A Struggle against Terror, Cont.

It is right to know about individuals and not merely masses. Charlotte Higgins, the chief culture writer of the Guardian, has written about Volodymyr Vakulenko and his murder by Russian forces. Vakulenko was a writer. To read about him and his family, and what happened to them, is instructive. For this article, go here.

• In recent days, Russia has bombarded Odessa. This is a bulletin from the chief foreign-affairs correspondent of the Wall Street Journal:

Russian forces struck the cathedral, too:

I keep hearing that Vladimir Putin is a great defender of “Christian civilization.”

Did Ukrainians destroy their own city? Here, again, is Trofimov:

Here is something to make one say, “Viva l’Italia”:

• An article in the Washington Post, on one aspect of the evil of Russia’s war: “Ukraine is now the most mined country. It will take decades to make safe.”

• What is it like to go to school in Ukraine? Here is a message from Tymofiy Mylovanov, the president of the Kyiv School of Economics (who earned his Ph.D. at the University of Wisconsin and who is even now an associate professor at the University of Pittsburgh):

• Here is a message from Senator J. D. Vance, Republican of Ohio:

In an earlier era, some people on the left said that the United States was prosecuting the Vietnam War for the benefit of Dow Chemical. Now we hear similar claims from the other side: Biden is “taking orders from the military industrial complex”; “The profit motives of the defense contractors are motivating our posture in Ukraine.”

Note another line from Vance as well: “We need to stop supporting the Ukraine war effort.” By “the Ukraine war effort,” the senator means the struggle of people to fend off invaders who are murdering, raping, and deporting them en masse, and who are seeking to re-subjugate them.

Russia is the aggressor, not Ukraine. That elementary fact — like other such facts — needs regular emphasis.

Here is another Republican senator, Mike Lee of Utah:

Senator Lee adds, “Brought to you by the Military Industrial Complex™.” (The trademark symbol is an interesting touch.)

In 2014, I wrote an essay that readers may find of interest: “Ike as Weapon: The use and abuse of Eisenhower’s Farewell Address, with its warning about the ‘military-industrial complex.’” Go here.

As you may have observed, Senator Lee tweets as “BasedMikeLee.” What does “based” mean? For an explanation from Dictionary.com, go here.

• Governor Ron DeSantis, running for president, said, “I wish the D.C. elites cared as much about our border as they do about the Ukraine–Russia border.” Is that really his understanding of the Ukraine war? Some border dispute? Or is he serving up “boob bait”?

• About the war, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said this: “The objective was to erase Ukraine from the map, to eliminate its independence, its sovereignty, to subsume it into Russia.” He added, “That failed a long time ago.” He went on to say, “Unlike the Russians, Ukrainians are fighting for their land, for their future, for their country, for their freedom.”

• Here is an interesting development: “UK’s MI6 boss says Putin under pressure, invites Russians to spy for Britain.” For that article, from Reuters, go here.

• An interesting statement from the president of Chile:

• Bret Stephens has penned a column called “What I Learned in Ukraine.” He writes,

NATO countries are paying for their long-term security in money, which is cheap, and munitions, which are replaceable. Ukrainians are counting their costs in lives and limbs lost.

Also,

. . . the Polish people remained, in Ronald Reagan’s apt words, “magnificently unreconciled to oppression.”

Today, it is Poland’s neighbors in Ukraine who are magnificently unreconciled to invasion.

• Evgeny Kissin is a Soviet-born pianist who is a citizen of both the United Kingdom and Israel. He is one of the most famous musicians in the world. He came to our attention in 1984, when he was twelve — playing the Chopin concertos in a red Young Pioneers scarf. He grew into a noble human being.

“In June 2021,” he writes, “I performed in Odessa, and my visit there became one of the greatest impressions in my life.” Daily, he sends money to Ukraine. He urges the saving of Odessa and the entire country. Some years ago, he funded the English translation of Vladimir Bukovsky’s book Judgment in Moscow. Not your average musician, Kissin, and not your average person.