News Summary: July 9, 2022

(posted from Haneda Airport - Tokyo, Japan)

July 4 - Russia has taken all of Luhansk.

Russia’s capture of the strategic cities of Sievierodonetsk and Lysychansk is a significant victory for Moscow’s campaign in eastern Ukraine. The fall of the two cities gives Russia complete control over Luhansk, the part of the Donbas region that has been the focus of Russia’s military campaign following its defeat around Kyiv in the spring.

July 4 - Putin ordered his troops involved in capturing Luhansk to rest and “increase their combat capabilities.”

Ominously, this appears to be Putin’s saying to his troops, “take a break and regroup” before heading out to neighboring Donetsk, the other province in the Donbas. The Donbas has one of the largest coal deposits in the world.

July 4 - Russia has increased arrests of Russian dissidents.

The New York Times reported, “They came for Dmitri Kolker, an ailing physicist, in the intensive care ward. They came for Ivan Fedotov, a hockey star, as he was leaving practice with a film crew in tow. They came for Vladimir Mau, a state university rector, the week he was re-elected to the board of Gazprom…None of the targets of the recent crackdown was an outspoken Kremlin critic. But each represented an outward-looking Russia that Mr. Putin increasingly describes as an existential threat. And the ways they were taken into custody appeared designed to make waves.”

(posted from Anshin, Hudson Valley - New York)

July 8 - Russia’s faux McDonald’s runs out of French fries and won’t get new ones until the Fall. Uh Oh.

Well, if you thought that Russia’s new Vkusno i Tochka (Tasty and That’s It), the fast food chain that replaced McDonald’s, was going to be just like the old McDonald’s - I am afraid there is trouble in Russia’s burgerville. Remember McDonald’s pulled out of Russia in protest of the War against Ukraine? See Ukraine Perspectives March article, “UKRAINE, RUSSIA & MCDONALD’S.”

It’s only a month after opening, yet the FRIES of the BURGER and FRIES is missing. Honestly, I prefer dining that is more local than an American food chain, but what is McDonald’s (or even McDonald’s-look-a-like) with out French fries?

The Russian news agency Tass reported that in 2021 Russia had a weak harvest for McDonald’s type potatoes. And - no surprise - the rest of the world is not exporting potatoes to Russia. Sanctions hurt on the local level. According to McDonald’s, “Our World Famous Fries® are made from quality potatoes, including Russet Burbank, Ranger Russet, Umatilla Russet and the Shepody - varieties known for producing a flavorful fry that's crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside.”

BTW: This isn’t the first time running out of fries looks like a geo-political crisis. In 2015, the-real-McDonald’s ran out of fries in Venezuela. According to the New York Times, “In Venezuela, where a deepening economic crisis has led to food shortages, the curious disappearance of McDonald’s fries has sparked suspicion of a Western conspiracy.” (Hmmmm. This looks like a new topic for an article for Ukraine Perspectives - “The Missing French Fries Conspiracy.”)

July 9 - U.S. Secty of State, Antony Blinken met 5 hours with the Chinese foreign minister and urged China to join in a stand against Russia.

China claims to be neutral, not joining in any global sanctions - but also continues to buy oil and gas from Russia, and in May held a joint bomber exercise with them.

2014 Maidan Protest

On a personal note: This is the last article I will post from Tokyo for “Ukraine: Perspectives.” Next you will be hearing from me from New York in the Hudson Valley.

I realize that many of you are suffering from the everyday-is-a-bad-news-day syndrome. Yet, the War continues in Ukraine - an unprovoked tragedy on innocent men, women, and children. I am committed to keeping you up to date on Ukraine and the 2022 War. Please send me any questions you might have that can form topics for future articles.

---

Image: Mstyslav Chernov, Protesters fighting government forces on Maidan Nezalezhnosti in Kiev on 18 February 2014.

The Maidan Protests: November 21, 2013 to February 24, 2014.

The 3 month protest and occupation of Kyiv’s Maidan Independence Square in 2014 has an outsized importance in the history of the Russo-Ukraine War. Those massive demonstrations of 2014 led Ukraine to shift decidedly toward Europe and away from Russia. Ukrainian youth have become more politically active - calling for an end to chronic corruption and the establishment of reforms committed to a more liberal democratic state in line with the demands of the European Union. The capitulation of the government to the demands of the Maidan demonstrators lead Putin to annex Crimea and support the creation of separate states in Donetsk and Luhansk.

It is no coincidence that the 2022 invasion of Ukraine by Russia began on February 24, 2022; February 24, 2014 is the date of the end of the Maidan Protests.

The protest was started in the rain and snow with students yelling, “We are a European nation and we will fight for our future.” At first a few hundred students gathered - connected through social media and who were frustrated that President Yanukovych who had been elected in 2010 refused to sign a trade agreement with the European Union as he had promised in the elections. “Ukraine is part of Europe!” they yelled. “I came here to defend my future, the future of my children.” They were joined by thousands.

Yanukovych responded by passing Anti-Protest Laws on January 16, 2014.

Some of the laws were just silly and desperate such as: 1) passing an anti-mask law with the provision of up to 15 days in jail for participation in peaceful gatherings wearing a mask, camouflage clothing, scarf, helmet, or other means of concealing or protecting one's face or head, and 2) giving up to 15 days in jail for unauthorised installation of tents, stages and sound equipment.

Other laws were signs of a tightening dictatorship - harsh laws restricting freedom of speech and assembly: 1) giving the government the ability to prohibit access to the Internet as well as the right to censor any Internet sites; 2) disallowing NGOs and churches from supporting civil protests; 3) giving amnesty to those who commit crimes against protestors, including the Berkut and other police; and 4) penalizing the blocking of government buildings.

The protestors responded by wearing ski helmets, diving masks and flippers. Some wore red helmets with the words “Fuck You” on the back. Old women wore metal pots decorated with flowers and one protester said sardonically, “You see a lot of people wearing kitchen pots. They forgot to put that in their laws. They should add that immediately.”

Yanukovych sent in armed troops. The Berkut came armed with iron sticks, guns, and sniper rifles. The Berkut was a nasty group of armed troops. A Ukrainian system of special riot police, it was a successor of the brutal Soviet OMON.

The protesters hoped to bring the police and Berkut over to their side. One yelled into a megaphone saying, “I appeal to the police. You gave an oath to serve the Ukrainian nation, not to Yanukovych and his gang!” And the crowds chanted, “Join us. You are Ukrainians. How can you do this?” And, “Shame, shame, shame.” “Drop your guns.” Priests from a nearby monastery begged the police to put down their weapons.

But, Yanukovych’s troops did not lay down their iron sticks or their rifles. And why not? Because, on January 27th the Minister of Defense announced sharp pay raises for military personnel, and the Cabinet of Ministers adopted a secret resolution to increase the size of the Berkut force sixfold to 30,000; they also set up a fund to buy additional ammunition. Those officers standing in the front lines received pay bonuses, and extra bonuses for capturing protesters.

The country was furious. The protesters did not disperse- they were unrelenting and their numbers grew in size. Many regions of the country sent in protesters, young and old. “Yanukovych raised his hand against our children!” they yelled. The military reserve came to support the protesters, to build barricades and teach the students to fight back. Now there were demands for new elections and demands to rid the country of the corrupt Putin-supporting government.

And finally, as there was no sign that protests would end, in February 2014 Viktor Yanokovych escaped from Kyiv and turned to his friend Putin for asylum. The Parliament voted to remove Yanukovych from office by a vote of 328 to 0 and the subsequent interim government signed the EU association agreement. New elections were held and a West leaning leader, Petro Poroshenko, was elected president.

The new government passed legislation to limit the powers of the President. The President lost the power to nominate the Prime Minister which became the role of the Parliament. In addition, to the removal of Yanokovych and the limitation of presidential powers, there was a large scale purge of civil servants who had been hired by Yanokovych.

Another outcome of the removal of the pro-Russian leaders was a removal of all monuments and signs left over from the now defunct Soviet Union - the Soviet Union - a symbol of another Russian occupation.

6 years after the collapse of the Soviet Union I was surprised at the many statutes and monuments honoring Lenin and his followers. Streets and towns were named after Soviet leaders - Nikita Khruschev was particularly popular. Even our dorm in Lutsk was a “Khruschev building,” in honor of the man who was responsible for building so many 5 story buildings post WW II.

The Decommunization law of 2015 led to the renaming of 51,493 streets and 987 villages - 1,320 monuments to Lenin and 1,069 monuments to other communist figures were removed. One of the main provisions of the bill was a declaration that the Soviet Union was a "criminal state" and it had "pursued a state policy of terror." The legislation prohibited the use of communist symbols. Interestingly, the parliament also passed a law that replaced the term "Great Patriotic War” with "World War II,” a change that was symbolic of Ukraine’s rejection of Russia and symbolically moved Ukraine closer to Europe as the term World War II is more in line with the vocabulary of European nations and the United States.

The Minister of the Interior commenced a lengthy campaign to ban the Ukrainian Communist Party, however the Party survived and campaigned to defeat President Zelensky’s efforts to make reforms after 2019. This 2022 War may have put the nail on the coffin nf the Ukrainian Communist Party, heir to its Soviet predecessor. In March, Zelensky led and successfully banned all Communist Parties and Russian leaning parties claiming that these parties supported Russia in its aggressive war. “Given the full-scale war unleashed by Russia, and the political ties that a number of political structures have with this state, (Ukraine will) suspend any activity of a number of political parties for the period of martial law,” said Zelensky. The Opposition Platform for Life, Zelensky’s biggest opposition party, led by Viktor Medvedchuk who is a pro-Moscow oligarch with very close ties to Putin was also banned. Last year Ukraine charged Medvedchuk with treason and placed the oligarch under house arrest- making Putin, godfather to Medvedchuk’s daughter, unhappy!

Putin has not forgotten Maidan, or the loss of his puppet leader. He has not forgiven Ukraine and its decommunization campaign - or for changing the name of Kyiv, or banning the Communist Party, or for dishonoring his godchild’s father. He has not forgotten any of it. He believes that Russia has been betrayed and so has he. Putin said a few days before invading Ukraine, “We can see that the forces that staged the coup in Ukraine in 2014 have seized power (and) are keeping it with the help of an ornamental election procedure…”

---

Ukraine - European Union Candidate

On June 23, 2022 - 4 months after the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February - the European Union granted Ukraine Candidate Status. The leaders of the 27 nations of the European Union voted with the required unanimous approval to give Ukraine Candidate Status. Should Ukraine attain full membership, the main benefits are economic since it gives access to a market of 450 million consumers with free movement of labor, goods, services and capital.

President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote on social media, "Ukraine's future is within the EU." "It's a victory. We have been waiting for 120 days and 30 years."

