Melinda Haring

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A man carrying bottles with water in Avdiivka, Ukraine, November 2022. Oleksandr Ratushniak / Reuters

Since mid-October, Russia has repeatedly targeted civilian infrastructure across Ukraine, taking out the vital organs of the Ukrainian economy. The man newly in charge of Russian forces in Ukraine—General Sergei Surovikin, so ruthless that even his colleagues call him “General Armageddon”—has shown no signs of relenting. Russia has successfully attacked 40 percent of Ukraine’s power grids with a combination of missiles and Iranian drones. It has bombed energy facilities, including hydroelectric dams, leaving more than one million Ukrainians without electricity. In Kyiv, 80 percent of residents are without water, according to the city’s mayor. Economists project that Kyiv’s economy will shrink by at least 35 percent in 2022, and the United Nations estimates that nine of ten Ukrainians could be impoverished by Christmas.…  Seguir leyendo »

The city of Mariupol, Ukraine, is seen on Sept. 15. Stringer/AFP via Getty Images

In a fresh violation of international law, Russian President Vladimir Putin, announced the annexation of Ukrainian territory on Friday, complete with a celebration in Moscow and a rambling speech. Putin is seeking to bludgeon Ukraine and the West into submission not only because he is desperate to vindicate his grandiose plan for conquering Ukraine but also to avoid any accounting for the war crimes that he and his henchmen have already committed.

But Ukrainians have managed to outwit Putin, and they serve as witnesses to his heinous crimes. Take the dramatic flight of Orthodox Ukrainian priest Pavel Kostel. A clever village elder and a country backroad unknown to the Russian invaders spared his life in March.…  Seguir leyendo »

Walking near damaged buildings in Mariupol, Ukraine, April 2022. Alexander Ermochenko / Reuters

The final outcome of the war in Ukraine is impossible to know, but one result that now seems out of the question is a total Russian victory. The Ukrainian government will not be toppled. Although it might lose control of some of its territory for a time (or even permanently), Ukraine will continue to exist as a sovereign state. Ukrainians are proving remarkably resilient. But merely persisting as a country is not enough; what Ukraine needs is not just survival but revival. As Stanford University’s Larry Diamond has suggested, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine could inadvertently “launch a new wave of democratic progress”.…  Seguir leyendo »