Day 19
Russia attacks across Ukraine continue, horrors of murders of civilians by Russian occupiers in Kyiv oblast, Russia reportedly asks China for military aid.
I took this photo in early February in a Kyiv art museum. Just a month ago, you would still go to a museum, as a form of entertainment, something nice to do. It was fairly crowded for a weekday afternoon. Today, I read, there are still 2 million people in Kyiv and the city has food supplies for two weeks. Two weeks.
And then what? Russia’s plan is encirclement of all major Ukrainian cities. Sumy is happening now. They seem to be making progress. Just look at the horror of Mariupol. We still don’t know what has really happened there. We have no idea how many people have died already of starvation or dehydration or cold. The pregnant woman who was photographed being carried out on a stretcher after the Mariupol maternity hospital was bombed this week has died. Her unborn baby also died.
Horror stories are emerging from towns and villages in the Kyiv region about Russian soldiers and Chechen fighters murdering civilians at random. This report matches exactly what the an elderly woman from Makariv told me yesterday at Vienna’s central train station.
More terrifying eyewitness reports here:
Russians are also blowing up bridges so that civilians cannot evacuate.
It was widely reported by Russian media yesterday that Kadyrov himself is now in Ukraine with his guys “only 7km from Kyiv”. I haven’t shared such reports because I am inclined to believe they are fake. It is true that some of Kadyrov’s top commanders are leading troops in Ukraine. It is true that Chechens are west of Kyiv. What I personally do not believe is that Kadyrov himself would take the risk of coming to Ukraine. I could be wrong, it’s just a hunch. The video was in a dark room and could have been staged anywhere. The commander he was speaking too spoke perfect Russian; I would expect a stronger accent. They are talking about “cleaning out an orphanage — unfortunately there were no kids left, we found only two nannies who were crying. We missed them by just a few hours.” They claim SBU took the kids to Kyiv. Here is the video I saw if you want to judge for yourself.
In other news, the FT reported last night “US officials say Russia has asked China for military help in Ukraine”. I found this quite surprising, not Russia’s desperation, but rather that China would stick its neck out to get to involved in a situation in which China is a long-term winner in any event. Russia’s self-destruction via this insane war is a long-term win for China.
I found this update to be rather telling this morning. Russia may be trying to drag China into this mess, but China isn’t having any of it:
The US and China are holding high-level talks in Italy today:
Meanwhile, in Moscow, the arrests continue, even standing with a blank piece of paper or a paper with the words “Two Words” on it gets you brutally arrested, and Instagram has been officially banned by Roskomnadzor.
There are eyewitness reports of wounded Russian soldiers already been treated in Moscow region hospitals. The Z fascism exploitation of kids madness continues.
Finally, listen carefully to the rumblings of Austria’s far right. I know a lot of people think my reactions to them are overblown, and from today’s vantage point, they might be right. But I truly worry about what happens when this catches fire. One of my readers pointed out, FPÖ and MFG together already have 27% support per this poll.
When Ukrainian refugees ask me at Hauptbahnhof in Vienna if they should stay in Austria or keep going to Germany, I don’t know what to tell them. I don’t give specific advice one way or another. I say, Austria usually has it’s heart in the right place but at the moment the collective official response is disorganized and inadequate. Austria is also not a NATO country. Germany is probably overwhelmed but will also probably manage to work through the kinks because that’s what Deutschland does well. I would never dare to tell people who have just fled war what to do next, but I try and and least paint a picture of what we know. I hear of chaos in Budapest, chaos in Berlin. I see TikToks of happy Ukrainians from Hannover and Leipzig.
TikTok remains an incredible source of information throughout this entire war. Last night I stumbled upon Ukrainian soldiers going live and answering questions. Faces covered with masks, but still. Refugees update about the situation on the ground in countries across Europe. Those left behind in cities like Kharkiv report on what food is actually still left in the stores. TikTok is not just for kids and should not be treated as such. It is also a powerful propaganda tool so usual caveats apply. I will try to make a thread later today with some highlights.
Thank you for reading and for your support. Many of you ask me how you can help. The short answer is I really don’t know. If you would like to support my work, my writing of this Substack, please DM me on Twitter. I can give you my PayPal. I don’t want to make my Substack a paid subscription product because I feel very, very strongly about keeping information free. I myself cannot afford a lot of media subscriptions and I use free resources and Twitter to gather news. I would never want to limit who can read this. But it has turned into a sort of unpaid full time job and I haven’t figured out how to monetize any of this yet. It doesn’t feel like the time or place for that, frankly.
If you would like to contribute towards me buying coffees, sandwiches, SIM cards, baby formula, medicines, dog carriers…solving immediate needs at Wien Hauptbahnhof for Ukrainian refugees, I’ll be back there from Wednesday and you can DM me about that too. There are limits to what I as one person can spend each day (the coffee shops can only brew so many coffees at a time!), so I have hesitated to raise more funds than I could spend over the next few days. I’ll be back in action on Wednesday and if you would like to support this, please reach out.
I don’t want to massively broadcast this because the last thing I want is for us volunteers to be told to leave the station and leave it all up to the professionals because frankly you don’t need me to explain it to you all what that would mean. I have been blown away in a positive sense by the grassroots efforts by Ukrainian and Russian speakers both here in Vienna and all across Europe.
If you would like to donate to an official organization, I can recommend Train of Hope. They are running the 24/7 welcome center which is the first point of contact for refugees who want to stay in Austria, located not far from Stadion u-bahn. Train of Hope did great work back in 2015 when I was volunteering and bringing food and other donations.
I will also let you know as soon as I have a payment link for the small group of Russian-speaking women renting apartments near Budapest’s main train station where they are housing women and children overnight as they make their journeys from Ukraine to other destinations in Europe. One is based in Budapest, one is in America, together they are making this work via Airbnb and other solutions. It is a micro-organization but I know them personally and they are doing the work of angels, housing dozens of mothers and children overnight in Hungary.
Sadly, the number of elderly, women, children and pets on the move from Ukraine to Europe is only going to increase as the days and weeks of this sickening war roll on.
Thank you.
Thank you, Tanja for the valuable overview of the current situation and your personal assessment.
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