Giving Ukraine Candidate Status to the European Union is clearly a consequence of the War.  Ukraine applied for membership less than a week after Putin invaded and the decision came unusually quickly. The War lent an urgency to Ukraine’s application.  

It is useful to look back to see how Ukraine got to this point. In 2014 the question of whether Ukraine saw itself as European or as part of the Russian sphere of influence became settled. Then President Yanukovych had promised the electorate in 2010 that he would sign a popular agreement that would bring Ukraine closer to EU standards of rule of law and government. In return the EU would provide financial support to Ukraine and give Ukraine access to EU markets. But in 2013 Yanukovych said he had changed his mind and he rejected the EU agreement and instead chose to pursue closer economic ties with Russia. Why Yanukovych changed his mind is up for debate (see the Reuters 2013 article), but the question is now moot because we now know that Yanukovych’s change of mind nearly led to civil war and ultimately led to the President’s exile.

Yanukovych’s pro-Russian decision led to massive public protests and the occupation of Kyiv's Maidan Square in November 2013. After two months of non-stop protests, Yanukovych sent armed troops who ultimately killed 130 civilians. The people were outraged and continued to protest. On February 21, 2014, Yanukovych was forced to escape to Russia and was subsequently removed from office by the Ukrainian Parliament (Verkhovna Rada).

In 2019 - 5 years after the Maidan Square Protests, Ukraine amended the 1996 Constitution making it clear that the people no longer wanted to be aligned with Russia and saw Ukraine as a part of Europe. The 2019 amendment of the Preamble to the Constitution confirmed the: ‘European identity of the Ukrainian people and the irreversibility of Ukraine’s European and Euro-Atlantic course.’

It has taken Ukrainian 30 years of independence from the Soviet Union to finally settle on which side of the globe Ukrainians want to claim as home. Not Russia, but Europe. Now Ukrainians want to become members of the European Union, which would be substantive proof that Ukraine is a European state holding European values. Admittedly many eastern Ukrainians up until 4 months ago may have felt more of a connection to their neighbor, but today most Ukrainians are feeling anti-Russian, and appreciative of European military and humanitarian support.

Now that the Ukrainians know which side of the globe they want to sit, they need to complete two colossal jobs: 1. Win the War. and 2. Europeanize Ukraine.

If you think I know how to win the war, I have a bridge in Brooklyn that I can also sell you. (Old American joke.)

However, an important factor in Europeanization of Ukraine is a commitment to reforming the judicial system.

Unfortunately, what I wrote 22 years ago is true today: Expectations that Ukraine would smoothly morph from its former authoritarian Soviet State to a state based on the rule of law have gone unfulfilled. In 1998, Leonid Milishchuk, Head Judge of the Lutsk City court said, ‘There is no Ukrainian legal system; there is only the Soviet legal system. The law has not changed. Absoliutno! It is just like it was in Soviet times.’ Although some legal and judicial reform legislation has passed the Verkhovna Rada (the Ukrainian Parliament), it is, as yet, difficult to discern much change in the Ukrainian judicial system.

Without a healthy independent court system neither foreign investors nor the European Union will perceive Ukraine as a serious partner. The European Union will want assurances that Ukrainian courts have the power and respect that will enable them to enforce and protect the environmental and economic dictates of the EC’s Community laws. Parochial methods of enforcement outside the law will not be trusted.

It is no surprise that simultaneously with the recommendation to approve the Candidate Status, Brussels demanded reforms in Kyiv, including reform of the Constitutional Court and judicial reform. European officials have said that Ukraine has already adopted about 70% of the EU rules and standards. However, Belgium Prime Minister Alexander De Croo said, "Considerable efforts will be needed, especially in the fight against corruption and the establishment of an effective rule of law. But I am convinced that it is precisely the (postwar) reconstruction of Ukraine that will provide opportunities to take important steps forward."

Moving to tears - the EU flag is been brought to the plenary hall of @ua_parliament. To stay. pic.twitter.com/qkZxfwjF7O

— Matti Maasikas (@MattiMaasikas) July 1, 2022

An Official Designee

Image: mbfitzmahan. Don Fitzmahan, 1997.

Lutsk, Ukraine. November 1997.

Ukraine Journal by Don.

Today I began the day with a visit to the University Concilliary. This sounds like the role that Robert Duvall played in the Godfather movies (consigliere), however it simply means the administrative secretary. Here, I asked for help in ransoming my two packages from the post office. I explain, in marginal Ukrainian, my situation and then show them a note the post office worker had given me on Saturday. The postal worker had told me to show this to the University staff, that they would understand and comply by giving me the appropriate papers authorizing me to obtain my goods.

It isn't that easy. Some Ukrainians who speak no English seem to enjoy the challenge of the language barrier, but not these ladies at the university. They talk to each other, avoiding to have to talk or even look at me. They don't think I need any such authority, but uncertain of how to explain this to me, they decide to give the papers to me anyway. We walk down the hall where I wait outside a different office while papers are prepared, signatures gathered, stamps stamped, and the fate of Ukraine hangs in the balance. I wonder if they are calling President Kuchma (Ukrainian President 1994-2005). One more trip down the hall and the deed is done. Paper in hand, which I of course cannot read, I exit the University and aim for the post office, confident that I am now an official designee of Volyn State University and the Ukrainian government. I am giddy with power.

Leaving the building, Natashya (Psych Department Natashya) begins to argue with Volodimir (translator/passport agent Volodimir). She is upset about the article about me that appeared in the newspaper this weekend. The editor is a friend of Volodimir's and he, Volodimir, had arranged the interview. Natashya feels that I am due greater respect than this rather frivolous piece, and that my professional status has been undermined. She demands a second article. I explain that it is not important to me, but she is undaunted and leaves in a huff.

Taking the short walk to the post office, I stride in waving my University papers, and my two post office notices. The postal worker takes my two notices and looks at them and then she hands back the neatly completed, boldly stamped, dually signed, nicely-folded official University authorization. "Ne treba," she says. Not needed? How could my neatly completed, boldy-stamped, dually-signed, nicely-folded official University authorization, which took me four trips back and forth to the post office, not be needed? It is a dazed, confused and humbled shadow of a power broker who walks out of the post office with his two packages in hand.

March 2022 - Mariupol. A personal report.

More than 7.7 million refugees have escaped from Ukraine and crossed over to Poland, Romania, Estonia, and Lithuania. Another 8 million people have been displaced and have found a safe place to stay in cities and towns like Lviv and Lutsk. Lutsk is in the northwest about 3 hours from the Polish border. Housing is scarce and most are staying in temporary housing. See photos in the gallery below.

---

Interview of Tatiana, a refugee in Lutsk, Ukraine by Volodymyr Khomyk. June 2022. Image: Volodymyr Khomik, Tatiana - teacher of Ukrainian language in school in Mariupol. Note: As per Lutsk City regulations, Volodymyr had to get permission from ‘the authorities’ to meet with refugees and to take photos of them.

“When the war began, my greatest fear was that I wouldn’t have a country anymore - that in a few days Ukraine would be gone.  In the first days of the war we watched television - we watched the news about what was happening in Kyiv and even around Mariupol. I couldn’t believe it!  Our capital was under siege.

On March 2nd, communications, electricity, gas, and water were all shut off in the city.  And from that time on our own struggle for survival began.  On March 22nd, our house burned down.  My husband and daughter and I were staying with my mother, who lived in a small private house.  We moved to her house 5 days earlier.  Because rockets landed around the houses next to my mother's, we hid in the basement for 5 days. It was very cold and bullets flew straight into my mother's house.  We couldn’t see our own home in the distance.  Everything was veiled in smoke, neighboring houses were on fire. People were running in the streets.

We survived by living in the basement, but we didn’t know what the condition of the house was.  After the shellings, the house began to burn and plastic water pipes began to melt in the basement. The basement was flooding and there was smoke everywhere. We tried to put the fire out, but we couldn’t. It wasn’t possible to stay there and we had to run to another part of ​​Mariupol.  But, we could tell that the city was soon be captured - in a few days the Russians would reach us.

We walked to the garage and it turned out that our car had survived - sitting safe and sound surrounded by other destroyed cars.  My husband, son, and daughter, and I left Mariupol in this car.  We arrived first in Zaporizhia, then in the city of Dnipro.  From there we moved to Lutsk.  My mother tried to stay in Mariupol but in May she was able to come to Lutsk and now she is with us. My husband Alexander had to leave and return to the front to fight.

Question: When was the most dangerous moment? 

The most dangerous moment was when all five of us were in my mother's room and a bullet flew through a window.  Somehow the bullet didn't hit any of us.  Death was very close.  Of course, shells were falling all around the yard, fragments were flying in all different directions.  But when this bullet flew in, right in front of our eyes - it was the scariest thing.

I was scared at night when planes bombed the houses around us.  Those explosions made everything shake.  We heard all the windows shatter in a building next to the house.

The planes flew over during the day and sometimes at night.  The artillery fired during the day - it never stopped.  At night we heard planes flying overhead constantly - it woke us up.  And, then, there were the explosions. First, we heard the explosions from far away, then closer, and closer - I knew that the next blast would hit us.

Question: Were there any people you knew who were killed by the Russians?

My friend’s husband died, and all our neighbors died.  A women I knew was buried in her own apartment building. It wasn’t until later that they found her and dug her out of the building. One 15-year-old  boy was killed by shrapnel on the street.  There were many wounded people and many who were burned.  The house of a friend of mine caught fire but she couldn’t get out of the house - she had an amputated leg and she was burned alive.

Question: Did you know about the Azovstal Factory in Mariupol?

(Note: Wikipedia: The Azovstal plant became one of the most emblematic points of the Siege of Mariupol. The plant had tunnels and bunkers capable of withstanding a nuclear attack, making it an extremely defendable position. As the Russian forces advanced into Mariupol, Ukrainian forces withdrew to Azovstal, and by late April it became the last pocket of Ukrainian resistance. The Battle of Azovstal occurred on the site, resulting in a conditional surrender by the Ukrainian defenders after over a month of resistance. The plant was almost completely destroyed by Russian bombardment over the course of the battle. After the capture of Mariupol by the Donetsk People's Republic, they announced plans for the plant to be demolished during the city's restoration.)

We lived very near the Azovstal Factory.  At that time in March, fighting was taking place all around Azovstal.  Ukrainian troops escaped into the yard and there were battles on the ground.  And then, when we left Mariupol, I was told that the Russians had captured the whole city.  Then the Russian troops came from the so-called ‘Donetsk People's Republic’.  They walked in with white armbands, and came in as new masters of the city.  The Azov fighters were in the basement of the plant, surrounded and isolated.  Those brave Ukrainian warriors remained there until finally they had to surrender to the Russians.  They had no food or water.

Many people hid in the drama theater in Mariupol. 

