Surrender Says Russia, and We'll Give You Peace

"[The dosage and type of toxin used was not enough to be life-threatening] and most likely was intended to scare the victims as opposed to cause permanent damage."

"The victims said they were not aware of who might have had an interest in an attack."

Bellincat

"We have destroyed the myth of the invincible Russian army."

"We are resisting against the aggression of one of the strongest armies in the world and have succeeded in making them change their goals."

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko

The gutted remains of Russian military vehicles on a road in the town of Bucha, close to the capital, Kyiv,

 

The Wall Street Journal published a report on a little-commented incident whereby during peace negotiations Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich -- whom Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskii prevailed upon to use his access to Russian elite circles and involve himself in negotiations between Ukraine and Russia -- and the Ukrainian team of negotiators were exposed to a toxic substance from which they are recovering. The symptoms were visibly red eyes, painful tearing and skin peeling on hands and faces.

Their deteriorated health condition resulting from the poisoning by an as-yet-unknown substance did not keep either the negotiators nor Mr. Abramovich, from being fully engaged in matters around arranging for ongoing negotiations to put a halt to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and its deadly destruction. Experts who examined the event reached the conclusion that "poisoning with n undefined chemical weapon" was the likely cause.

As for the ongoing and maddeningly inconclusive peace talks to convince Vladimir Putin to withdraw his troops from Ukraine, Dimytro Kuleba, Ukraine's foreign minister felt a ceasefire remained the only hope his country could have from the talks. "We are not trading people, land or sovereignty", he said in response to the Kremlin's demands and intention to hive off the Donbas from Ukraine to be included within Russian territory.

 

The aftermath of Russian artillery shelling on a residential area in Mariupol where a rocket hit a house, according to the Armed Forces of Ukraine, is seen in this screengrab from a video uploaded on social media  (Armed Forces of Ukraine/Handout via REUTERS)

The threat of Russian attacks continue to block exit routes east and west for civilians desperate to leave their besieged towns and cities. The devastated port of Mariupol's situation appears doomed. Within the Russian troop encirclement, an estimated 160,000 residents remain trapped in the siege.  The city with its formerly 400,000 population has been reduced by constant artillery shelling and bombs to a ghostly vestige of its once-vibrant presence  with 90 percent of its infrastructure in rubble.

 

In the city of Kharkiv a pre-dawn missile hit a school. "They've not been able to take the city, so they've decided to destroy it", observed a Ukrainian who had taken shelter in the school when his home had been bombed out. In Irpin, close to Kyiv, the mayor spoke of Ukrainian forces in full control. Ukrainian military had recaptured the eastern town of Trostyanets as the military continued their offensive to restore their ground.

 

The Russian defence ministry stated that its  troops destroyed ammunition depots in the Zhytomyr region west of Kyiv, the prize goal that Moscow keeps seeing eluding their grasp. As well, they claimed that 41 Ukrainian military depots  had been hit in the past two days, reports that remained unverified in a conflict known as much for its propaganda as for its total lack of human scruples.

 

 Kyiv Mayor Klitschko spoke of 100 people killed in the capital, four children among them. Russian bombing had destroyed 82 multi-storey buildings in the capital as well. Also figures that elude verification. Even while the inescapable reality is that one is a staunchly fierce defender of its territorial integrity, the other a brutally unscrupulous imperialist dictatorship.

A charred Russian tank and captured tanks in the Sumy region of Ukraine  (REUTERS)

Prodding the Serpent

"Biden has a tendency to articulate things that we know to be true but that he shouldn't say as president."

"It would be to everybody's benefit, including the people of Russia, if he were to no longer be in charge, but if you're the president of the United States you can't articulate the fact that you want another country's democratically elected leader -- such as democracy is in Russia -- gone."

"The Russian government is willing to use anything as a propaganda tool, ranging from whatever the Ukrainians do, to JK Rowling. They are so opportunistic in seizing on the public debate to justify what they're doing in Ukraine -- or planning to."

"The result of that will be Western politicians will not say anything in public in case Russia pounces on it and uses it as an excuse for any action they wish to take."

"If Russia's performance goes terribly, Putin will be grasping for straws He may well seize on these remarks which provide an unexpected opportunity for him. It's out there now, it can't be unsaid."

Elizabeth Braw, senior fellow, American Enterprise Institute

US President Joe Biden delivers a speech at the Royal Castle in Warsaw, Poland on March 26, 2022.

Brendan Smialowski | AFP | Getty Images

"For Putin, life itself has always been a special operation. From the black order of the KGB, he learned not only contempt for 'normal' people, always expendable matter for the Soviet Moloch-state,but also the Chekist's main principle; not a single word of truth. Everything must be hidden away, classified."

"Now, one thing has become clear; with this war, Putin has crossed a line -- a red line. This war was unleashed by a man corrupted by absolute power, who, in his madness, has decided to redraw the map of our world. If you listen to Putin's speech announcing a 'special operation', America and NATO are mentioned more than Ukraine. Let us also recall his recent 'ultimatum' to NATO. As such, his goal isn't Ukraine, but western civilization, the hatred for which he lapped up in the black milk he drank from the KGB's teat."

