First, from today’s Berkshire Eagle, views of Ukraine before Russia’s invasion this year and now, by former international correspondent James Brooke, who lived there with his family for six years before moving back to the United States; his talk at a church this afternoon in Lenox, Massachusetts, will be on Zoom (details HERE). Second and third, Associated Press and Reuters reports made available around 10 a.m. EDT, both linked to others. Then, an AP report on how the war is affecting food prices. Next, a report via Popular Resistance! that Greek railroad workers have blocked a shipment of U.S. tanks to Ukraine. Finally, via Consortium News, an Indian writer puts the Ukraine war in a geopolitical context. — MCM
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Putin’s war perverts a personal geography, by James Brooke | The Berkshire Eagle [Brooke sketches pre-war experiences in Bucha, Mariupol, Chernihiv and Kramatorsk in the opening paragraphs.] This was my Ukraine, a cultured, family friendly country where I lived for six years until moving back to Lenox last fall. Based in Kyiv, my wife Pen Soy, our son George and I explored this little known European nation, an expanse larger than France. After Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his war of choice on Ukraine, every city I visited in Ukraine has been bombed. For me, reading the news is to see a friendly, familiar geography turn perverse. From Kyiv, the now iconic photo of the bandaged young woman nursing her baby in a government hospital rang a bell with me. Last August, our George was interned in the same hospital . . . Eagle subscribers can read more HERE.
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More civilians flee east Ukraine after deadly station strike, by Adam Schreck and Cara Anna | The Associated Press KYIV, Ukraine — Civilian evacuations moved forward in patches of battle-scarred eastern Ukraine today, a day after a missile strike killed at least 52 people and wounded more than 100 at a train station where thousands clamored to leave before an expected Russian onslaught. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy demanded a tough global response to Friday’s train station attack in Kramatorsk, calling it the latest example of war crimes by Russian forces that should motivate the West to do more to help his country defend itself. “All world efforts will be directed to establish every minute of who did what, who gave what orders, where the missile came from, who transported it, who gave the command and how this strike was agreed,” Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address, his voice rising in anger. Russia denied it was responsible and accused Ukraine’s military of firing on the station to try to turn blame for civilian casualties on Moscow. A Russian Defense Ministry spokesman detailed the missile’s trajectory and Ukrainian troop positions to bolster the argument. READ MORE . . .
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Ukraine faces ‘hard battle’ in eastern regions, Zelenskiy says, by Elizabeth Piper | Reuters * Zelenskiy expects hard battle in Ukraine’s east * At least 52 died in train station attack * Civilians in Luhansk region told to flee KYIV — Ukraine is ready for a tough battle with Russian forces amassing in the east of the country, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on today, a day after a missile attack in the east that officials said killed more than 50 civilians trying to evacuate. Air-raid sirens sounded in cities across eastern Ukraine, which has become the focus of Russian military action following a withdrawal from areas close to the capital, Kyiv. After Friday’s strike on a train station crowded with women, children and the elderly in the Donetsk region city of Kramatorsk, officials urged civilians in the neighbouring Luhansk region to flee. “Yes, [Russian] forces are gathering in the east [of Ukraine],” Zelenskiy told a joint news conference with Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer in Kyiv. “This will be a hard battle, we believe in this fight and our victory. We are ready to simultaneously fight and look for diplomatic ways to put an end to this war . . . READ MORE . . .
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Food prices soar to record levels on Ukraine war disruptions, by Nicole Winfield | The Associated Press ROME — Prices for food commodities like grains and vegetable oils reached their highest levels ever last month largely because of Russia’s war in Ukraine and the “massive supply disruptions” it is causing, threatening millions of people in Africa, the Middle East elsewhere with hunger and malnourishment, the United Nations said Friday. The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization said its Food Price Index, which tracks monthly changes in international prices for a basket of commodities, averaged 159.3 points last month, up 12.6% from February. As it is, the February index was the highest level since its inception in 1990. FAO said the war in Ukraine was largely responsible for the 17.1% rise in the price of grains, including wheat and others like oats, barley and corn. Together . . . READ MORE . . .
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Greek Railroad Workers Block Delivery of U.S. Tanks to Ukraine, by Simon Zinnstein | Left Voice Workers at TrainOSE, a Greek railroad company, have been refusing to transport U.S. tanks destined for Ukraine from Alexandroupoli, a port in the northern part of the country. After workers there refused, bosses tried to force railroad workers from elsewhere to take on the work. “For about two weeks now,” the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) said in a statement, “there has been pressure on the employees of the engine room in Thessaloniki to go to Alexandroupoli.” The bosses’ desperate effort to find workers who would move the transport forward . . . READ MORE . . .
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Ukraine: The Broader Geopolitical Conflict, by Vijay Prashad | Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research It is hard to fathom the depths of our time, the terrible wars and the confounding information that whizzes by without much wisdom. Certainties that flood the airwaves and the internet are easy to come by, but are they derived from an honest assessment of the war in Ukraine and the sanctions against Russian banks (part of a broader United States sanctions policy that now afflicts approximately thirty countries)? . . . It appears that many of the “certainties” are caught up in the “Cold War mentality,” which views humanity as irreversibly divided on two opposing sides. However, this is not the case; most countries are . . . READ MORE . . .