(Note: Wikipedia: On 16 March 2022, the Donetsk Regional Drama Theatre in Mariupol, Ukraine, was bombed during the Russian invasion of Ukraine. It was used as an air raid shelter during the siege of Mariupol, sheltering about 1,000 civilians, of whom about 600 were killed. Ukraine accused the Russian Armed Forces of deliberately bombing the theatre while it was sheltering civilians. Russia first claimed that the reason the theatre was bombed was because it was being used as a base by the Ukrainian military, and then denied the allegations and instead accused the Azov Battalion of blowing up the building. Both Russian claims have been refuted by independent investigation. The theatre is among the many Ukrainian heritage and cultural sites destroyed during the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.)

A friend of mine from another school hid there with her son.  She survived.  She worked as a cleaner at the Mariupol Drama Theater where she could get food. Fortunately, she left the theater right before the theater was bombed.

View fullsize

View fullsize

Refugees from Severodonetsk and Konstantinovka of Donetsk Oblast, housed by the city of Lutsk. Photos by Volodymyr Khomyk.

Update June 16, 2022 - The Trial as a War Crime

Update to “1st Ukrainian War Crime Trial”

As I suggested in my article of May 27th, it is no surprise that there would be war time trials of Ukrainian soldiers. And, sadly, it is also no surprise that the Russians or the separatist regions would conduct trials of POWs in a manner that fails to adhere to international standards of rule of law. According to the UN rights office, “Since 2015, we have observed that the so-called judiciary within these self-contained republics has not complied with essential fair trial guarantees, such as public hearings, independence, impartiality of the courts and the right not to be compelled to testify.”

From UN News: Death sentence for Ukraine foreign fighters is a war crime: UN rights office

The United Nation Human Right office on June 10, 2022 condemned the death sentence handed down to three foreign fighters in Ukraine by a court in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic. “Such trials against prisoners of war amount to a war crime,” said OHCHR spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani.

The three men - Britons Aiden Aslin and Shaun Pinner, and Moroccan Saaudun Brahim – were captured while fighting for Ukraine, reportedly defending the southern port city of Mariupol.

Bitter fighting between Ukrainian and Russian forces since the Russian invasion on 24 February flattened the city, where UN rights chief Michelle Bachelet has previously condemned attacks against civilians and civilian infrastructure, that have likely caused thousands of deaths.

“OHCHR is concerned about the so-called Supreme Court of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic sentencing three servicemen to death,” said Ms. Shamdasani. “According to the chief command of Ukraine, all the men were part of the Ukrainian armed forces and if that is the case, they should not be considered as mercenaries.”

Answering a question at the regular briefing in New York on Thursday about the death sentences handed down, the UN Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric, said the the Organization always has "and we always will", opposed the death penalty under any circumstances. "And we would call on the combatants who have been detained, to be afforded international protection, and to be treated according to the Geneva Conventions", he added.

Longstanding concerns

The UN rights office spokesperson also highlighted longstanding concerns about fair trial violations in Ukraine’s breakaway eastern regions bordering Russia. “Since 2015, we have observed that the so-called judiciary within these self-contained republics has not complied with essential fair trial guarantees, such as public hearings, independence, impartiality of the courts and the right not to be compelled to testify.”

Speaking in Geneva, Ms. Shamdasani added that “such trials against prisoners of war amount to a war crime. In the case of the use of the death penalty, fair trial guarantees are of course all the more important.”

My mom loves anyone who will play cards with her

Image: Carpathian Mountains - Hobbit, Shauna, and Erin. 1997.

1997. November 30

Erin’s journal.

Last night Vasil came over.  We played guitar and ate the varenicky that he brought with him. Varenicky is one of the traditional foods of Ukraine. It's like potstickers but not fried.  My mom love's Vasil.  He played cards with us and there are two major ways to win my mother's heart.  One is to play cards and the other is to discuss learning and philosophy.  I'm sure Vasil would have obliged in the second if there had been time.  Well the card game we played was spoons.  You know when you get four cards of the same number and then you put your finger on your nose and the last person to put to their finger on their nose loses.  Well he had new rules and it was hilarious.  The person to get four of a kind says a word, any word, and then everyone else has to say a word that starts with the same letter that their word ended with. 

TELEPHONE TRAUMA:  To use the telephone I must go downstairs because we don't have a telephone in our apartment.  We have two friends in the building who have phones.  However, Miraslava's phone only works from 7:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m.  A pain. Nadia's phone works at all hours, however, for a simple phone call to a friend it is too much to ask.  Hence I am forced to use the phone in the downstairs office.  When I get to the office (no- we don't live in a hotel, but our hostel has an office for security reasons or for questions, who knows why), I must ask to use the telephone - in Ukrainian, moshna telephona?  But, the bad thing about this is that once when Shauna asked, the grumpy lady said ‘NO’.  I have never been denied access to the phone, but I have gone there and it doesn't work and have had to wait several minutes while the ladies fiddle with the cord until a dial tone is obtained. Then I dial - it's not a push button, but a turny thing and when I push on it to turn the dialer the wimpy phone starts slipping and sliding everywhere so I have to put both of my arms inside the little window thing and hold it still.  Then when I hear the dial tone, I pray that my English speaking friend is at home.  If they are home I have to listen very carefully 'cause the line is really dirty and there is lots of static. AND, when I start talking in English the ladies that work in the office laugh at my strange language.  But, oh gosh, if my friend isn’t home… Problems.  I have to first of all establish with the person answering the phone, usually the mother, that my friend is not home.  Then I have to figure out when my friend will be home.

News Summary - June 14, 2022

14 June

The United Kingdom’s Defense Ministry says that intelligence reports that a June 10th report out of Russia predicts that Russia’s dense spending will be 20% higher than in past years. Tragically, the revenue from Russia’s fossil fuel exports exceeds the cost of conducting war in Ukraine. Oil feeds the war. It is a slow process to cut Russian exports as the international community looks for alternative sources of energy.

At this juncture of the War, The New York Times reports Russia’s revenues from fossil fuels increased exponentially. The Russians made $97 billion from oil in first 100 days of the invasion, according to a research group in Helsinki, Finland. This comes from the fact that extraordinary high prices and the highest volumes in history. Though Russia’s fossil fuel exports have started to fall because of sanctions, high prices have more than canceled out the effects of that decline. The research from Helsinki found Russia’s export prices for fossil fuels have been on average around 60 percent higher than last year. As the EU and the U.S. import less, India and China have increased their imports of oil from Russia. And, ironically as the U.S. stopped importing from Russia, they have imported from the Netherlands and India which probably contains Russian crude oil.

12 June

National holiday of the Russian Federation. This holiday has been celebrated annually on 12 June since 1992, at the dissolution of the Soviet Union commemorating the beginning of constitutional reform and the new Russian state.

According to a photograph published by Reuters, antiwar artists in Moscow placed a flag outside the headquarters of the General Staff of the Armed Forces in Russia building. “This is not our day,” a slogan on the flag said.

Moscow-installed officials raised a Russian flag in Melitopol’s city center in honor of Russia Day. In Kherson, Russian bands played a concert to celebrate Russia Day. Ukrainian media reported that few, if any, local residents attended the Russia Day festivities in the two cities. Putin earlier this year issued a decree fast-tracking Russian citizenship for residents of the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions. In captured cities in the south and east, Moscow has also introduced the ruble as official currency, aired Russian news broadcasts, and taken steps to introduce a Russian school curriculum.

12 June

Ukrainian officials said Russia is bombarding a chemical plant sheltering hundreds of soldiers and civilians in Severodonetsk, a strategic city that is mostly under Russian control after weeks of intense battles.

Severodonetsk was briefly captured by Russian-backed separatists in 2014. For Russia, taking the city would provide a much-needed symbolic victory after significant setbacks. It would allow the Kremlin to declare progress toward its goal of “liberating” Donbas, a region where a significant portion of the population speaks Russian as its first language. (Washington Post)

Since Russia is blocking Ukrainian exports of food products from Black Sea ports, Ukraine is exporting grains through Poland and Romania.

Those routes have gotten backed up, so Ukraine is also in talks with the Baltic States to add a third corridor for food exports as the country races to empty silos before July’s harvest, but reaching the ports would require President Lukashenko of Belarus to agree. That might be tricky since Lukashenko is best buds with Putin.

Sweden and Finland continue to negotiate to become members of NATO.

Sweden’s military and the U.S. Marines conducted a drill on Gotland, a Swedish island with strategic significance for control of the Baltic Sea. “A lot of us thought that there wouldn’t be a need to defend Gotland after the Soviet collapse,” Col. Magnus Frykvall, commander of Sweden’s Gotland regiment, said.

MacDonald’s closed its Russian doors on March 8, 2022. See my first article, UKRAINE, RUSSIA & MCDONALD’S . MacDonald’s, a 30 year old symbol of new capitalism and burgeoning democracy, was bought by a Siberian oligarch. He bought all 850 stores and renamed the fast food restaurant Вкусно & точка, Vkusno & Tochka - Tasty Period. I’m not sure if that is a good translation…it doesn’t sound very alluring, but then the name may have a different connotation in Russian. Maybe it means something like, “It’s just tasty. Period. I mean, that’s it. It is delicious. No politics. Just delicious food…” I made that up. I need a better translator.

There won’t be any Big Macs…well, they can’t call them Big Mac - I wonder if the new Vkusno burger will taste the same. Did MacDonald’s sell the recipe for its special sauce? "Two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions – on a sesame seed bun.“

In 1988 the Communist party gave McDonald’s permission to open a restaurant in the Soviet Union and in 1990 the first McDonalds opened in Moscow on Pushkinskaya square. More than 5 thousand people came to the opening and people stood in line for over 6 hours just to have their first burger and fries from the Western fast food place. It was once the largest McDonald's in the world.

9 June

Russia celebrated Victory Day, a day celebrating 77 years since the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany.

Putin apparently was hoping to tell the Russian people of his massive wins in Ukraine. Instead, Putin delivered a speech addressing his imperial vision to mark the 350th birthday of Russian Czar Peter the Great. Putin is a deep history fan, at least the history as he likes to imagine it. In fact, many believe that his actions in Ukraine are more motivated by his view of history than of any fear of NATO. Putin made parallels of his invasion of Ukraine and Peter the Great’s efforts to return Russian lands to the motherland. Putin sees the ‘recapture’ of Ukraine as necessary and righteous. Putin said, “During the war with Sweden, Peter the Great didn't conquer anything, he took back what had always been ours, even though no one in Europe recognized it as Russian. Now this is our fate too, to take back what’s ours.”

If this is Putin’s attempt to write his own epitaph, as Mark Galeotti so entertainingly suggests in the Spectator, I guess no one told Putin that we no longer live in the 17th century - imperialism and capturing ‘lost’ lands went out with Adolf Hitler and Hideki Tojo in the mid 20th century. Both died ignominious deaths in 1945. So much for writing Putin into history on the side of heroes.