Vladimir Sorokin, Russian writer, playwright

 

The civilized world winced in pain and disgust when the former president of the United States, Donald Trump, issued his many coarse and ill-considered statements regarding relations with America's traditional collegial and trading nations, his penchant for insults and ill-considered language. His impulsive-compulsive decision-making, his egocentricity and belief in his infallible cerebral thinking, his impressively wise commentary.

 

With bated breath the world awaited the time when he would leave office and a successor, more reasoned and intelligent would take the helm of the most powerful country on Earth. And then came another ill-spoken, self-confident replacement comfortable with himself as president of the great United States of America, a country indispensable to the world's civil discourse in place of braggadocio, insults and controversies.

Trump's successor has managed to alter world opinion that fell so low, leaving the U.S. maimed as a colossus of human rights and upholder of justice, freedom and fairness. Smiling unapologetically as he withdrew U.S. diplomacy and troops from Afghanistan, leaving the Afghan people to the sad and sorry plight of life and death under the Taliban. Renewing the nuclear agreement with Iran, extending its pause on nuclear development until 2025 when, with the great strides it made in uranium enrichment toward breakout it can break loose.

In effect, abandoning the hopes of the majority Sunni Arab nations traditionally befriended by the United States interested in petroleum-energy sources and seeding 'democracy', along with the State of Israel between which it and the US no darkness would ever crack the lock on compelling friendship and support. Choosing to proceed with an agreement that is designed to lift sanctions and free up billions for the Islamic Republic to more generously fund and arm its militia proxies in Lebanon, Gaza, Syria and Yemen.

And now President Biden in obedience to his Democratic party's hard-left-fascist wing, like an avuncular relative anxious to please the young and the restless finds it compelling to advance the Islamic Republic's agenda. He sees no evil, speaks no evil, hears no evil and is prepared to shrug off suggestions, recommendations, pleading from former Middle East allies he has shunted aside in favour of doing business with the mullahs of Iran, the sponsor of terrorism under the guise of a theocratic, peaceful nation.

Mr. Biden and Mr. Putin know one another from 'way back. Not exactly a comradely relationship but one of familiarity. With a touch of mutual contempt. A year ago, Joe Biden in an interview allowed that in his opinion Vladimir Putin had the instincts of a 'killer', and acted on those instincts. This is a new era in American-Russian relationship, and it has moved backward to Cold War times, driven by both sides. It is the president of the Russian Federation that decided he must eviscerate Ukraine and embark on a killing mission.

His imperative; to stop Ukraine from becoming totally westernized; to stop NATO and the United States from further incursion into Russia's near-abroad, challenging Russia's east European authority and regional power; an insult and an assault on Russian sensibilities; on Vlad's sense of badly leaking imperialism and the right to encroach upon his neighbours' sovereignty. The dangerously paranoid Putin convinced the walls of democracy are closing in around him personifying Russia's future, needs no prodding.

Suggesting that given the current circumstances where Putin's star has ebbed and crashed, his violent incursion into Ukraine stalled, the astonishing death rate of Russian servicemen and generals, along with Russian mechanized war machines' destruction; supply and morale issues looming toward total failure in a swoop-and-grab invasion, that 'Putin must go', is to invite that same man raging over a humiliating failure, to contemplate the use of the most compelling of his arsenals.

Biden's critical gaffe in recklessly prodding the serpent in the Kremlin was instantly 'rectified' by his administration, desperate to change the dial on the short-wave message to Putin that his days in both Russia and Ukraine are numbered. A man seemingly on the edge of mental derangement, in possession of the world's largest nuclear arsenal will not shrug away the implied notion that NASA may feel compelled to move in, led by the United States, to remove Vladimir Putin from power. 

 

Before the war Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky paid regular visits to the front line in eastern Ukraine   EPA

 

A Third World War, triggered by an accident in loose lips and a feeble mind unable to instantly grasp an error in judgement is not to anyone's advantage. There is carnage enough in Ukraine at this moment in history. Vladimir Putin's threshold for tolerating insinuations of incompetence and war-mongering when he is, after all, only engaged in house-cleaning next door, needs no prodding to have his mind slip its moorings on his nuclear options.

When Dmitry Peskov, spokesman for the Kremlin, refused to strike out the impression that Russia is not beyond considering the use of nuclear weapons, after Putin himself mused on just that, after he placed his nuclear forces on high alert, after hinting that a strike would be imminent in response to any risk of some other country or group manouvering to do the same first, it is sheer folly of the most birdbrained quality for the president of the United States of America to lead the chorus of doom for Putin.

 

U.S. President Joe Biden speaks during an event at the Royal Castle, amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine, in Warsaw, Poland March 26, 2022. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein/File Photo

"I just was expressing my outrage. He shouldn't remain in power, just like, you know, bad people shouldn't continue to do bad things. But it doesn't mean we have a fundamental policy to do anything to take Putin down in any way."

