Category Archives: Ukraine

After two years of political divisions and economic disruptions bolstered by an unending pandemic, many Americans say they are coming together around a common cause: support for Ukraine, a country under daily siege by Russian forces.

The rare moment of solidarity is driven, in part, by the perception of America as a steadfast global defender of freedom and democracy. Many Americans say they see a lopsided fight pitting a great power against a weaker neighbor. They see relentless images of dead families and collapsed cities. They see Ukraines president pleading for help.

In polls and interviews since the attack, Americans across the political spectrum said the nation had a duty to respond to President Vladimir V. Putins brazen invasion even if that means feeling, at least in the short term, the pinch of high gas prices and inflation.

I understand we want to stay out of it, but whats happening is worse than anyone could imagine. We can do without gas when there are children there being killed, said Danna Bone, a 65-year-old retiree in McMinnville, Ore., and a Republican. Its horrific whats happening there, and we need to be doing our part. I would like to see them doing more. What that looks like, I really dont know.

Yet interviews with more than three dozen Americans from Georgia to California show that, beyond broad consensus that Ukraine deserves support, they are unsettled and even divided on essential questions: How far should America go to defend Ukraine without thrusting the nation into another Cold War? Does the war demand U.S. military involvement?

The Biden administration has imposed an array of painful economic sanctions on Russia and blocked its oil, gas and coal imports. The administration has already approved $1.2 billion in aid to Ukraine, and President Biden is expected to announce another $800 million in military assistance. Three weeks into the invasion, most Americans in both political parties support U.S. aid to Ukraine and overwhelmingly support economic sanctions, a new Pew Research Center survey found.

Already, the issue of Americas role in Ukraine is scrambling U.S. politics and reinvigorating the bond between the United States and its European allies.

About a third of Americans said the United States was providing the appropriate amount of support to Ukraine, but an even larger share, 42 percent, is in favor of the country doing even more, the Pew survey showed. The same poll found, however, that about two-thirds of Americans do not support military intervention.

In pockets across the country, how people saw Americas global might and obligations was often influenced by their individual circumstances and economic stability. They often drew a line, if a crooked one, between the war and the crises at home. Conversations about Russian strikes and shellshocked refugees fleeing Ukraine quickly gave way to discussion about the personal cost of gas and food, a sputtering economy and the enduring pain of the pandemic, the kind of grievances that might temper support for Ukraine over time.

North of Detroit, where Macomb and Oakland Counties sit side by side but have been moving in opposite political directions in recent years Macomb to the right, Oakland to the left liberals and conservatives are united in a belief that what is happening in Ukraine is wrong and that the United States could be doing more. But they offered divergent opinions on the causes of the war or whether Mr. Biden has been adept at handling the foreign policy crisis.

I call it Russias unfinished business, Roland Benberry Jr., 61, an artist and illustrator, said of the invasion. Mr. Benberry served in the Air Force in the early 1980s when Russia was considered an imminent threat. Thirty years later, he is experiencing those feelings again. We thought we were done with that, he said. We thought the Soviet Union was gone, and it basically just went underground for a while.

Mr. Benberry, a Democrat who lives in Oakland County, believes that sanctions could be the most powerful and effective tool against Russia, and that the U.S. military should only get involved directly if the Ukrainian military is forced to fall back. He saw Mr. Putin as a lone demagogue acting on his own, against the will of many of his own citizens.

Like Mr. Benberry, Natasha Jenkins, 34, a Democrat and a liberal arts student at a community college in Oakland County, said she was willing to tolerate higher gas prices to punish Mr. Putin. But she said she wished Mr. Biden would also push for higher wages so that people could have an easier time making ends meet. She sees firsthand the impact of Americas economic strains in the grocery store, where she works the night shift as a cashier. Parents complain to her about the expensive prices of produce or the burdens of teaching their children at home amid the pandemic. Some supplies shortages linger, and she cannot keep all the shelves stocked.

Ms. Jenkins said she was reluctant to see direct U.S. military involvement in Ukraine. She has several close friends still scarred from Americas wars in the Middle East, she said, and she does not want to see more American soldiers deployed to fight abroad.

Indeed, for many Americans, the support for Ukraine firmly ends at the doorstep of military intervention. History plays a role. The long-running war and pullout from Afghanistan, along with memories of the first Cold War, has dampened the tolerance for a direct confrontation with Russia.