United Nations and the Russo-Ukraine War

In the evolution of mankind, the United Nations is a massive step forward in setting standards for peace, prosperity, and compassion.  I am a huge fan of the United Nations.  The United Nations has accomplished much in only 77 years.  It has been instrumental in averting any massively destructive world wars, provided care for millions of refugees, mediated between angry nations, adjudicated disputes, made high standards of human rights a global reality, and developed economic incentives to avoid disputes. In response to the humanitarian crisis caused by the Russo-Ukraine War in the last 3 months, the United Nations is raising $2.25 billion for humanitarian assistance to Ukrainians citizens and refugees.

Let me dispel a myth about the UN - the UN was formed not only to keep the peace, but with 4 goals in mind. 1. The UN was to safeguard peace and security in order ‘‘to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war.’’ 2. The UN was ‘‘to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights.’’ 3. The UN was to uphold respect for international law. 4. The UN pledged ‘‘to promote social progress and better standards of life.’’

However, admittedly the Russo-Ukraine War is a threat to the credibility of the United Nations.  The Russian invasion of Ukraine in February has caused Europe's fastest-growing refugee crisis since World War II with more than 7 million Ukrainians fleeing the country and a third of the population displaced from their homes.

I’d like to say that the United Nations should be able to stop this war.  This level of aggression between 2 large European sovereign states has not been seen since World War II.  Isn’t this what the United Nations was formed to prevent?  And, yet, the aggression and fighting continues on Ukrainian soil.  Unfortunately, and as might be expected, Russia has prevented the Security Council from doing its job.  Holding a veto power in the Security Council, Russia has prevented any legal military action by member states or by UN peacekeeping troops, making the UN appear helpless.   

The United Nations has its challenges.  It is not easy keeping the peace between 193 members.  And, the biggest and most powerful members - the United States, Russia, and China - do not regulate themselves well.  However, the United Nations is not an organization of allies.  We don’t all get along all the time.  The UN is intended to be an association of all international states who work out ways to keep the peace between themselves.   

In 1945, at the end of WW II, the Soviet Union took an active part in the formation of the United Nations.  Remember, from 1941 the Soviet Union was an ally against Hitler in the War. In fact, the USSR defeated the Nazis in Eastern Europe and was first to occupy Berlin. The Soviet Union suffered a third of all WW II casualties - 20 million Soviets - the most of any country in the war.

Stalin, initially hesitant to join the UN, insisted that there be veto rights in the Security Council and that alterations in the United Nations Charter be unanimously approved by the five permanent members.  The Soviet Union demanded that all fifteen Soviet republics be made member states, until this was countered by the United States who said if the Soviet Union got to make all its republics members, then the United States’ 48 states should also be given separate membership.  A compromise was made that agreed to make Ukraine and Byelorussia (today’s Belarus) full members, but states of the United States could not demand membership.  Sorry, Texas.

In 1991, following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the Russian Federation took the Soviet Union's United Nations membership, including its permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council.  The question of automatic succession is not as obvious as it seems.  Some scholars argued that with the end of the Soviet Union, Russia should have had to be admitted like any other new member, thus eliminating Russia’s permanent seat on the Security Council.  In fact, this might have happened if in the early days after the breakup of the Soviet Union, all 14 Soviet republics had separated from Russia.  But, in the beginning, only the 3 Baltic states (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania) and Georgia declared themselves separate.  In truth, politics was the real reason for Russian succession to membership.  Eliminating Soviet membership, and thus forcing Russia to reapply, would have created a constitutional crisis in the United Nations when Russia was one of two great nuclear powers.  It is questionable if the United Nations could have remained viable without the continued participation of Russia.

A reminder:

The United Nations has two voting bodies.

The General Assembly is made up of all 193 members - each has one vote.  Voting in the General Assembly on certain important questions—namely recommendations on peace and security; budgetary concerns; and the election, admission, suspension, or expulsion of members—is by a two-thirds majority of those present and voting. Other questions are decided by a simple majority.

The Security Council is the only UN body that makes decisions pertaining to the maintenance of peace, including sending in peace keeping troops. It is made up of 5 permanent members and 10 non-permanent members.  The 5 permanent members including Russian, China, France, the United States, and Britain have veto power over all decisions made by the Council. Notice neither Japan or Germany are on the Security Council, as the UN was created by the Allies of WWII and since they made the game, they get to make the rules.  The Security Council‘s powers include establishing peacekeeping operations, enacting international sanctions, and authorizing military action. The Security Council is the only UN body with the authority to issue binding resolutions on all member states.

---

Un Timeline: Russo-Ukraine War

United Nations: In the event of a continuing, protracted war in Ukraine, 18 years of socio-economic achievements could be lost, with almost one third of the population living below the poverty line and a further 62 percent at high risk of falling into poverty within the next 12 months.

A Timeline

February 23: UN Secretary-General António Guterres spoke to the General Assembly saying, “the decision of the Russian Federation to recognize the so-called “independence” of Donetsk and Luhansk regions are violations of the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine and inconsistent with the principles of the Charter of the United Nations.”

February 24: Russia invaded Ukraine.  UN Secretary-General António Guterres said to Russia, “Stop the military operation. Bring the troops back to Russia.”

February 25:  Russia vetoed a resolution by the United Nations Security Council that would have declared Russian aggression against Ukraine a violation of Article 2, paragraph 4 of the Charter of the United Nations.  The resolution called for Russia to immediately cease its use of force against Ukraine, and withdraw all its military forces immediately, completely, and unconditionally from that country’s territory.  The resolution did not pass because of Russia’s veto.

February 27: The Security Council members, frustrated by the veto vote of Russia, voted that the General Assembly convene an emergency special session.  This was a procedural act, not subject to the veto power, requiring only the vote of 9 members.  The vote was 11 to 1.  The Security Council last called for convening an emergency special session of the General Assembly was during the 1982 Lebanon War (Israel v. Syria), and in 1980 during the Soviet-Afghan war.

Russia urged Security Council members not to call the General Assembly, “We hear lies and deceit about the indiscriminate shelling of Ukrainian facilities, hospitals and schools” when “the Russian army does not threaten civilians in Ukraine; it does not shell civilian infrastructure.”  Instead, it is the Ukrainian “nationalists” who are using civilians as humans shields and deploying rocket launchers in civilian areas — acts that are used by terrorists and must be condemned.”

February 28: General Assembly called an Emergency Special Session.

Secretary General: “The fighting in Ukraine must stop now.” Noting that bombardments by Russian have been pounding the country day and night, he said the capital, Kyiv, now finds itself surrounded. Ukrainians have been forced to shelter in subway stations and more than half a million have fled across the country’s borders. Citing credible accounts of serious damage sustained by residential buildings and other non-military infrastructure, he described the attacks as unacceptable and stressed that Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity must be respected.

Russia: The representative of the Russian Federation said the root of the current crisis lies instead with Ukraine itself. Kyiv flouted the Package of Measures for the Implementation of the Minsk Agreements, failed to engage in dialogue with the Donetsk and Luhansk regions and turned a blind eye to the people of Donbas. Against that backdrop, President Vladimir Putin decided to react. “There is a need to de-Nazify Ukraine,” he stressed, adding that his country is exercising its right to self-defense from Ukraine, which strives to obtain nuclear weapons, seeks North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) membership, and is making false territorial claims against the Russian Federation.

Chili: Milenko Esteban Skoknic Tapic said the fact that the Assembly is meeting in emergency format for the first time in decades bears witness to the international community’s frustration at the Security Council’s failure to adopt a decision in favor of peace.

March 2: The General Assembly Member States adopted a resolution 141 to 5, demanding the Russian Federation immediately end its invasion of Ukraine and unconditionally withdraw all its military forces from that neighbouring country. The Assembly also deplored Belarus’ involvement in this illegal action. The 5 in opposition were: Belarus, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Eritrea, Russian Federation, and Syria.  35 nations abstained.

March 16: The International Court of Justice ruled in UKRAINE v. RUSSIAN FEDERATION: “The Russian Federation shall immediately suspend the military operations that it commenced on 24 February 2022 in the territory of Ukraine.”

April 7: The UN General Assembly adopted a resolution calling for Russia to be suspended from the Human Rights Council.  The resolution received a 2/3 majority of those voting.  The vote took place on the anniversary of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, and the Ukrainian ambassador drew parallels between the crimes committed by Russia with the Rwanda genocide.

Ukraine: Ukrainian Ambassador Sergiy Kyslytsya urged countries to support the resolution. “Bucha and dozens of other Ukrainian cities and villages, where thousands of peaceful residents have been killed, tortured, raped, abducted and robbed by the Russian Army, serve as an example of how dramatically far the Russian Federation has gone from its initial declarations in the human rights domain.”

May 19: “United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned of a global food crisis exacerbated as a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Guterres said Ukraine and Russia together produce almost a third of the world's wheat and barley and half of its sunflower oil, and Russia and its ally Belarus are the world's number two and three producers of potash, a key ingredient of fertilizer. The secretary-general said the number of people facing severe food insecurity has doubled in just two years from 135 million pre-pandemic to 276 million today.” DW News. Note: DW News is Deutsche Welle (German Wave), a German public state-owned international broadcaster funded by German federal taxes.

June 8: United Nations reports - Food prices are at near-record highs.  Fertilizer prices have more than doubled. Without fertilizers, shortages will spread from corn and wheat to all staple crops, including rice, with a devastating impact on billions of people in Asia and South America, too.  Record‑high energy prices are also triggering blackouts and fuel shortages in all parts of the world, especially in Africa. 

A Typewritten Letter

Vashon Island, 1997.

Shauna, long black hair and passion to match, could hardly stand still. Jumping up and down and pacing back and forth, she said, “But, Mom, what do you think Daddy will say?” Shauna was the first of the girls to come home from school. Nearly 16, and bubbling over with excitement, Shauna was my compatriot in lobbying for a new adventure.

“OK. OK. Let’s be really calm when he comes in. Let’s let him tell us about his day, and we can smile and play it very cool. Let’s don’t scare him,” I warned.

“Ok, but what do you think he’ll say?”

We stood in our kitchen looking down over a sweeping grass meadow. Built for our three daughters, five dogs, many cats, and a bunny - Don and I designed this home together. Taking us many years to save enough money and find the right property, we built the house on 10 acres of pine and evergreens in a community we loved more than any we had ever known before. Don and I were the co-producers/directors of this beautiful home. We put all of our dreams in her with a pottery studio in the garage and a darkroom in the large laundry room. Reflecting our love of Japan, we designed half of the house with Japanese shoji and tatami looking out on a manicured Japanese garden. We designed every window, every bookshelf, every wooden cabinet, and every drawer pull. It was a piece of art.