"I was talking to the Russian people. The last part of the speech was talking to Russian people. I was communicating this to, not only the Russian people but the whole world. This is ... just stating a simple fact that this kind of behavior is totally unacceptable. Totally unacceptable. And the way to deal with it is to strengthen and keep NATO completely united and help Ukraine where we can."

"I'd just come from being with those families. I make no apologies for it."

U.S. President Joe Biden, White House

The Cost of Energy Dependency

Russian President Vladimir Putin chairs a government meeting via a video link at the Novo-Ogaryovo state residence outside Moscow on Wednesday. Putin said Russia will only accept payments in rubles for gas deliveries to "unfriendly countries," which include all EU members and the U.S.   Mikhail Klimentyev/Sputnik/AFP via Getty Images

"I have decided to implement ... a series of measures to switch payments — we'll start with that — for our natural gas supplies to so-called unfriendly countries into Russian rubles." 

"Russia will continue, of course, to supply natural gas in accordance with volumes and prices ... fixed in previously concluded contracts."

"The changes will only affect the currency of payment, which will be changed to Russian rubles."

Russian President Vladimir Putin

"At face value this appears to be an attempt to prop up the ruble by compelling gas buyers to buy the previously freefalling currency in order to pay."

Vinicius Romano, senior analyst, consultancy Rystad Energy

"It is unclear how easy it would be for European clients to switch their payments to rubles given the scale of these purchases."

"However, there are no sanctions in place that would prohibit payments of Russian gas in rubles."

Leon Izbicki, associate, consultancy Energy Aspects

AFP/Getty Images

Punishment and its sister spite have aided Russia in drawing up a list of 'unfriendly' countries who just happen to correspond to any imposing sanctions on Russia for its sudden invasion of Ukraine. Agreements with companies and individuals from the marked countries must be approved by a government commission. Some of the listed countries like the United States and Norway make no purchases of Russian gas and some others purchase so little they have no need of it whatever.

 

The list Russia has compiled includes but is not exclusive to the United States, European Union member states, Britain, Japan, Canada, Norway, Singapore, South Korea, Switzerland and -- suppress that laugh -- Ukraine. Questions arise over whether this decision of Russia to impose this kind of 'penalty' would breach contract regulations agreed in euros.

"This would constitute a breach to payment rules included in the current contracts", a senior Polish government source complained, adding there is no intention on Poland's part to sign new contracts with Gazprom following the current long-term agreement's expiration in 2022. "I can't imagine we will agree to change the terms of that", he stressed.

Punishing Russia with sanctions and more sanctions for its misdeeds and now the incalculable horrors of a full-on conflict with Ukraine has given Vladimir Putin inspiration on pay-back. It's the steep price that comes with dependency. Without Russia's natural resources bonanza paying the freight for his technologically-updated war machinery inspiring him to the belief it'll be a quick in-and-out to achieve  his aspirations to help himself to Ukraine's territories, his level of confidence would be somewhat less.

 

In the full confidence of European dependence on Russia's gas and oil, Mr. Putin feels he's still holding aces.  His rubles demand from 'unfriendly' countries sent prices for European gas into the stratosphere on concerns the region's energy crunch would be exacerbated. Heating homes and powering up industries is of vital concern to any economy and so it is with Europe who in their fury over Russia's invasion of Ukraine exacted their own punishment on Russia.

 

To the EU's consideration of whether to sanction the Russian energy anchor, Putin took the initiative to snap back: Buy our currency or forget about acquiring our gas. Europe's need of Russian gas accounts for 40 percent of its total usage. Fluctuating between 200 million to 800 million euros daily so far in 2022. The demanded currency change has the potential to disrupt that trade, sending wholesale gas prices 30 percent steeper after the announcement.

 

Since February 24 when Russia began its invasion of Ukraine, the Russian currency has fallen about 20 percent. Major banks are wary of trading in Russian assets and some buyers of Russian gas in the European Union were unable to clarify how they would go about paying for gas under the new demand. 58 percent of Gazprom's sales of natural gas to Europe and other countries from January 27 were paid in euros, with U.S. dollars accounting for 39 percent of gross sales and sterling 3 percent. 

The European Commission plans to end reliance on Russian supplies of gas "well before 2030" and has started out with plans to cut its dependency by two-thirds this year. EU states, given their dependency on Russia's energy sector, however, have not agreed to sanction it. Germany's Economy Minister plans to discuss with his European partners a potential response to Moscow's gas payments announcement. Even while Germany's Habeck stated that the demand represented a breach of delivery contracts.

 

A Russian Gazprom vessel — a floating storage and regasification unit — is seen anchored offshore in the Baltic Sea near Kaliningrad, Russia, in early February. (Vitaly Nevar/Reuters)

"It's difficult, given the current economic situation, for Russian authorities to abandon sales of oil and gas to the Western countries."

"You can say, 'We do not trust euros or dollars,' but economically it's the same operation. Money is money."

Marcel Salikhov, president, Institute for Energy and Finance, Moscow

Moscow in Retreat?