On a suburban street in Macomb County, Kathleen Pate, 75, has helped to organize donated clothing and medication to be sent to Ukraine. Her son and her daughter-in-law, who is from Ukraine, converted their garage into a makeshift donation hub.

The support is overwhelming, said Ms. Pate, a Republican who has spent her recent days worrying about Ukrainian families. I cant sleep at night. I cant get it out of mind.

She said she supported establishing a no-fly zone over Ukraine and had been unhappy with the U.S. response so far. I truly believe that it could be doing more to help, she said. It is the humane thing to do.

An Economist/YouGov survey conducted in early March showed that a majority of Americans, about 73 percent, sympathized more with Ukraine than Russia. The poll also showed that 68 percent approved of imposing economic sanctions, and slightly less approved of sending financial aid or weapons. But only 20 percent favored sending American troops to fight Russians in Ukraine.

Alejandro Tenorio, 24, said sanctions ought to be the primary tool to force Mr. Putin to back down, and maybe motivate the Russian people to act.

I think these political sanctions should continue. Let the people from Russia take matters into their own hands to maybe try to change the government and change their ways, said Mr. Tenorio, a tech support specialist for a data company who described himself as a left-leaning moderate.

The Biden administration, said Mr. Tenorio, who lives in Johns Creek, Ga., could be a bit more aggressive, with more things to hurt their economy.

I think that should be about it, he said. I think Biden is doing as much as he can, or as much as hes allowed to do.

Others believe that American troops on the ground are a dangerous but necessary response.

Dan Cunha is a 74-year-old Vietnam veteran and retired small business owner who lives in Anaheim, Calif. He describes himself as a political independent, and wrote in John Kasich, the Republican former governor of Ohio, in the 2020 election.

It breaks my heart to see what is happening there now, to see an autocrat rise to power, and were not doing anything to stop it, he said. He is nationalist in the extreme. If it were up to me, I would put troops there. Putin is a bully, and bullies need to be slapped back.

Mr. Cunha regularly spends time at the local V.F.W. outpost, where most of his friends are what he describes as die-hard Republicans, and said that many argue that the conflict would not have happened at all if Donald J. Trump were still president.

The majority of the veterans I talk to say the same thing as I do boots on the ground, he said.

While supportive of Ukraines plight, some Middle Eastern refugees and immigrants outside of Detroit said this conflict felt different from those in Afghanistan and Iraq, because the world is paying attention to the suffering of white European families in a way they felt that it had not with their own.

I grew up watching my country get torn apart, said Maria, a Syrian college student who asked that her full name not be used for fear of endangering her family still in the country. She emphasized that she felt and understood Ukrainians pain, and that she herself had been stunned to see Europeans go to war. But she said she hoped that Americans would realize that this is what life had been like for people in Syria and other Middle Eastern countries for decades.

The war feels personal for Maryana and Radion Vacarciuc, a young Ukrainian couple who have been living in the United States with their children for the last three years but still have relatives in Ukraine.

They are pained by the predicament of their homeland and family members and recall the last conflict in 2014 but said they recognize the limitations of the U.S. government.

America is its own country, Mr. Vacarciuc said. Ukraine, Russia, theyre fighting their own battles.

Continue reading here:

Russias Ukraine Invasion Rallies a Divided Nation: The United States - The New York Times

Eleven Ukrainian political parties have been suspended because of their links with Russia, according to the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

The countrys national security and defence council took the decision to ban the parties from any political activity. Most of the parties affected were small, but one of them, the Opposition Platform for Life, has 44 seats in the 450-seat Ukrainian parliament.

The activities of those politicians aimed at division or collusion will not succeed, but will receive a harsh response, Zelenskiy said, in a video address on Sunday.

Therefore, the national security and defence council decided, given the full-scale war unleashed by Russia, and the political ties that a number of political structures have with this state, to suspend any activity of a number of political parties for the period of martial law, the Ukrainian leader added.

The Opposition Platform for Life, Ukraines biggest opposition party, is led by Viktor Medvedchuk, a pro-Moscow oligarch with close ties to the Russian president, Vladimir Putin. Party officials later said the suspension had no legal basis.

The Ukrainian authorities last year charged Medvedchuk, a longtime ally of Putin who is believed to be the godfather of Medvedchuks daughter, with treason and placed the oligarch under house arrest, a move that angered the Kremlin.