Don and I had developed a law practice on this little island, with me as the attorney and Don as my legal assistant. And we had been able to build a big enough clientele to pay for our extravagant home and to care for our family. We worked out of our home.

But, this bucolic life was going morph into something very different.

Don walked in followed by Robert Redford, our long haired golden retriever who filled with doggy smiles and a wagging tail came to my side to get some attention. Don was full of stories of taking the ferry to the mainland, going to Costco, and eating free offerings of cheese and crackers. “And, then the lady handed me a cup filled with chocolate ice cream and told me, ‘this isn’t just any chocolate this is chocolate from Belgium! Can you taste the little bits of chocolate?’”

Shauna and I stood listening, leaning against the the long kitchen island where the family gathered for making food and sharing tales.

Don, not born into the family yesterday, looked up. He noticed our uncharacteristic silence - a silence seldom heard in our house filled with love, laughter, and energy. “Hey, what’s up with you two? What’s going on? Why are you so quiet?”

Shauna looked at me, and I looked at her. And then it all came spewing out. No self control here. No playing it cool. “Daddy, look what Mom got in the mail. Look! It’s from Volodymyr. It’s from Ukraine. Here read it!” She pushed the creased yellowed envelope across to her dad’s waiting hands.

Don took it and looked over at me. “Go ahead, Honey. Read it,” I said softly. He looked down at the yellowing paper - a typewritten message that he suspected was going to disrupt his peaceful island life.

And after what felt like many years, Don looked up to find two very expectant faces peering at him. Shauna said, “Well, Daddy, what do you think?”

Don, who was used to the passion that only his 4 women could give - his wife and three daughters - smiled and said, “Oh, Sh%#&*%t! We’re going to Ukraine, aren’t we?”

---

2022 Lutsk in War: Photos

2022 Lutsk Ukraine in Wartime

Photos by Volodymyr Khomik.  March and June 2022.

Lutsk, a three hour bus ride to the Polish border, appears untouched by the war that is raging in the east.  A pleasant woman merchant sells socks that are scattered on a luggage rack.  The market is filled with produce from the Carpathia to the south and merchants wait for customers.   The woman shopping in the market with her ubiquitous white plastic bag looks similar to someone I might see in Seattle in the summertime.

Underneath a peace, lies the beast of fear.  Metal barrigades that line some of the streets are in wait for the enemy.  People stand in line to pray to their saints for protection.  It is what is hidden that is the most revealing.  The prices of the nice red tomatos are high, the streets are empty, and that pain you feel in the pit of your stomach terrified by the invading Russians. Will the government be able to still send you your pension next month?  Will you have enough food for the rest of the week? Should you escape across the border to Poland or stay hunkered down in the safety of your claustrophobic 500 sq ft apartment?

---

Flashback - 1997 in Lutsk

Although there are a few inside ‘grocery stores,’ most people shop at the neighborhood "bazaar." This is equivalent to summer farmer markets, only on a much smaller scale and operated year round. 

Photo: mbfitzmahan. Bazaar, Lutsk, Ukraine. 1997.

1997 September. Lutsk Ukraine. Don’s Journal of Lutsk.

In a brick and mortar store, products are displayed behind a counter where you can see but cannot touch the merchandise.  You must ask for everything from a clerk, who will hand it to you for inspection or purchase.  In many cases an item on the shelf is the only one they have. When you buy it, there is no more "in stock."

Although there are a few inside ‘grocery stores,’ most people shop at the neighborhood "bazaar." This is equivalent to summer farmer markets, only on a much smaller scale and operated year round.  Some vendors may have a wide variety of sodas, juices, candy, magazines, etc. while another may have only a small paper bag of mushrooms.  At present, there is lots of produce in good condition.  We wonder what things will be like in December.

At the market we buy some bread, onions, garlic, milk, salt, pepper, and margarine. These, combined with the farm fresh potatoes we received from Volodymyr will make a fine potato soup. With that we head home.  The soup is great. We sit in our little kitchen, eat our dinner and discuss our first day in Lutsk.

Volodymyr Khomyk

May 28, 2022 - News from Volodymyr.

I receive news of life in Ukraine from our friend, Volodymyr Khomyk. We met Volodya 37 years ago when he came to Seattle on a Gorbachev sponsored program to study Don’s program on alcohol abuse prevention, “Here’s Looking at You.”

That was in the mid 1980s - it was a hopeful time as Gorbachev negotiated with Reagan for a nuclear arms reduction and Gorbachev attempted to bring reform to the Soviet Union with glastnost and perestroika. Unbeknownst to all, those would be the last years before the collapse of the governments of the Soviet Union and its Satellite states. Ukrainian independence came on August 24, 1991 - starting with its exciting and hopeful Declaration of Independence and moving through the rocky early years of inflation and attempts to create a liberal democracy. This was followed by the Orange Revolution in 2004 and the Maidan Protests in 2014, which led Ukraine to lean away from Russia and face toward the West. In retribution for turning away from Russia, Putin attacked Ukraine in 2014, occupying Crimea and sending troops to eastern Ukraine. And, now in 2022, Putin has invaded Ukraine with an existential attack that threatens the very survival of the newly formed state on the eastern border of Europe.

Volodymyr lives in Lutsk, a small city of 200,000. That is where we lived, worked, and studied for a year in 1997-98. Volodymyr was our sponsor who was instrumental in bringing us to Ukraine. A professor of psychology, he recommended to the Dean of the Law School that he hire me to teach comparative law at the Lesya Ukrainka Volyn National University.

For an expat, the best experience from life abroad is when you meet a local who acts as your conduit to life in the community. It doesn’t happen very often, but when it does it brings to you the joy of living in a foreign place and feeling like you belong. Volodymyr was a guide to the practical things like where to buy food and where to pay your bills. He showed us how to use the local transportation - how to get to work and to school. He introduced us to our neighbors who took us out to the forest for a lunch of shashleek. He introduced me to some artists in town who took me into the Volyn Studio where I developed film, and made friends where we drink lots of vodka, laughed and shared stories. He introduced me to dissidents and judges. And despite not speaking Ukrainian or Russian, we made friends and got to know Ukraine.

As of the end of May 2022, Volodymyr wrote to me that he receives a small monthly pension, $150 - well below what he needs to buy basic goods. He writes that the value of the Ukrainian currency, has gone down considerably. Food prices have gone up and he must pay public utilities for his apartment. Factories and other industries are “constantly reducing,” he writes. “We are getting many products - foods from Western Europe - but I now have almost no food.” He wrote that he was writing “under the loud sound of an air raid warning siren.”

It is particularly hard for the elderly in Ukraine, especially the elderly like Volodymyr who have no family. The only family Volodymyr had when we first met him was his elderly mother who lived alone in a small village, “the Great Out of the Way Place,” near the Chernobyl nuclear plant. In 1997 Volodya made regular trips into the village to see his mother and then he came back with bags of fresh produce and meat. She died a few years ago leaving Volodya alone.

On the good side, Volodymyr lives in Lutsk, not in eastern or southern Ukraine which has suffered terrible losses. Some of the elderly in the east have been unable to get pensions and their neighbors have left them behind. Sometimes, families have even had to leave their disabled elderly. Medical facilities closed.

Volodymyr fears the invasion of the Russians. Who will take care of him?

A week ago, Volodymyr wrote, “But in relation to my own health I am still feeling well. Thanks to God.”

Movies on Ukraine or dissent

Winter on Fire: Ukraine’s Fight for Freedom (2015). Oscar-nominated film directed by Israeli-American Evgeny. Watch on Netflix.

Last week I watched this film on the Maidan Protests. This documentary is a mesmerizing street view of 4 months of protests (2013-2014) against the Russian leaning Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych. This incident led to a Russian military intervention through the annexation of Crimea by Russia, and the creation of the self-proclaimed breakaway states of Donetsk and Luhansk. This sparked the Donbas War, and culminated with Russia initiating the full-scale invasion of the country today in 2022.

Mariupolis 2. 2022. Mantas Kvaderavičius. Won Cannes Film Festival prize. Not yet available for viewing.

This documentary made by Lithuanian director Mantas Kvaderavičius won the special Cannes Film Festival prize of the Golden Eye. The director was killed on April 2, while trying to escape Mariupol. The film is about the life in Mariupol during the invasion. The film was finished by the director's wife Anna, as Kvaderavičius hadn’t yet finished.

This film is a follow-up to Kvedaravicius’ 2016 documenary, Mariupolis, which followed the lives of everyday citizens in Mariupol as the threat of war with Russia escalated. Kvedaravicius returned to Mariupol this year to document Russia’s invasion of the country. The city of Mariupol has been completely destroyed by the Russian military.

Servant of the People. Starring Volodymyr Zelensky, today’s President of Ukraine. 2015. Watch on Netflix.

This is a light comedy, a nice change from the heavier films listed. I watch episodes from this show as a break from the bad news streaming out of eastern Ukraine. The experience is a bit surreal. In the show you can get a view of a bit of normal life in Ukrainian homes and on the streets of Kyiv before the War. It is hard to believe that many of those streets and buildings featured in the film are today in rubble after 2 months of bombings from the Russians. And, secondly, it is also hard to believe that the actor who plays the President is now the real live Ukrainian President, hiding in bunkers, addressing the United Nations asking for help, walking with the troops, consoling the injured and the families of the dead. Zelensky has become a dynamic hero to Ukraine. A hero to the world.

News Summary - May 31, 2022

News Summary - Day 97 of War

Luhansk, Ukrainian Eurovision winners donate $1.2 billion, EU bans Russian gas and oil, French reporter killed in war, 1000 companies left Russia.

Image: Kyiv Post. Day of Kyiv - May 29th was the Day of Kyiv which marks the 1,500th anniversary of the capital. As of 1 January 2021, the population of Kyiv is 2,962,180. Kyiv is one of the oldest cities is Europe.

---

29 May - Russia comes close to capturing all of the Luhansk region in eastern Ukraine by capturing the city of Sievierodonetsk, one of the most important cities still held by Ukraine in the east.

29 May - The Kalush Orchestra, Ukrainian Eurovision Song Contest (May 14, 2022) winner, sold their trophy on Sunday for $900,000. The Ukrainian band auctioned off on FaceBook its trophy and the pink bucket hat worn by its lead singer. They earned $1.2 million. The band announced that the money raised will be used to buy three drones that the Ukrainian army can use for surveillance.

30 May - Ukrainian authorities urged people living in Russian occupied towns and cities to flee if possible. Iryna Vereshchuk, the deputy prime minister, warned, “My advice: Move to Ukrainian-controlled territory. I know that it’s difficult, but you have to try and find ways and opportunities. Because ultimately, it is a question of your safety and that of your children.”