"The combat potential of the Armed Forces of Ukraine has been considerably reduced, which makes it possible to focus our core efforts on achieving the main goal, the liberation of Donbas."

Sergei Rudskoi, head, Main Operational Directorate, Russian General Staff

"Ukrainian counter-attacks, and Russian forces falling back on over-extended supply lines, have allowed Ukraine to reoccupy towns and defensive positions up to 35 km east of Kyiv."

British intelligence report

"I'm not sure that anything that the Russian military will do will change the balance. It's more about patching up gaps."

"They're going to be brought in as fresh bodies primarily, to replenish the losses ... folks who are suggesting they're bringing in everybody they can for one big push to break Ukrainian resistance -- I don't see that as possible now."

Dmitry Gorenburg, Russian military expert with think-tank CNA

An armoured convoy of pro-Russia troops in the Donetsk region © Alexander Ermochenko/Reuters

Mission partially completed, signals Moscow, now on to auxiliary mission... Russia has initiated a draw of forces from Georgia into Ukraine, badly needed reinforcements to make up for the unfortunate loss of Russian servicemen falling to the ferocious defense by the Ukrainian military. According to Moscow, no such thing, a mere handful, not the gross numbers quoted by Western intelligence, have fallen. The decision to bring in reinforcement from Georgia is only fair; they're no longer needed there to repress protests, so they're being given the opportunity to earn their keep, in Ukraine.

 

It has been a month since Russia invaded Ukraine and met with the surprise of fierce Ukrainian resistance, when Ukrainians failed to realize they were meant to greet the invaders as saviours, welcoming them with appreciative open arms. Instead Ukraine's citizens have been arming themselves in defence of their nation against the brute mechanized force of a volatile, oppressive and dangerous neighbour. One who has flouted all 'civilized' rules of conflict; an invasion where no threat exists leading to ceaseless, deliberate bombing and shelling of civilian infrastructure and the mass murder of innocent people. 

The cities of Ukraine have been bombarded and encircled, residential areas laid to waste, as up to three-and-a-half million of Ukraine's 44-million-strong population has been terrorized and displaced, thousands killed, others turning in desperation to find haven in sympathetic, Russia-aversive neighbouring countries. To which the Russian Defence Ministry addressed itself claiming its first phase of operations completed, it would turn its focus on the 'liberation' of the eastern Donbas region.

 

Heavily damaged residential buildings in the town of Volnovakha in the Donetsk region © Alexander Ermochenko/Reuters

 

The thousands of Russian troops stationed at military bases ranging from Georgia to Syria to Tajikistan, many in motorized rifle brigades, combat-capable and ready to deploy on orders from the Kremlin have not yet been called to duty in Ukraine. There is the trifling matter that withdrawing troops in those outposts would result in losses there. The Kremlin appears not quite prepared to order them wholly to disperse to Ukraine in a boost to the Russian ground offensive there.

The reality on the ground with heavy losses of servicemen, including the unprecedented losses of generals in the field mere weeks following the beginning of the invasion has shone a spotlight on an ill-conceived and poorly executed military manoeuvre destined to fail, in the face of a badly reduced 'combat power'. Up to 15,000 Russian troops, according to NATO, have been killed in the war up to the present, a number that Russia denies, citing a loss of 1,351 of its servicemen.

In any event, should an influx of reinforcements be brought in to relieve the beleaguered troops in Ukraine the course of the war seems unlikely to improve for Russia, given the vulnerability exposures that would eventuate in the redeployment of foreign-based troops in other global hot-spots controlled by Moscow. Reality is Volodymyr Borysenko, the mayor of an eastern suburb, the locale of Kyiv's main airport, reporting a call to clear out civilians to enable Ukrainian troops to counterattack.

Ukrainian forces have been planning and executing an encirclement of Russian troops on the main front outside Kyiv, in the suburbs of Irpin, Bucha and Hostomel. Troops that will be ordered to deploy to the self-proclaimed Republics of Donetsk and Luhansk, to 'secure' the Donbas for Russia in its plans to eviscerate Ukraine, a scheme that began when Vladimir Putin decided to gift Crimea back to Russia.

A destroyed tank lies amid rubble in northern Mariupol © Maximilian Clarke/SOPA Images/dpa

 

At the same time Sinopec Group, the largest oil refiner in Asia, has halted discussions on a petrochemical investment and venture to market Russian gas. Even with China, sanctions imposed against Russia have had their influence.  "Companies will rigidly follow Beijing's foreign policy in this crisis. There's no room whatsoever for companies to take any initiatives in terms of new investment" stated an executive at a Chinese state oil company. Abandoning the ship of friendship established most recently on pledges of undying support between China and Russia.

 

Trooping the Colours of Democratic Liberalism

"Putin's attack on Ukraine is an attack on the values that form the pillars of all democracies. We have a responsibility to make the case to people about why these values matter so much -- not just to Ukrainians but to us all."

"We must recommit ourselves to the work of strengthening our democracies, and demonstrate the principled leadership people are looking for."