Ukraine said Medvedchuk escaped house arrest three days after Russia started its invasion of Ukraine on 24 February and his whereabouts are currently unknown.

The list of parties banned on Sunday also included the Nashi (Ours) party led by Yevhen Murayev, as well as a number of smaller parties not represented in the parliament. Prior to the start of the war, unspecified British intelligence claimed that Russia was considering installing Murayev to lead a Kremlin-controlled puppet government in Kyiv, claims that Murayev strongly denied.

Ukraines decision to suspend a number of parties was slammed by senior Russian officials on Sunday, with the chair of the Duma, Vyacheslav Volodin, saying it was another mistake made by Zelenskiy that will divide the country, while ex-president and top security official Dmitry Medvedev sarcastically wrote that the move would bring Ukraine closer to the west.

The most democratic president of modern Ukraine has taken another step towards the western ideals of democracy. By decision of the Council for National Defence and Security, he completely banned any activity of opposition parties in Ukraine. They are not needed! Well done! Keep it up, Medvedev wrote on his Telegram channel.

The political move comes as Zelenskiy aims to further assert his influence over the countrys media sphere. On Sunday, the Ukrainian leader signed a decree that aims to unite all national TV channels into one platform, citing the importance of a unified information policy under martial law.

Originally posted here:

Ukraine suspends 11 political parties with links to Russia - The Guardian

Tanya Kobzar stands in front of the Taras Shevchenko Monument in Lviv. When Ukraine went to war last month, Kobzar a 49-year-old mother of two decided to follow in her grandmother's footsteps and enlist in the army. Ryan Kellman/NPR hide caption

Tanya Kobzar stands in front of the Taras Shevchenko Monument in Lviv. When Ukraine went to war last month, Kobzar a 49-year-old mother of two decided to follow in her grandmother's footsteps and enlist in the army.

LVIV, Ukraine In the lead-up to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Tanya Kobzar was having nightmares.

"I was waking up in the middle of the night, terrified. I would look at a black-and-white photo of my grandmother, which I have framed on a table," she recalls. "She reminds me of how brave a person can be."

Kobzar's late grandmother was an army medic in World War II. It's become part of the family lore how brave she was, treating soldiers on the front lines. So when Ukraine went to war again last month, Kobzar a 49-year-old mother of two decided to follow in her grandmother's footsteps. She left her office job in health care supply chains and enlisted in the army.

Tanya Kobzar's late grandmother was an army medic in World War II. It's become part of the family lore how brave she was, treating soldiers on the front lines. Tanya Kobzar hide caption

"I did this for my children and for my country," says Kobzar, who's using her military nickname in this NPR interview, rather than her full surname, for security reasons.

Her first stop was boot camp, where she learned how to fire a weapon. She found it surprisingly easy. "Easier than making borscht!" she says and laughs.

Now Kobzar is deployed at a military academy in the western city of Lviv, where she's teaching soldiers how to set up field hospitals. It's a training role. But many other Ukrainian women are on the front lines.

Under martial law, Ukrainian men aged 18 to 60 are prohibited from leaving the country, and encouraged to fight. Women are under no such mandate. Still, many of them have nevertheless taken up arms against the Russians in this war, and in past ones.

Ukrainian women have actually been serving in combat almost a century longer than American women. There were female Ukrainian officers in World War I, in the Austro-Hungarian army, and in World War II, in the Red Army.

"The Bolsheviks and the Communist parties, they declared equality between men and women in all the spheres, including the military," says feminist historian Oksana Kis.

Despite that history though, it wasn't until after Russia's 2014 invasion of eastern Ukraine that women enlisted here in the Ukrainian armed forces in huge numbers and were officially recognized as combat veterans, with full military pensions. Before conscription, nearly a quarter of Ukraine's military was female.

Some of the iconic images of the current war on propaganda posters and on social media are of female combatants. They're reminiscent of those of the women who fought in the Spanish civil war in the 1930s, of female Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka in the early 2000s and of Kurdish women fighting in Syria.

"It's very familiar iconography, when it comes to imagining a nation protecting herself fighting for her independence and freedom," Kis says.