30 May - The European Union reached an agreement to ban most imports of Russian gas and oil. Russia currently supplies 27% of the EU's imported oil and 40% of its gas. The EU pays Russia around $430 billion a year for gas and oil. No longer. The EU agreement bans all Russian oil imports arriving by sea by the end of the year, which will cut off two-thirds of the EU’s total imports and will cost Russia billions of dollars a year. The ban will only affect oil that arrives by sea but not pipeline oil, following opposition from Hungary.

30 May - A 32-year-old French journalist, Frederic Leclerc-Imhoff, was killed by shrapnel while covering the evacuation of civilians on the road to Lysychansk in eastern Luhansk Oblast.

31 May - European Union leaders agreed to give Ukraine $9.7 billion dollars in aid.

31 May - Over 1,000 companies have left Russia since Feb. 24.

1st ukrainian War Crime Trial

---

Update: June 10, 2022

From The Conversation, “Ukraine: British POWs sentenced to death after ‘show trial’ which appears to violate Geneva Conventions” - “Two Britons captured while fighting in Ukraine’s armed forces have been sentenced to death after what has been condemned as a “show trial”. Aiden Aslin and Shaun Pinner, who surrendered to Russian forces during the siege of the Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol, were convicted on the charge of “being a mercenary”. They have a month to appeal and, if successful, they could receive a life or 25-year prison sentence instead of the death penalty. Pro-Russian officials in the breakaway republic of Donetsk, where the trial was conducted, claimed the men’s actions had “led to the deaths and injury of civilians, as well as damage to civilian and social infrastructure”.But what observers have called a “show trial” on “trumped-up charges” raises important questions both about their status under international law (specifically, whether they are entitled to prisoner of war status) and the compatibility of these trials with the rights that come with such status.

Russian Show Trials?

Britons Aiden Aslin and Shaun Pinner with Moroccan Brahim Saadoun, who were captured after the siege of the the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol. (Image taken from footage of the Supreme Court of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic.)

---

Law and Justice in Ukraine during Wartime

May 23, 2022.  Judges in Kyiv handed down the first verdict on a war crime in the Russo-Ukraine War.  Sergeant Vadim Shishimarin, 21, was convicted of shooting a 62-year-old civilian, Oleksandr Shelipov, in the northern region of Sumy. Sergeant Shishimarin, who had pleaded guilty at the start of the trial, was sentenced to life in prison. 

According to Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova the defendant was a Russian sergeant whose convoy was under attack from Ukrainian forces and while driving out of the village he and his fellow soldiers saw a villager talking on the phone while he rode his bicycle. The young sergeant, afraid that Mr. Shelipov would report their location to Ukrainian forces nearby, fired his rifle at the old man.

The sergeant was charged under Ukrainian Criminal Code, Article 438 §2 and the trial drew crowds to the courthouse in Kyiv. International scholars and journalists followed the case and the trial was broadcast on YouTube.

The case was tried without a jury according to the defendant’s wishes. The evidence presented by the prosecutor included the self incriminating testimony of the defendant, ballistics on the gun used, testimony from a friend of the victim, as well as testimony from another soldier who had been with the sergeant and was also captured at the same time the sergeant was brought in.

There are some interesting legal points about this trial.

1. It is unusual for soldiers to be tried for war crimes during active wartime. This is in large part because of logistic problems relating to arrest and to access to courts. It is unusual for a war crime trial be conducted during a conflict. A case from the Bosnian War is the point of reference of a previous trial conducted during war. In that case another 21 year old soldier, Serbian Borislav Herak, was arrested for brutally killing and raping a massive number of civilians. A report on this Bosnian case by John F. Burns won a 1993 Pulitzer Prize, “A Killer’s Tale: A Serbian Fighter's Path of Brutality.

2. What is the point of a war crimes trial? Justice, revenge, deterrence for future crimes? In history, war crimes have been dealt with through crowd justice and hangings, to a more recent establishment of international tribunals.

3. What are the elements of the crime of a war crime in Ukraine’s Criminal Offenses Against Peace, Security of Mankind and International Legal Order, Article 438. What are possible defenses? Is there a defense of self defense where it can be argued that in the time of war that troops found it necessary to kill a civilian informant that might give witness to the location of troops?

4. How difficult is it for the defendant to put on a defense during war? Would a defense attorney in another jurisdiction have recommended to the defendant that the sergeant plead guilty or decline a jury trial, as was done in this case?

5. The Russian defendant-soldier in this Ukrainian case is very young. He represents the kind of troops that are being sent to Ukraine in the early part of the war. War is unpredictable and dehumanizing, and untrained and inexperienced troops may respond aggressively out of fear, bravado, war fatigue, or sometimes from directives from commanders. Also, there is a factor of out-of-controlled-ness that comes in war. There have been reports of horrible crimes committed by Russian troops. The tendency of troops to commit war crimes is exacerbated by the Russian leader Putin speaking of Ukrainians as “Nazis,” or in demeaning ‘other’ terms such as dirty khokhols, extremists and terrorists, immoral aggressors.

6. Is the local Ukrainian criminal court the best place to try a war crime? Robert Goldman, a scholar on international human rights at American University Washington College of Law, argues that this case should have been tried in a military court. Professor Goldman wrote, “international humanitarian law is a highly specialised area. Military court officials will have the training required to understand the nuances in a way that civilian courts will, by and large, not.” This is not possible in Ukraine as Yanukovych, the president deposed in the Maidan Revolution in 2014, abolished all military courts in 2010. (This is good fodder for another article.) Respectfully, I am also not sure a military court in Ukraine would have the training Mr. Goldman refers to. And, finally, would a military court in Ukraine be viewed internationally as unbiased? I am concerned about the appearance of fairness.  Should the trial have been held in Kyiv? Or in Ukraine, at all? Which brings up the question if it would be better to try war crimes outside the country with the International Criminal Court, an outside independent judicial body with plenty of experience in humanitarian law and with war crimes. I know, this is asking a lot. Interestingly, I read reports of ICC investigators working in Ukraine today.

7. Should we worry that the Russian’s will respond in anger to this trial and will seek revenge on Ukrainian soldiers? Goldman writes that the Russian military may respond in like and put on ‘show trials’ of Ukrainian defenders. In mid May nearly 1,000 Ukrainian fighters, who hid out inside Mariupol’s steel plant in south Ukraine, surrendered to Russian troops and Russia has threatened to put some of them on trial for war crimes. While a worry that the Russians will conduct war trials in a tit for tat in response to this Ukrainian war trial is legitimate, I think that is what the Russians will do anyway. Fear of the enemy putting on show trials may not be the best argument for not conducting war trials. In a perfect world, the Russians would send their defendants to the ICC to try the soldiers from Ukraine, but I can’t imagine this happening under this Putin regime.

8. There is an interesting side note relating to the Ukrainian judiciary. According to a coordinator for a human rights organization, “At present, the trial of Shishimarin looks like what we have dreamed of,” she said. The defendant was brought to trial quickly. Online media and the public were given access to the court hearing. The activist gave the impression that both speed and accessibility are unusual in Ukrainian courts. According to Ms. Reshetylova, it took “a full-scale Russian invasion for the Ukrainian judiciary to understand that transparency and accessibility in warfare is not only a matter of justice, but also an element of justice to satisfy the victims.”

   According to the Ukrainian Criminal Procedure Code, Art 27 §2 “In courts of all instances, criminal proceedings are conducted openly.” Only in very limited cases, may the trial be conducted ‘in camera,’ i.e. without public admittance. Also, an audio recording of the trial must be available. Article 28 §5 requires “Everyone shall have the right for a charge to be subject of a trial within the shortest possible time or criminal proceedings concerned closed.”

   In my study of Ukraine, at the early stages of Ukrainian statehood, I heard horror stories of long incarceration before trials. On the other hand, I was welcome to watch criminal and civil trials as a member of the public. Admittedly, those trials were neither controversial nor political.

Boris Bondarev, Russian United Nations Diplomat

May 24, 2022: "My name is Boris Bondarev, in the MFA (Minister of Foreign Affairs) of Russian since 2002, since 2019 until now - Counsellor of the Russian Mission to the UN Office at Geneva.

For twenty years of my diplomatic career I have seen different turns of our foreign policy, but never have I been so ashamed of my country as on February 24 of this year.

The aggressive war unleashed by Putin against Ukraine, and in fact against the entire Western world, is not only a crime against the Ukrainian people, but also, perhaps, the most serious crime against the people of Russia, with a bold letter Z crossing out all hopes and prospects for a prosperous free society in our country.

Those who conceived this war want only one thing - to remain in power forever, live in pompous tasteless palaces, sail on yachts comparable in tonnage and cost to the entire Russian Navy, enjoying unlimited power and complete impunity. To achieve that they are willing to sacrifice as many lives as it takes. Thousands of Russians and Ukrainians have already died just for this.

I regret to admit that over all these twenty years the level of lies and unprofessionalism in the work of the Foreign Ministry has been increasing all the time. However, in most recent years, this has become simply catastrophic. Instead of unbiased information, impartial analysis and sober forecasting, there are propaganda clichés in the spirit of Soviet newspapers of the 1930s. A system has been built that deceives itself.

Minister Lavrov is a good illustration of the degradation of this system. In 18 years, he went from a professional and educated intellectual, whom many my colleagues held in such high esteem, to a person who constantly broadcasts conflicting statements and threatens the world (that is, Russia too) with nuclear weapons!

Today, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is not about diplomacy. It is all about warmongering, lies and hatred. It serves interests of few, the very few people thus contributing to further isolation and degradation of my country.

Russia no longer has allies, and there is no one to blame but its reckless and ill-conceived policy.

I studied to be a diplomat and have been a diplomat for twenty years. The Ministry has become my home and family. But I simply cannot any longer share in this bloody, witless and absolutely needless ignominy."

---

This simple eloquent renunciation of Putin and the Foreign Ministry is a clarion call to all Russians. Bondarev -not a name most of us know - is stationed in Geneva, as a member of the Russian Foreign Mission to the United Nations. He has been quietly doing his job for the last 22 years working for the Russian Foreign Ministry and is happy and honored to be assigned to his position in Geneva. So, why give up his cushy career with the Russian government? Because the war is a crime, the Russian aggressors want power and wealth more than the well being of its citizens, and the purveyors of war are isolating and humiliating Russia. That’s why.

According to the New York Times, “The Kremlin has gone to extraordinary lengths to silence dissent on the war. On state television, the war’s opponents are regularly branded as traitors. A law signed by Mr. Putin in March punishes “false information” about the war — potentially defined as anything that contradicts the government line — with as much as 15 years in prison. Partly as a result, virtually no government official had spoken out publicly against the invasion until Mr. Bondarev’s resignation.”

What bravery! This is the ultimate sacrifice and honor to stand up to power. Dedicated to the precepts of the United Nations, Mr. Bondarev bravely has set the bar for all Russian workers. For that matter, he sets an example to all government and political leaders throughout the world.

