor — a stance the Trump administration hasn’t shown willingness to take. 3/
“She’s been in the Ukrainian army for 10 years. She lives with her soldiers, calls them ‘my boys,’ and sends drone pilots a few kilometers from Russians to track and kill.
She’s the most extraordinary woman” — author Marlowe on Yulia Mykytenko, Ukrainian drone unit commander. 1/
Lara Marlowe: I went to see Yuliia on the front line in Donetsk.
She commands a drone unit, lives in a house with men, and constantly goes out to dugouts near Russian positions. They watch everything Russians do and use FPV drones with explosives. 2/
Marlowe: She believes women are just as capable as men. Living with male soldiers has never been a problem. When I asked about harassment, she said, “No. I have a gun.” 3/
Snyder: The United States in its current form wants to undermine European democracy.
In particular, it wants to undermine European Union, and those two things work together. The Union helps create the conditions for democracy. 1/
Snyder: There’s no moment when we were innocent and everyone else was guilty. History’s never like that.
History gives us a sense of possibility. The more you know about the past, the more scenarios you see. All kinds of things have actually been tried and did happen. 2/
Snyder: The EU is a positive example where state sovereignty is strengthened because states are working together.
Some Americans and lots of Russians want to break up the EU to weaken European states, not because they care about European nations. 3X