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau

Despite Canadian legacy media outlets burying the story, the reprimand of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau by European parliamentarians in Brussels has made headlines around the world. True North

Canada's 'charismatic' prime minister, the man who rode to success during the 2015 election that brought him to the helm of government, enjoyed telling the international community at events taking him outside his country that "Canada is back!". He never stopped deriding the previous, Conservative-led government that preceded him, led by former Prime Minister Stephen Harper. His initial actions on coming to power included reversing most of the moves of the previous government, and then he put his own personal imprint on government departments, renaming them all. 

 

This man preened and presented himself as a 'feminist' and a supporter of Indigenous rights, yet when his government's female/Indigenous Minister of Justice and Attorney General refused to surrender to the pressure he and his cronies subjected her to in the interests of airbrushing away prosecution of a prominent Quebec company accused of international corruption, he moved her from her position, demoting her to a lesser portfolio, and finally removed her from caucus.

When the second-in-command of the Canadian military attempted to support the need for a re-supply vessel for Canada's ill-equipped navy, Justin Trudeau persecuted him, saw to his removal from office, and ordered a judicial enquiry into alleged wrong-doing, the consequences of which were an absolute acquittal. Justin Trudeau as prime minister of Canada has done more to drive a wedge between Western Canada and Eastern Canada than any of his predecessors.

He saw fit to elevate a spurious charitable enterprise during the initial days of the COVID pandemic; a group unqualified to fill a questionable position that would profit them greatly. A charitable enterprise whose operators were personal 'friends' engaged in questionable ethics, which paid the prime minister's mother and brother handsomely for celebrity appearances geared to give greater credibility to the charity, but which ended in a public scandal, forcing the Minister of Finance to step away from office.

During his time as prime minister of Canada, democracy has been eroded by decisions made by Justin Trudeau, with limited appearances in the House of Commons, and remotely-gathered sessions to conduct government business. He unnecessarily prorogued government for sustained periods of time, and would not be answerable for the lapse in government business, preferring lengthy adjournments attributable to his personal agenda.

This is a man who felt entitled to travel once again to Europe to speak to European parliamentarians to plead for unity in responding to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, a man who drove separatist impulse in Western Canada over his unequal and dismissive treatment of provincial assets and governments with which he would not agree. Democracies, he informed the European parliamentarians, is under attack in Ukraine, as though he was a leading exponent of democratic justice.

Trudeau's penchant for personal unaccountability, his practised aversion to direct response to questions, indulging in circumlocution, his automatic response to critics, lapsing into accusations of 'racism' and 'anti LGBTQ2' prejudices are legendary, known beyond Canada. When he mentioned as an example the recent truckers' protests in the streets around Parliament Hill in Ottawa last month, citing the Freedom Convoy as a conspiracy to turn citizens against a democratic system he described as best-suited, he drew a principled response from a handful of European delegates.

A response that made long-suffering Canadians sigh in appreciation that the hypocrisy and egocentricity of the man who has spoken of Canada as a 'racist' country, a country without any culture of its own, along with his aspiration to make of it a 'post-national' country has received recognition. The protesters in Ottawa, fed up with their government's autocratic mandates verging on dictatorship asked to be listened to. Their government had mandated that the ten percent of truckers who were unvaccinated must be.

People who for whatever reason would not submit to vaccination became, under Trudeau, third-class citizens whom he regarded with repugnance as unspeakable riffraff. He directed that they be unemployable without vaccination. Families with no incomes, struggling to get through a difficult period in their collective lives wanted an explanation and an answer from their prime minister, who refused to meet with them. Their protest was an affront to his sense of infallibility. 

"To defend our rights and the rights of our children, which we have acquired over the centuries, many of us – including myself – are willing to risk our own freedom and our own lives. Unfortunately, today there are those among us who trample on these fundamental values."

"Canada, once a symbol of the modern world, has become a symbol of civil rights violations under your quasi-liberal boot in recent months."

"We watched how you trample women with horses, how you block the bank accounts of single parents so that they can’t even pay their children’s education and medicine, that they can’t pay utilities, mortgages for their homes. To you, these may be liberal methods, for many citizens of the world, it is a dictatorship of the worst kind. Rest assured that the citizens of the world, united, can stop any regime that wants to destroy."

Croatian MEP Mislav Kolakusic

 

"Based on article 195, I would like to point out that it would have been appropriate for Mr. Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada, to address this house, according to article 144. An article, which was specifically designed to debate the violations of human rights, democracy, and the rule of law which is clearly the case with Mr. Trudeau."

"[You are a] disgrace for any democracy. Please spare us your presence."

German MP Christine Anderson

Anderson accused Trudeau of openly admiring the Chinese basic dictatorship and called out the prime minister for trampling on “fundamental rights by persecuting and criminalizing his own citizens as terrorists just because they dare to stand up to his perverted concept of democracy.”

Vladimir Putin's 'Special Military Operation'

"With no information coming out of a city, no pictures of demolished buildings and dying children, the Russian forces could do whatever they wanted."