---

Open the other door

Pocketful of stories

A broken lightbulb, a shortage of bread, a corrupt leader…these were things that just were.

1997 Lutsk, Ukraine

Large buildings in Lutsk had massive double doors and though the doors were impressive, inevitably one door was always locked. Lesa Ukraina University had eighteen foot double doors and no matter how many students crowded in and out, they squeezed through one door.  I assumed this was a good way to save heat in the very cold winters.  However, this theory failed in light of the fact that only one door opened even in the hottest summer months.

I asked a friend why the university, the banks, and the department stores always locked one of their double doors.  Looking puzzled, he answered,  “Hmmm.  That is a good question. I have no idea.  We just know that one door will be always be locked.”

The one locked door, a metaphor for life in Ukraine in 1997, is the way things were.  That is the way they have always been.  A broken lightbulb, a shortage of bread, a corrupt leader…these were things that just were.

The Soviet government recognized that people needed a time to complain; complaining was seen as a part of life. And realizing that their oppressed citizens can be a fussy bunch of troublemakers, the Soviet government institutionalized complaining.  The Communist Party set up a regular time for meetings where citizens gathered to complain about the government and their life in the Soviet Union. No one expected change, the people just needed a place to vent. Without a place to complain, the people might revolt.

The Russians made complaining a whole genre of humor and Soviet anecdotes were still apropos.

“A Frenchman, a Brit, and a Russian are admiring a painting of Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden.

The Frenchman says, “They must be French, they’re naked and they’re eating fruit.”

The Englishman says, “Clearly, they’re English; observe how politely the man is offering the woman the fruit.”

And the Russian notes, “They are Russian, of course. They have nothing to wear, nothing to eat, and they think they are in paradise.”

Waiting for someone else to fix a problem was not invented by the Soviets.  Generations of Ukrainians and Russians were oppressed and raised to believe that problems were to be endured. The Tsars did not encourage individual initiative.  A well educated, self starting population might ‘self start’ a new and different government.  If the people could solve their own problems, they might wonder why they still tolerated their repressive Russian, Lithuanian, Polish, and then Soviet governments.

With independence in 1991, the people in Ukraine found less and less comfort in the leadership of the Party (which no longer existed) or the Leader (that was not much different or better than the Soviet one). When the dead Soviet system was replaced by a system of private property, the new state failed to come up with a modern infrastructure, and the old infrastructure decayed.  Apartment buildings crumbled, lights didn’t work, streets were cracked, towns ran out of gas, parks became overgrown.   Hunger, low wages, poor health, mediocre education systems, and corrupt governments were things to be expected.  

What if an individual or a collection of individuals said to the university president, “Why don’t you unlock the second door so that more students can easily come in and out of the university.  It would be safer and easier for all.”

The closed door is a fear of being judged, of being mistaken, of being viewed as different.  The closed door is a photo of the mind of a victim.  Dark and helpless. It is symbolic of a fear to try something new.  To say something different.

The Open Door is open to new ideas.  Sometimes ‘crazy ideas.’  Sometimes dangerous ideas.

Ukraine’s President Zelensky, a former actor, got his start in politics by playing the president of Ukraine on TV. In 2015, Zelensky created and starred in “Servant of the People,” which told the story of a high school history teacher who gets elected to the country’s highest office.

You can watch the show on Netflix. The show highlighted many of the same problems I observed in Ukraine. It is these real problems that the real Zelensky was elected to combat. Now, he has to lead the country in a life threatening defense of his homeland.

---

News update. May 23, 2022. Day 89 of Russian-Ukrainian War.

Though it is sometimes difficult to know what news out of Ukraine and Russia is accurate, we know this.

1. Russia troops and planes continue the assault on Ukraine.

2. The Russians were unable to take Kharkiv and the capital of Kyiv and have withdrawn. Though badly damaged, those centers of battle are being repopulated. The Americans reopened their embassy in Kyiv on May 18. For how long we do not know. The Senate confirmed Bridget Brink on May 18 as U.S. ambassador to Ukraine. The veteran foreign service officer was nominated to the position last month by President Joe Biden and she was confirmed unanimously by the Senate.

3. The Russians have shifted their concentration of their military efforts to the east and the south.

4. The Ukrainian city of Mariupol in the southeast has been taken by the Russians after two months of fierce fighting. Mariupol is located between Crimea, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014, and the region of Eastern Ukraine called Donbas, much of which is controlled by Russian-backed separatists. Taking Mariupol is part of the Russian campaign in the south and the southeast to connect the Russian-held areas. By controlling Mariupol, Russia has solidified its land bridge to Crimea and now controls the north shore of the Sea of Azov.

5. The Russians are accused of committing war crimes of killing innocent civilians and raping women. The first trial for war crimes was conducted in Kyiv. A young Russia soldier was arrested by Ukrainians and is on trial for the killing an innocent civilian. The International Criminal Court (ICC) sent a team of 42 investigators, forensic experts, and support personnel to Ukraine to advance an investigations into crimes falling into the jurisdiction of the Court. This is the largest single field deployment by the ICC since its establishment.

6. Military and humanitarian aid continues to stream into Ukraine. On May 21, U.S. President Biden signed a $40 billion bill to send weapons and economic aid to Ukraine in its fight against Russia.

7. As of April 21, over 6.4 million refugees have been forced out of Ukraine. 1/3 of the people have been displaced.

8. Finland and Sweden applied for membership into NATO.

9. In response to American led sanctions on Russia, the Russian Foreign Ministry has drafted a list of 963 US citizens, who are permanently barred from entering Russia, including US President Joe Biden and Vice-President Kamala Harris. Neither Former President Donald Trump nor Senator Mitch McConnell is on that list. No journalists or hosts from Fox News were banned by Russia.

10. On May 15, the Ukrainian group, Kalush Orchestra won first place in the Eurovision contest for their song, "Stefania.” The Russian contestants were banned from the contest.

HIDE YOUR PAPERS UNDER THE POTATOES

mbfitzmahan. Volodymyr Kovalchuk. Lutsk, Ukraine. 1997.

FALL 1997

A man came to the KGB office.  He looked frightened.  ‘My talking parrot has disappeared.’ The agent was confused.  “That’s not the kind of case we handle here. Why don’t you go to the police?’ The man frowned, “I know that, but I am here to tell you officially that I disagree with the parrot.”  

Viktor was a man who liked a joke.  On my first day at the university, Viktor, the dean of the law school, took my hand and smiled,  “I am happy you are here to help us get a new perspective.  A class in comparative law is just what we need. I must warn you, though, we have no textbooks, no printer, and no computers.  Sometimes we don’t even have lights,” he laughed.   This time he wasn’t joking.

I came prepared to teach about American and European law, but I didn’t know anything about Ukrainian law.  There was nothing  written in English so I asked Viktor if he would introduce me to an attorney who could teach me a little something about Ukrainian law. “Hmmm,” he pondered.  “I know!  I will introduce you to Volodymyr.  He’ll know what to do.”

Volodymyr Kovalchuk was neither a professor nor a lawyer.   I wasn’t sure why I needed to meet him.  He  looked like an ordinary fellow.  About 5 foot 8 with greying hair, he looked a bit like Martin Freeman in The Hobbit.  He spoke English, but not fluently.  How was this kind, simple man going to help me?

A retired communist bureaucrat, Volodymyr was a member of the Communist Party, one of a chosen few.  In the late 1980s less than 4% of the Ukrainian population were members of the Party of the Soviet Union.  Membership in the Party was a hard sought after honor that brought guarantees for a better job, better living quarters, and a better life.

This unassuming looking man held massive power to decide who got a passport or who did not. Many people owed Volodymyr.  In Ukraine, who you knew and who owed you, were valuable commodities. A passport, a propiska, was a valuable asset when the State restricted personal movement.  A passport was needed not only to travel abroad (a rare privilege), but to travel within the country – to take a trip to Kyiv, Moscow, or even to your Aunt Natasha’s in L’viv.  To get a place to live, a job, or to attend a university, you needed to produce your propiska.   

Volodymyr Kovalchuk‘s Communist Party Membership book.

I shook hands with Volodymr and exchanged the requisite pleasantries.  Before I could explain what I needed, he looked directly in my eyes as if to weigh my commitment, “So you want to meet some attorneys.  Do you also want to talk to some judges?”  This would be more than I expected!  Of course I did!  “Do you want to know how the legal system works?” he asked.  “That is precisely what I need to learn. Can you help me?” I asked.  “Well, tell me.  Do you want to know how the system is suppose to work, or how the system actually works?”  He turned to me with that little Hobbit look, “If you want to learn how the system is suppose to work, this will take a couple of months.  If you want to learn how the system really works, this could take us years.”

My modest idea to interview a handful of attorneys turned out to be a complicated, sometimes unnerving, three-year journey into the bowels of Soviet and Ukrainian jurisprudence. When I needed information, Volodymyr knew who to ask.  When I needed to hear the truth, a more intricate and dangerous request, he knew how to find it.

Solely through the interview process with the help of Volodymyr, I gathered volumes of  information on the new legal system of Ukraine.  I ultimately compiled and analyzed the data and wrote America’s first piece of scholarship on the Ukrainian legal system, in particular its flawed court system.  Columbia University published my study under the long title, “Vestiges of Soviet Control Mechanisms in the District Court of Ukraine.”  

I did all my interviewing in the province of Volyn, primarily in its capital, Lutsk.  Between 1997 and 2000, I met with 100 jurists and attended trials and visited jails. I did all this knowing only bits of Ukrainian and Russian.

Volodymyr taught me how to “do business” in his culture.  He taught me to drink brandy in the morning with Judge Milishchuk.  Vodka in the afternoon with the prison superintendent.  “Chut, chut, just a little. Sto grams, 100 grams,” Volodymyr encouraged. He taught me that this was how trust and friendships were forged.  “You must bring a gift, befitting the importance of the official,” Volodymyr instructed.  So I took the de rigueur gift of Scotch whiskey to the judge and some cigarettes and vodka to the prison warden.

“Hide your papers,” he advised, “under the potatoes.” Volodymyr revealed the dangers to me that all Ukrainians knew. “Don’t carry around tapes of the interviews. Or your photographs. They will stop and search you.”   “Who will stop me?” I asked him.  “The KGB…I mean the SBU.  They are the same! Absoliutno!” he warned.

Volodymyr Kovalchuk of Lutsk, Ukraine, and my friend of 20 years, died on May 1, 2017. “Volodymyr thought you were a very noble person,” my friend wrote me.  “I saw him about 6 months ago.  We stood outside my apartment and reminisced about those years when the Fitzmahan’s lived in our town.”

Many of my friends from Ukraine are suffering.  Jobs have dried up and pensions are not sufficient to pay for retirement.  Many have left and moved to other parts of Europe. Those who could not leave, stayed behind dreading a Russian invasion and feared for their survival. I will miss my friend very much.  I will miss his humor, his fearlessness, and his devotion to the truth.

