First and second, the beginnings of Reuters and Associated Press summaries from Ukraine, both constantly updated today and linking to other stories. Next, a 10-minute report by correspondent Matthew Tyrmand made several weeks ago. Next, in The Atlantic, a writer notes similarities between a 2006 Russian novel and what she sees as the Russian war plan. (The link contains others to Atlantic contributors’ writing related to the war.) Next, at top left of its homepage, the Justice Integrity Project suggests that an isolated Russian President Putin is fearful of his military brass and shows a gregarious U.S. President Biden enjoyably sharing pizza with soldiers in Poland. Finally, four reports from today’s “Weekend Edition” of National Public Radio. — MCM
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Rockets hit Lviv in western Ukraine, Biden calls Putin a ‘butcher’, by Natalia Zinets | Reuters LVIV, Ukraine — Rockets struck the outskirts of the western Ukrainian city of Lviv today for what appeared to be the first time since Russia’s invasion, and Russian forces took control of a town where workers at the defunct Chernobyl nuclear plant live. Intense fighting raged in several parts of Ukraine, suggesting there will be no swift let-up in the month-old war, and U.S. President Joe Biden called Russian President Vladimir Putin a “butcher” after meeting Ukrainian refugees in Poland. The Kremlin was cited by Russia’s TASS news agency as saying such comments would further damage . . . READ MORE . . .
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Shelled city in north Ukraine fears becoming ‘next Mariupol’, by Yuras Karmanau | The Associated Press LVIV, Ukraine — Nights are spent huddling underground from Russian strikes pounding their encircled city into rubble. Daylight hours are devoted to hunting down drinkable water and braving the risk of standing in line for the little food available as shells and bombs rain down. In the second month of Russia’s invasion, this is what now passes for life in Chernihiv, a besieged city in northern Ukraine where death is everywhere. Russia continues to pound cities throughout Ukraine — three powerful explosions Saturday shook the western city of Lviv, which is near the Polish border and has been a refuge for thousands of displaced people. Chernihiv has been blockaded and pounded from afar by Russian troops for weeks. And while it has . . . READ MORE . . .
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Dispatch from Medyka, Poland. Matthew Tyrmand reports in late February or early March, giving what he called a “breakdown of the dynamics on the ground,” HERE. (The reporting from the Poland-Ukraine border was recommended by a Facebook friend. In October 2020 Atlantic Magazine writer Anne Applebaum had THIS to say about Tyrmand.)
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Putin Is Just Following the Manual, by Dina Khapaeva | The Atlantic No one can read Vladimir Putin’s mind. But we can read the book that foretells the Russian leader’s imperialist foreign policy. Mikhail Yuriev’s 2006 utopian novel, The Third Empire: Russia as It Ought to Be, anticipates—with astonishing precision—Russia’s strategy of hybrid war and its recent military campaigns: the 2008 war with Georgia, the 2014 annexation of Crimea, the incursion into the Donetsk and Luhansk regions the same year, and Russia’s current assault on Ukraine. Yuriev’s book, like Putin’s war with Ukraine, is an expression of post-Soviet neo-medievalism, a far-right, anti-Western, and antidemocratic ideology that assigns . . . READ MORE . . .
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Study in Contrasts. From the Justice Integrity Project It’s widely speculated that Russian President Vladimir Putin is afraid of mingling with his generals from fear of them regarding the cruel and disastrous Ukraine invasion, and not from Covid-19. Among the reasons [for this view], Putin was recently photographed enjoying himself mingling with a group airline stewardesses and one of Russia’s most famed Cold War generals, retired Gen. Leonid Ivashov, denounced Putin’s invasion and called on him to resign in an open letter in February shortly before the invasion on behalf of the All-Russian Officers Association that Ivashov chairs. Meanwhile, President Joe Biden dined on boxed-in pizza with a group of U.S. soldiers on Friday at a base in Poland. . . .
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Four NPR Reports. By Nathan Rott, HERE; by Eric Westervelt, HERE; by Debbie Elliott, HERE; and by Joanna Kakissis, HERE.