"The only radio you could catch broadcast twisted Russian lies -- that Ukrainians were holding Mariupol hostage, shooting at buildings, developing chemical weapons."

Oleksiy Arestovych, Ukrainian presidential adviser

 

"One bomb at a time, the Russians cut electricity, water, food supplies and finally, crucially, the cellphone, radio and television towers."

"When we [Chernov and photographer Evgeniy Maloletka] arrived, emergency workers were still pulling bloodied pregnant women from the ruins [of the Mariupol maternity hospital, bombed by Russian planes]."

"We had recorded so many dead people and dead children, an endless line. I didn't understand why he [Vladimir Putin] thought still more deaths could change anything. I was wrong."

"The propaganda was so strong that some people we talked to believed it despite the evidence of their own eyes."

"The message was constantly repeated, in Soviet style; Mariupol is surrounded. Surrender your weapons."

Mstyslav Chernov, video journalist, The Associated Press 

 

"Everything is destroyed. Where can we go?

"We're cooking over a fire -- for now we still have a bit of food and some firewood."

Irina Chernenko, Mariupol university librarian

Shelling by Russian forces has prevented civilians from being able to evacuate the besieged port city  Reuters

 

What else could it be termed as but a war crime, the constant aerial bombardment of a besieged city where hundreds of thousands of citizens are trapped with no escape routes, amidst a shortage of food and medicine, no heating, no electricity, where there is no outside communication and where the bombing of civilian infrastructure is raising the number of dead city dwellers day by day. The southeastern city of Mariupol, a prize that continues to elude the Russian military is beyond dire straits.

The devastated city was host to a journalist/photographer duo working for The Associated Press to obtain an inside story of what is transpiring within the beleaguered city and how its residents are coping with a no-holds-barred military campaign launched by Russian President Vladimir Putin in his legacy scheme to bring Ukraine back into the fold of the Russian Federation on its way to assuming the stranglehold re-conquest of its neighbours in eastern Europe.

The two have since emerged from the city, prepared to report on the infrastructure carnage they witnessed and the sight of hundreds of dead civilians, too numerous to honour with private funerals, instead being placed in mass burial pits, where the danger on site of being struck by missiles is such that families cannot attend even those basic funera-rite burials. 

Mariupol's position as a key port on the Sea of Azov is an integral part of Russian President Putin's plan to absorb Eastern Ukraine, its possession providing a direct route from Russia through the Donbas and the Crimean peninsula, to the Odesa port facilities on the Black Sea. In Mariupol, the strategic gateway Putin yearns to possess air, land and sea bombing raids flattened areas of the city driving hundreds of thousands of its residents into whatever shelters they could find.

 

Some of those shelters in buildings, housing theatres, shopping malls, hospitals, have become death traps for the civilians seeking haven and protection from the bombs. Buildings bombed by Russian planes collapsing into rubble covering the very 'shelters' being used to provide safety to women, children, the elderly, suffocating and crushing them under the weight of the destroyed building above, leaving desperate rescuers to find any still alive, while the shelling continues.

 

Civilians trapped in Mariupol are seen on the road on Sunday. (Stringer/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)

 

Russia gave Mariupol a deadline of 5 a.m. on Monday past to surrender the city to the military surrounding and bashing it. "There can be no question of any surrender", responded Ukraine's deputy prime minister, Iryna Vereshchuk. "What's happening now in Mariupol is a massive war crime, destroying everything, bombarding and killing everybody". The bombing represented a "massive war crime", stated Josep Borrell, foreign policy representative for the European Union.

"To do this to a peaceful city, what the occupiers did, is a terror that will e remembered for centuries to come." The attackers loosing endless munitions on Mariupol would be held "responsible for war crimes", vowed Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Buildings charred, windows blown out, bodies lying along the road wrapped in blankets in that part of the city held by Russian troops. Nearby, groups of men dig graves beside the road.

 

Mariupol officials speak of 2,300 citizens of the city whose lives have thus far been destroyed. Thousands of Russian and Ukrainian soldiers have been killed in the conflict. The figures for the Russian military alone stand at 10,000 dead, including four generals and an admiral. The loss of Russian war machines, destroyed tanks, artillery, armour and planes alone is monumental; the death toll and the destroyed war machines in such a short time unheard of in modern warfare.  

Ukrainian resistance has taken Russia by surprise. It is celebrated world-wide. No active outside help is available for Ukraine. Moral support and weaponry aplenty; otherwise, it is on its own against one of the most formidably equipped militaries in the world. The Ukraine military using Soviet-era armaments, Russia in possession of the most technically advanced weapons conceivable. 

 

And the Ukrainian military is holding its own, an inspiration to underdogs everywhere. "I think Moscow is searching for something it can use to declare a victory. Taking the Donbas and having leverage to attain concessions from Kyiv is probably what they're looking to accomplish at this point", asserted Michael Kofman, specialist on the Russian military at Washington think tank, CNA. 

Heroic Pride in Latvian SS Battalion

"They are honouring an SS unit whose members were involved in atrocities."