Since Volodymyr’s death, the Russians have invaded twice. In 2014, Putin’s troops invaded and occupied Crimea in the south as well as sent in troops to support separatists in the Donbas region in the east. This latest brutal incursion in 2022 comes as a result, in part, because the Ukrainian government has finally begun to move forward from the calamity left by the earlier Soviet/Russian occupation. Ukraine’s corrupt pro-Putin leadership was replaced in 2014 with pro-Europe leadership that made strong efforts to eliminate corruption and solidify a government committed to a liberal democracy including hopes to fix the judicial system. The latest president, Volodymr Zelensky moved to replace corrupt members of the Constitutional Court. Last year, the Prosecutor General indicted Viktor Medvedchuk for treason and attempted theft of government property in Crimea. Viktor Medvedchuk is a friend of Putin and has been identified as Putin’s choice for the next puppet leader of Ukraine.

Biden: Cold War Warrior Armed for 2022 war

Biden Leadership

The world holds its breath as two warriors of the Cold War face off.

Did Donald Trump’s words and actions influence whether the Russian president invaded Ukraine? Did he have any impact on how prepared Ukraine would be at the time of invasion?

History will judge. In another century, history writes that Neville Chamberlain’s policy of appeasement empowered Hitler to attack Poland and then march across Europe. Winston Churchill said of Chamberlain: “You were given the choice between war and dishonour. You chose dishonour and you will have war.”

Putin was pleased to see Americans increasingly politically and socially divided under President Trump, assured that America’s discord would weaken the country making it unable to reunite in a resolve to fight against Russian aggression. Putin is no friend of the United States. The day he invaded Ukraine on February 24th, Putin said, “the whole so-called Western bloc formed by the United States in its own image and likeness is in its entirety, [an] ‘empire of lies’ … As for our country, after the disintegration of the USSR, [the United States and Europe] immediately tried to put the final squeeze on us, finish us off, and utterly destroy us.”

Fortunately, Joseph Biden is president of the United States.  Biden, an elected statesman for half a century, has more foreign policy experience than any other president in U.S. history - 3 times more experience than George H.W. Bush, who had the next longest.  When Biden entered the Senate in 1973 Leonid Brezhnev was First Secretary General of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Followed by Andropov, Chernenko, and Gorbachev. Biden has experience dealing with Soviet trained dictators, including Vladimir Putin. 

The peace of the world is in the balance as two bulls of the Cold War face off. In the shadow of the most perilous war to break out since World War II, President Biden is well qualified to help the United States and its allies.

Foreign leaders and press are relieved and impressed by Biden’s leadership against Putin and Russia. London based The Economist wrote in March, “Mr Biden’s administration’s response to Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has been prompter, bolder and more effective than even the most faithful Atlanticist could have predicted. Nato is united behind American leadership and pushing the boundaries of collective defence.”

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson wrote, “President Biden has displayed great leadership, consulting and convening allies, exposing the lie that America’s commitment to Europe is somehow diminished.”

The Japan Times editorial on March 4, 2022 wrote, “The West, and virtually the entire world, has united to oppose the invasion of Ukraine. While many leaders deserve credit for helping to forge this coalition, a good deal of the credit goes to U.S. President Joe Biden, who has demonstrated remarkable acuity in handling this crisis.”

The editorial continued, “The speed with which all parties agreed on sanctions and the severity of those measures is an example of the success of Biden’s strategy….These achievements are even more impressive given the damage that his predecessor Donald Trump did to U.S. alliances, multilateralism and the rules-based order. The most important lesson of the last week has been that international cooperation and coordinated action in pursuit of shared values and principles are essential to the survival of that order and to the peace and security it creates.”

And article concluded, “The protection of national interests is best achieved through cooperative actions, not myopic or narrowly defined nationalism. And throughout the crisis, Biden has focused attention on where it belongs. He has applauded the heroism and resilience of the Ukrainian people and condemned Putin for his aggression. He has not made it about himself or put himself at the center of the unfolding crisis. For 70 years, the world has looked to the U.S. for leadership in international crises.… there remains a critical need for leadership, albeit leadership of a new kind. The world is fortunate to have Biden in the White House as it grapples with a world in transition.”

Joseph Biden, NATO, and the world face a very different and difficult conflict with Russia. Unable or unwilling to send troops into Ukraine, most of the world is sending military and humanitarian aid to Ukraine. According to the Ukraine Support Tracker, “the U.S. is the largest supporter of Ukraine, with the equivalent of 7.6 billion euros since the outbreak of war (data as of March 27, 2022). All EU countries combined total 2.9 billion euros, plus 1.4 billion euros from EU institutions and 2 billion euros from the European Investment Bank. The UK, Canada and Japan have pledged a combined 1 billion euros worth of aid.”

This massive amount of aid is in addition to impositions of severe sanctions trageting Russia’s trade, companies, individuals and their financial sector. The European Union (EU) and the UK alone account for around 40% of Russia’s trade in goods and services. “Russia is a major exporter of energy and industrial metals, and Russia and Ukraine together supply over 25 percent of world exports of wheat. Europe is particularly dependent on Russian energy, with 47 percent of natural gas and 25 percent of oil imported from Russia. Armenia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, and Tur- key import over 75 percent of their wheat from Russia and Ukraine, and many countries in the Middle East and Africa rely on imports of wheat and other com- modities from Russia and Ukraine, which could lead to food insecurity.”

On the other hand, sanctions placed on Russia are expected to have a significant impact on Russia’s economy. “The World Bank forecasts that on the basis of sanctions announced in March 2022, by the end of 2022, Russia’s GDP will be 11% lower, investment 17% lower, inflation will rise to 22%, and exports and imports will fall by 31% and 35% respectively” Western allies are expecting that these sanctions will also impact Russia’s ability to wage war, in large part because many of Russian imports are for technology needed for military weapons.

Great Putin Disciples

Vladimir Putin is a war criminal

The Great Putin Disciples: Trump and the Far Right, how much harm have they caused?

Let me be clear. Vladimir Putin and the Russians are to blame for the invasion of Ukraine in 2022. 

Yet, to what degree do the American Far Right and Donald Trump share the guilt?

Fox News’ Tucker Carlson parrots Putin’s defense of Russia and, worse, blames Ukraine for Russia’s aggression on Ukraine. Speaking of American sanctions against Russia, Carlson said, “No American government had ever done anything like that before.” RIA Novosti, a Russian state news agency, quoted Carlson and wrote that “the average U.S. citizen is simply horrified by what is happening.” Sergey Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, said on the Russian owned television station RT, “We understood long ago that there is no such thing as an independent Western media…only Fox News is trying to present some alternative point of view.”

Far Right politician, Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-N.C.) said: “Remember that Zelensky is a thug. Remember that the Ukrainian government is incredibly corrupt and is incredibly evil and has been pushing woke ideologies.” Not one to worry about sounding pro-Putin, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) said on March 15: “NATO has been supplying the neo-Nazis in Ukraine with powerful weapons and extensive training on how to use them.” Ohio Republican Senate candidate J.D. Vance, supported by Trump, said on Feb. 19: “I don’t really care what happens to Ukraine one way or another.”

According to Thomas Rid, a professor at Johns Hopkins University who studies Russian information warfare, “People are asking if the far right in the U.S. is influencing Russia or if Russia is influencing the far right, but the truth is they are influencing each other.”

Trump says he admires Putin’s control of the annoying media, holding onto power, and admits that winning as more important than good governing.

March 2022, Trump said during an interview, “This is genius…Putin declares [a large portion of Ukraine] as independent. Oh, that's wonderful!" Immediately after Putin’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, Trump said, “Putin’s taking over a country for two dollars' worth of sanctions." Trump told a crowd at Mar-a-Lago, "I'd say that's pretty smart. He's taking over a country -- really a vast, vast location, a great piece of land with a lot of people, and just walking right in."

In 2014, Trump praised Putin for occupying Crimea, a region of Ukraine.  He said that Putin did “an amazing job of taking the mantle.”

And then, Trump supported Putin’s campaign against Western Europe and the organizations structured to keep Europe safe from Russian aggression. Trump said NATO was "obsolete," and threatened to withdraw the United States from it. NATO is an organization designed after World War II to protect Europe from Russian aggression. 

Trump’s former national security adviser John Bolton in late February 2022, appeared on Newsmax and told the host that it was “not accurate to say that Trump’s behavior somehow deterred the Russians…I think one of the reasons that Putin did not move (to invade Ukraine) during Trump’s term in office was he saw the President’s hostility of NATO. Putin saw Trump doing a lot of his work for him, and thought, maybe in a second term, Trump would make good on his desire to get out of NATO, and then it would just ease Putin’s path just that much more.”

Former Trump White House chief of staff John Kelly said that stopping Trump from exiting NATO was one of his most difficult tasks as chief of staff.

In March 2022, Kevin Madden, a Republican strategist and former senior adviser of Mitt Romney's 2012 presidential campaign said, "There's just a lot of evidence that Trump was wrong on this issue [Ukraine] and that in many ways, we undermined the NATO alliance and we undermined Zelenskyy's position in the eyes of Russia and Putin."

Also, in June 2020, Trump approved plans to withdraw troops from Germany. The Pentagon opposed Trump’s plan to remove one-third of the American force in Germany because it would compromise Europe-based defenses against Russia. Even Republican lawmakers opposed the withdrawal.

Finally, Trump weakened American military and diplomatic support for Ukraine during his administration.

Trump opposed sanctions against Russia that were in response to Russia’s 2014 aggression against Ukraine in Crimea and Donbas. John Bolton said, “In almost every case, the sanctions (against Russia) were imposed with Trump complaining about it, saying we were being too hard.”

On top of that, Trump weakened Ukraine militarily by blackmailing Ukraine, refusing to provide promised arms unless Ukraine would gather evidence against Trump’s political opponents. When Ukrainian President Zelensky asked to purchase more Javelin anti-tank missiles, Trump responded by saying, “I would like you to do us a favor, though.” John Bolton said, “Every other senior national security advisor--Mike Pompeo, Mark Esper at Defense--all of us felt that we needed to bolster Ukraine’s security and were appalled at what Trump was doing.”

Putin and his Russian troops have invaded an innocent sovereign nation and committed war crimes and inhumane acts of brutality. American conservative broadcasters and politicians relieved Russia from blame and expressed indifference to the suffering of the Ukrainians.

Video taken near Kharkiv by an American volunteering with the Ukrainian military. This is the hellscape Putin continues to create. pic.twitter.com/1vCRRNRWG1

— David Corn (@DavidCornDC) April 23, 2022

This mass, forced deportation is approaching the scale of the mass, forced deportations of the Stalinist era https://t.co/9wmYaWO38K

— Anne Applebaum (@anneapplebaum) April 23, 2022