Into the dark
Poland, missile attacks across Ukraine, liberated Kherson, Russia's economy, brief chocolate update.
I meant to write this morning and then this afternoon and then before dinner and now finally sitting down at 8:39pm and the news has just broken that two people have died in Poland as a result of a Russian missile landing in Polish territory. Poland’s national security council is meeting behind closed doors. I hesitate to link to any news as everything is happening so quickly, but this seems important from on-the-ground reporting near the Poland-Ukraine border:
Just as the liberation of Kherson was a huge turning point in this war, so is a Russian weapon landing in NATO territory. Just 700 kilometres from us, a Viennese journalist reminds us:
So here we are. Holding our collective breath and waiting.
Clearly, the murderers in the Kremlin, who today unleashed a storm of missiles on targets across Ukraine, battering electricity infrastructure and hitting residential apartment buildings (interestingly timed for just after Lavrov left Bali following his brief G20 appearance — honestly don’t think anyone remembers the heart trouble that never happened, only his Basquiat t-shirt in Ukrainian colors), still do not get it. The difference between Russia, waging a genocidal war, alone, unprompted, killing civilians and hitting civilian targets in Ukraine indiscriminately, for nine months straight, and a defensive alliance, with actual articles and rules and stuff, responsible for maintaining collective security and peace in Europe. It isn’t 1999 anymore and that is what Putin still does not understand. The world moved on. He is the only one living in the past. He and the other handful of dictators in isolation.
The missile strikes (over 100) came in broad daylight and hit cities across the country.
Let’s also not forget that the heads of the CIA and the Russian equivalent met in Turkey only yesterday.
And then today, Russia pounds Ukraine from the skies.
Kherson is free, but the fighting in the east remains fierce. Read this harrowing BBC report about medics on the front lines in Donbas. Remember when you don’t hear a lot of news, it means the fighting is very intense. Ukraine does a pretty incredible job of keeping radio silence on live military operations.
This is a very interesting, detailed reporting about the behind the scenes dynamics the role of various U.S. actors/advocates/advisors for lack of better words.
Russia’s economy is doing really quite terribly as a result of this war, and the economic pain is only due to increase, as economic sanctions are like a marathon, not a sprint. The pain increases with time and distance. This is an excellent long read: Russia’s Road to Economic Ruin. I know with the war still raging it is too early to think about a future Russia, and what rebuilding her will look like. Nor should it be anyone’s priority. Ukraine has to literally rebuild itself first. But it is important to remember that what is destroyed quickly takes much, much longer to rebuild. You think of all the progress made during the 1990s and 2000s and one crazy old man who read too many nationalistic semi-fake news history books destroys decades of economic progress and the hopes of several generations just like that. And I’m not even mentioning the horrific losses of life and casualties. For what? For nothing.
Returning to Ukraine, because no matter what happens in Russia, none of it is even remotely comparable to what Ukraine is experiencing right now, take a moment to watch this video from a central Kyiv subway station this evening. A station I last walked through in early February. And yet, in this video, you see calm, stoicism, resistance, unity. It is truly remarkable. It also tells you everything you need to know about how this war ends and who emerges victorious.
Because there cannot be any other way. There cannot. It is that really simple. Like a law of physics or something. A bully, aggressor with no allies launches a unilateral campaign of violence against a smaller neighbour who was just minding his own business but has powerful allies and the eyes of the world watching and moral clarity and a crystal clear understanding of what is right and just and worth fighting for, and the other side has killers-for-hire and recruits mobilised without even so much as a proper winter jacket. The end is clear. It’s the getting there that’s murky. But I think it feels like it is getting clearer, particularly after the very symbolic victory of taking back Kherson, which Russia captured something like only three days into the war back in February.
Switching gears. I continue to distribute supermarket gift cards. Today 14 in total. Met 4 of those families in person, two of whom were teenage boys. That hit like a gut punch, having my own teens at home.
Vienna opened a new arrival center for Ukrainian refugees. I am told it will sleep 1000, on cots. Showers outside in containers. On the grounds of a former university. Near a subway. With room to expand. Sounds like someone is planning in the event of a sudden surge of arrivals. But few details have been made public. It will be run by the Red Cross. I personally wouldn’t expect a lot of transparency in practice. Just a hunch. Train of Hope is still open, but not for new arrivals. They continue to offer a free hot meal and humanitarian aid on site to those refugees already living in Austria. They have future plans, to offer more in the way of a community center. Very much needed. We need more resources where refugees can go to ask questions. There are so many questions. And unfortunately, a lot of the time my own answer is “I don’t know.”
Starting to feel a lot like Christmas in my living room! We keep adding addresses and estimate we will deliver little Christmas treats and chocolates to nearly 1000 Ukrainian kids living in group housing across Austria in December! It will be a huge collaboration between Austrians who read me here and on Twitter, and Russian-speaking moms from a local mommy Facebook group. We’ve got a huge Google Sheet and several side chats. I will put my little elves (three kids) to work this weekend packing up the gift bags once all the chocolates arrive. We are still waiting on a ridiculous number of large chocolate Santas to arrive! Hundreds! Each time the doorbell rings I wonder how many boxes will arrive this time…huge thanks to Christopher James for his unbelievable generosity in lighting up the holiday season for so many Ukrainian kids big and small.
Thanks for reading and for your patience. I try to write every few days but my head has been off with the fairies as of late. Which is I guess, understandable, all things considered.