Putin’s Rain of Terror
I’m writing this on March 24, 2022: the one-month anniversary of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
This is the city of Mariupol, which Russia badly damaged after cutting off electricity, water and heat on March 1. Pre-war population: 431,859. Do you see any military targets here? No, these are homes that many people still live in. Russia has even made it dangerous to leave. An official told NPR: ‘When the people organised in evacuation points, they [Russians] started attack on evacuation points. Not all the city. Just evacuation points.’
Officially, as of 9 days ago, 2,400 civilians had been killed, but this is said to be an underestimate and the actual number of murders may have been as high as 20,000… nine days ago. This is the effect of less than one month of Russian attack.
I have donated to the Red Cross in support of Ukraine, and also to AVD-Info and Meduza in order to help give Russians access to information — the Russian internet is heavily censored, and independent media are banned unless they are pro-Putin. For wxample, this Moscow newspaper says “NOTHING IS HAPPENING. Walk on by. A special operation is underway. No one is growing poor. The economy is growing.”
For more donation ideas, see here. Personally, I would like people to ask their government to offer large rewards to those who desert from the Russian military (plus large rewards for delivering Russian military hardware to Ukraine). The free world is already spending billions of dollars on military aid to Ukraine, but buying out soldiers is potentially cheaper than killing them, especially if you consider human life to have any value. For talented Russian professionals, rewards should be offered for leaving Russia. Bring a brain drain to Putinland.
Without electricity, reports from Mariupol have been limited, but certainly there is enough information to see that the situation is very bad.
Here you can see the famous Donetsk Academic Regional Drama Theatre, labeled “дети” (“children”) in huge letters, which held over 1,000 civilians. Russia bombed it anyway.
For more images and stories from Mariupol, see here.
Meanwhile, I hope you don’t live in an apartment in Borodyanka, near Kyiv…
Or in these other places…
I’ve been frustrated, closely following events unfold but unable to find a meaningful way to help beyond giving some donations. I hope people think more about helping Ukraine by helping Russians to stand up to Putin, whether it be by leaving Russia or something else. Helping the Ukrainian military is a fantastic thing and I’m all in favor, but let there be sticks and carrots both. Let’s ask our governments to offer Russians more than just exploding bombs.
More:
- UN vote to condemn the Russian invasion of Ukraine & demand withdrawal — just 5 votes against, all dictatorships
- Mariupol vids & pics published by Mstyslav Chernov. Short compilation.
- Horrifying results of missile strike in Chernihiv
- Translations of The FSB Letters (original publisher: Vladimir Osechkin)
- 2015 Frontline documentary “Putin’s Way” with summary & transcript
- Evidence: Russian troops in East Ukraine (Donbas) well before 2022
- Russian “news” outlet accidentally published victory editorial on Feb. 26
- Meduza: independent Russian news (censored in Russia, of course)
- Statement by Russian Prisoners of War (original vid)
- Civilian captures moment when his own vehicle comes under fire. The driver, his father, is killed.
- Ukrainians protesting confused occupiers + Putin’s approval rating bump
- BBC News Kharkiv, March 10: “This is what Russia does to cities. It bombards them. It besieges them. It surrounds them. It terrorizes entire populations. And if these tactics are unfamiliar to you, then you haven’t been paying attention.”
- Drone footage: houses burning & bombed in Irpin
- Military experts discuss the war on March 3; Michael Kofman describes how the war started as “absolutely confounding and bizarre”. This may have been why the Ukraine military did not expect an invasion.
- Clay Graubard predicted the war before it happened (as depicted below) and now retweets information about the war via @WarSignals.
