First, links to today’s reports from the Associated Press, Reuters, and TeleSUR. Then, links to two longer accounts from Agence France-Presse, made available in April and early this month, the first on discovering the remains of civilians in Bucha, the second comparing the war in Ukraine with the one three decades ago in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Finally, via Consortium News, a link to a video of CN editor Joe Lauria interviewing Ukrainian poet Irina Starovoyt on May 13 at the annual conference of PEN International’s Writers for Peace Committee. — MCM
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Scars of war seem to be everywhere in Ukraine after 3 months, by Elena Becatoros and Yuras Karmanau | The Associated Press KRAMATORSK, Ukraine — Piano music wafted from an apartment block on a recent spring evening in Kramatorsk, blending with distant artillery fire for a surreal soundtrack to a bomb-scarred neighborhood in the eastern Ukrainian city. No matter where they live, the 3-month-old war never seems to be far away. Those in towns and villages near the front lines hide in basements from constant shelling, struggling to survive with no electricity or gas — and often no running water. But even in regions . . . READ MORE . . .
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Russia launches new assault on eastern Ukraine towns, by Pavel Polityuk and Max Hunder | Reuters KYIV/KRAMATORSK, Ukraine — Russian forces launched offensives on towns in eastern Ukraine today, with constant mortar bombardment destroying several houses and killing civilians, Ukrainian officials said, as Russia focuses its attack on the industrial Donbas region. . . . In the easternmost part of the Ukrainian-held Donbas pocket, the city of Sievierodonetsk on the east bank of the Siverskiy Donets River and its twin Lysychansk, on the west bank, have become a pivotal battlefield. Russian forces were advancing from three directions to encircle them. READ MORE . . .
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The U.S. Recruits Terrorists to Fight in Ukraine, Russia Says. From TeleSUR. The Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) says the United States is actively recruiting members of international terrorist organizations, including the Islamic State (ISIS), as mercenaries to fight in Ukraine. In April, about 60 ISIS militants aged 20-25 were released from prisons controlled by the Syrian Kurds with the participation of U.S. intelligence services, the SVR said in a recent statement. They were “transferred to the U.S. military base Al-Tanf, located in Syria near the border with Jordan and Iraq, for combat training with a view to subsequent delivery to Ukraine.” READ MORE . . .
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Bucha: A street filled with bodies, by Danny Kemp | Agence France-Presse An AFP team were the first journalists to discover the horrors of Bucha, a quiet commuter town near Kyiv, occupied by the Russian army for over a month, where Russian troops are accused of massacring hundreds of civilians. This is Danny Kemp’s account of what they saw that day. Some may find it distressing. // BUCHA, Ukraine — We saw three of them at first, lying in the dirt like piles of rags. That alone would have been bad enough. “Bodies,” someone in the car said, because it was all that could be said. Our driver screeched to a halt and we jumped out . . . READ MORE . . .*
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Welcome (back) to Hell: war in Ukraine reopens Sarajevo’s scars, by Sonia Bakaric | AFP The invasion of Ukraine has brought back painful memories for those who lived through the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina, the bloodiest in Europe since World War II. Thirty years on, the trauma is still raw, writes Sonia Bakaric, who covered the conflict for AFP // PARIS — Thirty years have passed since the start of the war in Bosnia, but I can never forget its brutality. The memories have come alive again with the war in Ukraine, where civilians are suffering in the same ways they did back then in the most murderous of the conflicts that followed the collapse of the former Yugoslavia. Kyiv is not much more than an hour’s flight from Sarajevo . . . READ MORE . . .**
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An Exchange With a Ukrainian Poet on the War, introduced by Joe Lauria of CN Live! Irina Starovoyt spoke with CN Live! during PEN International’s annual writers’ meeting in Bled, Slovenia on Russia’s motives, the role of neo-Nazis and the 2014 events in Ukraine.Starovoyt, a Ukrainian poet from the western city of Lvov, the epicenter of Ukraine’s far-right nationalism, is not a political scientist or a geo-strategist. She is a writer and a teacher. She traveled 36 hours by bus from Ukraine to Slovenia to speak at the PEN conference. She is living through the war. CN Live! sat down with her on May 13 to get her perspective. The interview shows what an educated Ukrainian writer is being told about the war. Her views are hers alone. Watch and listen to the interview HERE.
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* Click HERE or HERE for article in French or Spanish.
** Click HERE or HERE for article in French or Spanish.
*** PEN International website is HERE.