With mind-numbing regularity, Putin’s Russia commits acts of terror against Ukrainians. But the numbing of the mind should be resisted. There are any number of reports one might glance at. Here is one, typical, from RFE/RL: “A Russian missile left a large crater next to a psychiatric hospital in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv.”
• My sense is, the world at large has little idea what Putin’s forces have done to such cities as Kharkiv and Mariupol. They have made these cities as they made Grozny and Aleppo. They have obliterated them, and life in them.
Also, the issue of child abduction gets lost in the daily swirl of news. Ariana Gic has noted a case.
• Such reports as this one are very hard to read — but I think we should be aware of them: “Many Ukrainian Prisoners of War Show Signs of Trauma and Sexual Violence.”
• Charles Krauthammer said, memorably, “Decline is a choice.” I thought of him when listening to Emmanuel Macron, the French president: “Today we must realize that our Europe is mortal, it can perish. It depends only on our choice, but this choice must be made now.”
• Such regimes as Putin’s always have accomplices abroad. Always. Here is a headline from the BBC: “Two British men have been charged with helping Russian intelligence services after a suspected arson attack on a Ukraine-linked business in London.” (Article here.)
• Josh Rogin, the columnist for the Washington Post, spoke with Mihai Popsoi, the foreign minister of Moldova. The foreign minister knows that his country is in peril. How could he not?
“It’s not an issue of whether Russia wants to invade,” Popsoi told Rogin. “It’s only an issue of whether they can. God forbid, if the Russians felt emboldened, clearly Moldova would be next. And after that, it’s anybody’s guess.”
The foreign minister further said, “Putin’s ambitions are imperial; he doesn’t deny them. He wants to rebuild the Soviet Union.” And if Russia isn’t stopped in Ukraine, “then all democracies are in trouble.”
• A common flight in Eastern Europe is Helsinki to Tallinn — the Finnish capital to the Estonian capital, and vice versa. I have taken this flight, or these flights, myself. In recent days, two planes have had to turn back. A headline in the Financial Times indicates why: “Russian GPS jamming threatens air disaster, warn Baltic ministers.” (Article here.)
In all likelihood, any government, and any people, would consider such jamming an act of war. (Certainly we Americans would.) It is hard to be a neighbor of Russia. Very hard. What would you do, if you were a neighbor? Submit? They are in an excruciating position, men and women who hold responsible offices in neighboring governments. I can only begin to imagine.
• Every day, we see or hear the words “hawk” and “dove.” We probably use them ourselves. They are almost unavoidable, in discussions of foreign policy. But I return to a point I have made repeatedly.
The Ukrainians were invaded by a behemoth, rapacious neighbor. They are fighting for their lives — their independence, their country, their freedom. Some of us want to help them. And our opponents call us “hawks” (and worse, of course).
This strikes me as just weird.
• Mike Lee is the senior senator from Utah. A Republican. He tweets as “BasedMikeLee.” Here is a recent example of his work:
My guess is, the “based” senator is unaware of this: “Milei: Argentina in talks with Ukraine, military aid a possibility.”
• Chuck Grassley, too, is a Republican senator — different from Mike Lee:
• A statement by Marjorie Taylor Greene, the Republican congresswoman from Georgia, prompts a comment from me. Her statement:
And my comment: One of the greatest failures of the populist movement, I think, is the failure to see that things are connected: that the fates of nations are often intertwined. In other words, you may want to be isolated — but the world may have other plans for you.
• A final word — from Margarita Simonyan, the head of RT (Russia Today), and one of Putin’s chief propagandists: