Weird clouds this morning – Photo: L. Weikel

Invasion

I’m having a hard time thinking about much of anything besides Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine. I realize this is in all of our faces (and rightly so), and it’s probably the last thing you want to think about when you wake up in the morning. But I’m having a hard time separating Ukrainians’ experiences from how I imagine we might respond in similar circumstances.

Of course, it’s hard to imagine precisely similar circumstances, since our geography protects us in many ways and renders our shared borders quite dissimilar from Ukraine’s. It would be much harder to surround us with troops the way Putin has surrounded Ukraine.

Nevertheless, what I find myself resonating in solidarity with are the everyday people who are willing to stand up and fight for their country. They are willing to literally defend their democracy with their lives.

On a visceral level, this feels eerily akin to how we’re told the first Americans reacted and behaved when the British arrived on our shores in order to dissuade us from following through on our Declaration of Independence. There’s a fascinating coincidence playing out in this regard, having to do with the United States’ ‘Pluto return.’ Perhaps I’ll write about that soon.

Mal-intentions

In the meantime, Putin’s mal-intentions are pretty clearly evident to anyone who cares to see through and beyond the fog of disinformation his propaganda machines belch out non-stop.

Luckily, it looks like many (hopefully most) Russians are not fooled by Putin’s efforts to gin up a war for his own self-aggrandizing purposes. They are resisting his oppressive threats (and actual efforts) to squelch the truth of their disapproval by arresting protesters gathering by the thousands in something like 54 Russian cities. It’s probably too early to tell, but it feels like more people remain cognizant of how World War II played out than Putin thought.

As a coda to the malevolent intentions of the head of Russia is this clip. It shows what purport to be cremation machines following behind the lines of Russian troops. It is suggested that this is to substantially reduce the number of body bags coming home Mother Russia, thereby circumventing the wrath of Russian mothers when they discover their children are dying for Putin’s ego-aggrandizement. Talk about a cynical propaganda effort.

Underestimation

I have a feeling Putin is underestimating the will of his people (and their willingness to have war declared and perpetrated in their name). But even worse for Putin is his underestimation of the will of the Ukrainian people. They know democracy. They’ve lived it. They’re not going back, and they’re sure as hell not going to roll over and allow Putin to snatch it from them, their children, and their future. Zelensky gave a rallying cry for defense of their nation to Ukrainians shortly before the invasion began.

He then turned his attention to the Russian people themselves.

Indeed, if you didn’t get a chance to listen to the speech Zelensky gave to the Russian people – in Russian – here is a link to the transcript of it. In my opinion, it was a brilliant and powerful move to attempt to reach the Russian people directly. (It’s unknown how many Russians managed to hear it, given their propagandized state-run television). Sadly, a mere three hours after giving this speech, Putin’s* attack began.

If you want to provide tangible help to the Ukrainians, here’s an article by Timothy Snyder (the professor and author of On Tyranny**, among other extremely salient books) outlining specific places where your donations can make the biggest difference.