"This year in particular there is an amazing lack of understanding of the damage a march like this does to the unity of NATO and the nations standing for democracy."

Marvin Rotrand, national director, B'nai Brith Canada 

"Canada has consistently supported Latvia's freedom and independence, and condemns those who would co-opt those sentiments to promote hatred, extremism, and division."

"To our understanding, these events are neither sanctioned nor attended by the Latvian government."

Global Affairs Canada

"[It is] utterly sad [the parade was back on in Riga, Latvia]."

"That they would this year again be gifted the historic centre of the capital is a folly rife with poor judgment and even poorer ethics."

Dovid Katz, editor, Defending History, Holocaust journal studies

A veteran of the Latvian Legion, a force that was commanded by the German Nazi Waffen-SS during the Second World War, places flowers at the Monument of Freedom in Riga, Latvia on March 16, 2019. Some see the parade as glorifying Nazism because the Legion, founded in 1943, was commanded by Germany's Waffen-SS, the armed wing of the Nazi party's Schutzstaffel SS. Photo by ILMARS ZNOTINS /AFP/Getty Images

It is nothing but heedless at this time when Russia has invaded Ukraine, an East European neighbour of both, under the pretext of rescuing Ukrainians from the 'nazis' and 'racists' and 'right-wing' gangs Moscow claims govern Ukraine. There is also the presence of the Azov Division along with other far-right Ukrainian militia groups who revere their alliance with Nazi Germany as adjuncts to the Nazi SS battalions that fought during the Second World War, and of course, slaughtered European Jews.

The yearly commemoration meant to honour Latvia's seconded citizens to fight alongside regular German SS groups, by veterans and their families and supporters of the ethnic Latvian SS battalions is not an official Latvian event, but the government of Latvia does nothing to deter the yearly celebration, issuing a permit for the parade to proceed, attended by several hundred people. The intervention in the past two years was by nature, when COVID restrictions cancelled the event.

Latvia's SS Legion being honoured to this very day for its dedication to the Nazi ideology, bringing glory in its participation in war and mass murder should be a matter of shame, but evidently it is not. Latvian TV reported the event, attended by hundreds of participants on Wednesday. It is hardly surprising that Jewish groups continue to condemn the yearly support of Hitler's policies and exploits, glorifying those who took part in the Holocaust. 

It does give heft to Vladimir Putin's spurious assertions, however, that the Russian military had a moral obligation to invade Ukraine for the purpose of "de-Nazifying" the country. There is also the unfortunate reality that in the years since World War Two ended, eastern European nations saw fit to build monuments to the nationalist leaders who were happy to fight the Soviet Union; many of the leaders being Nazi collaborators, some actively participating in the mass butchery of the Holocaust. 

 

SS units were drawn from the ethnic populations in Lithuania, Latvia, Ukraine and Estonia.

Officials in Latvia praise the SS; their argument is that members of the legion are to be viewed as national heroes for fighting Russia and none among them were involved in the Holocaust. When, in fact, in those countries occupied by Germany during the war, it was not the least bit difficult to find the historical reality documenting deadly mass pogroms carried out by these same groups against their nationals who happened to be Jews.

 

Photo: Ivans Milovs/Latvijas Televīzija

 

"The pride of the Latvian people and of the state", was how Latvian Defence Minister Artiz Pabriks referred to his country's SS members. "It is our duty to honour these Latvian patriots from the depths of our soul." A sentiment and statement that Canadian government and military officials decided not to condemn. Even while, through its NATO membership, Canada has a contingent of 540 troops and military trainers in Latvia to 'guard against' any potential Russian plans to invade the Baltics.

In 2019, Global Affairs Canada through its spokesperson stated that Canada was "strongly opposed to the glorification of Nazism and all forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia, intolerance and extremism. That is why we condemn the parade to commemorate the Latvian SS Brigade held in Latvia on March 16th". Now there is silence on the ongoing issue, coinciding with the tension in Europe and beyond, with Russia's military campaign in Ukraine.

The reality is that the Latvian SS Legion was represented by hard-core Nazi collaborators who took their place with enthusiastic pride as helpers in the Holocaust. Viktors Arajs, a Legion officer liked to refer to himself as "Arajs, the Latvian Jew-killer". The best way to kill Jewish babies, according to him, was simply to toss a Jewish child into the air and shoot them in mid-air, avoiding potential ricochets.

This photo from the Second World War shows Latvian SS members

"The Killing Does Not Stop"

"Ukraine needs clear guarantees of its security but, so far, we see the Russian side is not fulfilling even elementary agreements on humanitarian corridors for the exit of civilians from the encircled cities."

"Civilians are simply being destroyed with Russian weapons."

"Look at what is happening to them in Ukraine. NATO is many times stronger than our armed forces and yet Ukraine has held back a full scale offensive by one of the world's largest armies for a second week. Do you really think Russia has the potential for World War Three? Stop this self-hypnosis."