Alina Mykhailova, 27, is a veteran of the 2014 war in eastern Ukraine who now serves on the Kyiv City Council. Earlier this year, she re-enlisted in the army and says she's seeing heavy combat. Alina Mykhailova hide caption

Alina Mykhailova, 27, is a veteran of the 2014 war in eastern Ukraine who now serves on the Kyiv City Council. Earlier this year, she re-enlisted in the army and says she's seeing heavy combat.

That's what Alina Mykhailova was doing when NPR reached her by phone on the front lines, somewhere in central Ukraine. She couldn't reveal her exact location. But her commander had given her permission to speak to the media and to post images of the war on social media. She'd recently posted a video on Instagram of incoming artillery.

Mykhailova, 27, is a veteran of the 2014 war in eastern Ukraine who now serves on the Kyiv City Council. Earlier this year, she re-enlisted in the army. And she says she's seeing heavy combat.

"We just burned a Russian tank. Actually, not just one! We wiped out their entire position!" she tells NPR. "Their tanks took a direct hit from our shells."

Her mother is especially worried: Mykhailova and her father are both in the same combat unit.

"I am the only woman in our unit, and it's difficult. Some of the soldiers we've lost are my friends my brothers-in-arms," Mykhailova says. "But as a woman, I'm cautious about showing too much emotion. I don't want to hurt the morale of our unit the combat spirit of the guys."

The combat spirit in Ukraine right now appears to be pretty robust. Only men face conscription. But lots of them haven't even been called up yet, because the military has already been inundated with volunteers of all genders.

"They said, 'OK, you will be in a line. But now we have too many people,' " says Olga Limarenko, about her experience trying to volunteer at her local branch of Ukraine's territorial defense force in Kyiv.

She and her girlfriends went together, but were turned away. Officials said they didn't need anyone else at the moment. So Limarenko, a 36-year-old architect who has since relocated to Lviv, decided to contribute another way: by making Molotov cocktails to deliver to Ukrainian cities under Russian occupation.

"During the last week, we made about 1,000 of them," she says.

NPR met Limarenko at a library in Lviv that had been transformed into a bustling command center for volunteers mostly women making Molotov cocktails and camouflage nets. She says she'd fight in combat if asked. But for now, she says, make no mistake about the commitment of Ukrainian women to this war.

"We are not weak. We are just waiting," Limarenko says.

Waiting for a spot to open in Ukraine's military, she says so that they can fight.

Producer Olena Lysenko also contributed to this report.

See original here:

Ukrainian women are volunteering to fight, continuing a tradition - NPR

The relentless violence in Ukraine could not be further from Danica Joysdottir's rural hometown of Kendenup in WA's Great Southern region.

While she had no family connection to Ukraine, Ms Joysdottir decided she could not just watch the war unfold from afar.

So, sheflew to Ukraine, ignoring the federal government's warning not to travel to the country.

Leaving her concerned partner and a four-year-old son at home, Ms Joysdottir said she would not have been able to live with herself if she did not act.

Through the Ukraine embassy, Ms Joysdottir has signed up to the so-called foreign legion the result of a call to arms from Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

"All friends of Ukraine who want to join the defence, come and we will give you arms," Mr Zelenskyy said last month.

Ms Joysdottir's partner described her journey as "stupid and selfish" and she agreed.

"He's absolutely right," she said.

"It's obviously stupid to take yourself into a war zone and selfish because I'm walking away from my life to follow my heart."

She said knowing her son was safe butUkrainian children were in danger helped formher decision.

"What if we were the ones getting bombed? I would want someone to come and help," she said.

Ms Joysdottir hoped to be assignedas a medic in the war zone, having held volunteer positions as an ambulance officer, lifeguard and fire fighter in Canada and Australia.

"I would rather not kill anybody, but the number one stance is to defend the people who are being attacked," she said.

"I'll do whatever needs to be done."

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) has issued a 'do not travel' notice for Ukraine the highest of the four travel warning levels.

Speaking last month, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the Australian law was unclear on people joining the newly established legion.

"Our law sets out arrangements where people can be involved in official activity by a sovereign state which Ukraine obviously qualifies for," he said.

However, Mr Morrison said the parameters of President Zelenskyy's foreign legion wasn't fully understood.

"The nature of these arrangements are very uncertain," he said.

"At this time the legalities of such actions are uncertain under Australian law."

DFAT has been contacted for comment.

Originally posted here:

WA woman in Ukraine to join foreign legion and fight Russia, and hopes to work as a medic - ABC News