🪖 Russia's Full-Scale Invasion of Ukraine
Here's what you need to know for today in 5:21 minutes
Today’s Big Story
“Wars in Europe rarely start on a Wednesday,” Vladimir Chizhov, Russia’s ambassador to the European Union, said last week. But the invasion and attack that Russia promised would not happen has been unfolding rapidly all across Ukraine since 10 PM EST this Wednesday. Explosions thundered in the dim light before dawn on Thursday, minutes after President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia declared the start of a “special military operation” to “demilitarize” Ukraine but not occupy the country. The Ukrainian government is asking civilians to stay calm and appealing to the international community to stop Putin immediately.
📯 What’s Going On?
24th February 2022 is widely being termed the darkest day since World War II. The most significant European war in almost 80 years has begun.
Since 2014, there has been an ongoing war at the Ukrainian-Russian border. Putin successfully annexed Crimea that same year and has been taking little bites out of Ukraine ever since. He noticed his political influence waning as Ukraine continued to grow friendlier towards Western democracies and is essentially now looking to take the country by brute force.
Russia is profoundly threatened that Ukraine under the new leadership of President Volodymyr Zelensky is moving towards the West, strengthening its democracy. So, casting itself as a victim of NATO, Russia under Putin’s leadership has chosen to declare a de facto war on Ukraine.
Hours before the attacks began, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky made a dramatic televised plea to the people of Russia, saying he wanted to speak to them directly after Mr. Putin rejected his phone call. “Listen to the voice of reason,” Mr. Zelensky said. “The Ukrainian people want peace.”
It was an impassioned bid to save his country and although thousands of Russians took to the streets to protest Putin’s assault on Ukraine, it did not work.
🔍 What Does this Mean?
Many on the left believe that there is no justification for Russia's brazen invasion into Ukraine, hold Russian President Vladimir Putin responsible for the aggression, arguing that this war is caused by his xenophobic, imperial and misguided notion that Ukraine was inherently a part of Russia and its independence was a historical fluke.
Many on the right describe the invasion as a "special military operation" rather than a war, believe that Ukraine was dragged into a dangerous geopolitical game aimed at turning Ukraine into a barrier between Europe and Russia, eventually a springboard by the West against Russia. They reject calling Russia’s moves on Ukraine an “invasion” but urge all sides to exercise restraint.
"As the cause of all of this, Vladimir Putin is giving a master class in dangerous and destructive leadership and making it all the more important that President Biden and other nations stand resolutely together in the face of threats, feints and misinformation and remain disciplined and energized in confronting Mr. Putin...The magnitude of the Russian gambit is staggering. Whatever Mr. Putin’s ideas on how Ukraine should relate to Russia, whatever his grievances over Western encroachment on what he perceives as Russia’s sphere of influence, whatever his views on Russia’s place in Europe and the world, an unprovoked invasion of a sovereign European state is an unprovoked declaration of war on a scale, on a continent and in a century when it was thought to be no longer possible." - The New York Times
“For all his references to history and Nazism, Putin is now doing exactly what the Nazis did so brutally so many years ago: shredding the peace of Europe in the pursuit of territorial imperialism and nationalist bigotry. This challenge to the post-WWII international order must be met with the full diplomatic and economic force that can be mustered. Ukraine must be enabled with the fullest range of targeting intelligence and lethal means of defense. And in the very worst-case scenario, should Putin extend war to NATO, the U.S. and its allies must defeat the Russian Federation.” Tom Rogan, Washington Examiner
“What’s happening now is more comparable to the Soviet Union’s 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia, to keep its leader, Alexander Dubcek, from pursuing what he called ‘socialism with a human face’ and reaching out to the nations of Western Europe for support. The Soviets sent in five tank divisions—250,000 troops—to sack Dubcek, install a loyalist, and oppress the population, destroying the roots and branches of the pro-democracy movement called the ‘Prague Spring.’… Putin intends to bring Ukraine back in Moscow’s orbit with similarly brusque methods.”- Fred Kaplan, Slate
"In a long strategy document, Moscow and Beijing hit out at what they said was Washington’s destabilising role in global security. “The parties oppose the further expansion of NATO and call on the North Atlantic Alliance to abandon the ideological approaches of the Cold War era,” the document said, urging respect for the “sovereignty, security and interests of other countries.” - Al Jazeera
💭 Why Should I Care?
David vs. Goliath
On Monday night, Putin appeared on prime time television and addressing the Russian people, delivered a pretty emotional and unusual speech to explain his logic behind the planned invasion. At the outset, he talked about how Lenin and Stalin basically created present day Ukraine by giving it all this land that he argues is really, truly “Russian.” He says these actions of previous Soviet leaders centuries ago separated “Russian people” from each other. Through this war, he sees himself as righting a historical wrong - something that goes back over a century.
He then starts talks about “decommunization” which is a process that Ukraine started going through in 2014 and involved things like tearing down all the Lenin statues, changing names of cities named after Soviet figures etc. Putin calls Ukrainians out for being ungrateful and then he delivers this line looking straight into the camera – “you want decommunization, well we are quite happy with that but don’t stop halfway, we’re ready to show you what that would mean.” Although some of it may be lost in translation, it was a clear and direct threat to attack Ukraine.
Overall, he made a flawed but comprehensive argument about why Ukraine is a fundamental threat to Russia and did not leave any room for diplomacy or negotiation.
Although US President Biden and many countries around the world have condemned the Russian attacks, committed to impose harsher sanctions on Russia that are meant to punish and hurt its economy, it appears President Putin may have already factored in the cost of sanctions and it does not look like these measures will deter him. Russia controls vast global resources — natural gas, oil, wheat, palladium and nickel in particular — so the conflict could have far-reaching consequences for everyone, prompting spikes in energy and food prices and spooking investors. Global banks are also bracing for the effects of sanctions.
Have questions or comments about today’s newsletter?
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And in case you’re interested to learn more…
This 7-minute NYT article on Ukrainian President’s Volodymyr Zelensky’s gravitas, discussing how he has been acting exactly how a president should act in the wartime regime as Russian forces invaded the country
Also listen to these audio dispatches from NYTimes correspondents on the ground in Ukraine, before and during the Russian invasion
✨ Below the Fold
13 years ago, sand artist Kseniya Simonova appeared on Ukraine’s Got Talent and although I didn’t know then what it meant for something to go viral, I remember distinctly how this 8-minute video clip was all over my Facebook timeline. Her heart-wrenching tale of a country under siege, told through the eyes of a young couple, didn’t leave a dry eye in the audience. The video has been watched over 39 million times on YouTube.
Millions of Ukrainian lives were lost between 1939-1945 as Axis armies occupied the country during World War II. The Ukrainian Insurgent Army fought for Ukrainian independence from both, Germany and the Soviet Union.
In many ways, yesterday’s invasion by Russia echoes these historic events, especially the Nazi invasion of Poland in 1939.
Writing for the National Review, Mark Antonio says, pray for all the young men at the front — young men who will soon face the fury of modern mechanized combat, young men with families and loved ones at home, young men who only wish to defend their country, and, if possible, make it home alive. And pray for all the civilians who will, over the next days and weeks, get caught in the cross fire. To the Kremlin, they are not people or even names or numbers. Shame on us if we treat them that way.
💌What are you talking about, reading, watching, cooking, listening to lately? Let me know. I’ll read every letter sent and maybe even write a below the fold post about it.
“Behind every exquisite thing that existed, there was something tragic.”
– Oscar Wilde (Irish poet and playwright)