"Of course we want peace. But this does not mean that we will agree to the dismantling of our freedom and our democracy, our natural European aspirations. If Russia takes a position based on reality, not on unrealistic ambitions, then progress is possible."

"So far, we've seen that the Russian side does not ensure the fulfillment of things that are promised. Russian troops shoot people when they try to leave the occupied cities."

"Russian troops are shelling routes along which an exit of people could be organized, particularly in Mariupol and Volnovakha. So I have to state that the Russian side manipulates these rounds more than it actually invests in the negotiations."

"Negotiations are not a date to get to know each other and look for something in common. Contact is a false goal ... you need to be result-oriented. On Sunday, in Irpin, a city on the outskirts of Kyiv, Russian troops opened fire on civilians who were trying to get out of the city. A total of eight people died, including a family with two children ... In Kyiv, a Russian cruise missile was shot down over Ukraine's most important children's hospital ... the killing does not stop."

"President Zelenskyy has repeatedly offered direct negotiations with Vladimir Putin. So far, we have not received a positive response. Why? Is it possible that on the Russian side there is a lack of confidence in Putin?"

"If the West is afraid to create a humanitarian no-fly zone, then there must be a decision to transfer combat aircraft to us. We are, of course, very grateful to our partners for the sanctions but the ongoing massacres of civilians in Ukraine show that existing sanctions are not enough.You have to understand Russia is actually a very poor country. With the exception of some large cities and a rather small segment of people who benefit from the flow of oil and gas dollars, most Russian citizens live a very difficult, hopeless and poor life."

"They will feel the pain of the rise in prices and loss of opportunities but this is not new -- they've always been made to live like that."

Mikhail Podolyak, chief negotiator, Ukraine 

A Ukrainian firefighter works at an apartment building after it was hit by artillery shelling in Kyiv, Ukraine, on March 14. (Vadim Ghirda/AP)

 

The negotiations between Ukraine and Russia to put a stop to the ongoing invasion seem pointless as long as Russian troops have their standing orders to continue attacking Ukrainian cities, and the expectation by Moscow is that they will continue their attacks, including the shelling of corridors established to enable civilian evacuation of bombarded cities, in the hope of saving lives from an enemy invader that appears to be flouting all civilized rules of warfare meant to protect civilian lives.

Russian forces continue to fire on civilians attempting to evacuate through these humanitarian corridors, effectively trapping vulnerable people within partially occupied cities coming under continual fire. Ensuring that those citizens remain in place in inhumane insecurity, facing a shortage of food and medical supplies, where their electricity and heating have been cut off and potable water resources are faltering. 

Mikhail Podolyak, isolated in a bunker in Kyiv, accuses Russia of "manipulating" the talks hoping to lead to peace, and in the process promising cease-fires that never come to fruition; a severe betrayal of any expectation that Ukraine negotiators can rely on a serious response to their efforts to sway Russian negotiators to send their offers of conciliation back to Moscow for serious consideration. Even slight agreements on temporarily holding back fire to enable people to reach safety has not been communicated to the troops.

 

Mr. Podolyak is one of President Zelenskyy's most trusted aides, entrusted with leading three rounds of negotiating talks with the Russian negotiating delegation. His experience during those talks has led him to hold out faint hope for a breakthrough to be achieved any time soon. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov claims that should Ukraine agree to cede Crimea to Russia, recognize Donetsk and Luhansk as independent and that done, commit to not joining NATO or the European Union, the conflict could conclude "immediately".

 

A firefighter carries a hose in front of a residential building that was hit by a shell in the Obolon district in Kyiv, Ukraine, on March 14. (Thomas Peter/Reuters)

In contrast to Mr. Podolyak's position of skepticism over Russia's willingness to reasonably debate the critical issues with a view to stopping the violence, the Russian lead negotiator Vladimir Medinsky, claims progress has been achieved. To achieve any measure of progress between the two sides however, seems as remote as it was before the talks were initiated, according to this senior Ukrainian negotiator.

 

And in a spirit not of optimism but of faint hope, Mr. Podolyak repeated his country's request for a NATO no-fly zone over Ukraine's skies. "Thousands of houses, hundreds of businesses, a significant part of them destroyed from the air, by missiles and combat aircraft. If the Russian troops did not have such support from the air, they would not have been able to wreak such havoc."

 

When the issue came up during an interview of the death of a fellow Ukrainian negotiator, Denis Kireev, Mr. Podolyak was silent. Reports from Russia claimed the negotiator to have been killed as he was being arrested for treason. "This man died performing a task in the interests of the Ukrainian state", he responded. Without going into the obvious explanation that doing anything at all to favour Ukraine over Russia merits the charge of treason on Russia's part.

 

"Most of our cities that Russia planned to capture are fighting bravely. In cities that are temporarily occupied, there are mass protests ... this is real civic heroism: people coming out unarmed with a national flag against armed invaders and demanding that they get out of our country."Ukraine will not give up its freedom and will not give up its democracy", he averred with pride.

Talks aimed at ending the war in Ukraine will resume, as fighting rages around the country Photograph: Aris Messinis/AFP/Getty Images