Back Story Newsletter
Good morning,
Russian Assault
It’s started in eastern Ukraine. The Russian army has attacked Ukrainian positions along a 300 mile long front, igniting a new phase of this war.
Russian leader Putin has led his country into a terrible conflict in Ukraine that could go on for years, as his forces look to seize a huge swath of Ukraine including the Donbas Region, and the Black Sea coast linking the east to Crimea, which Russia seized back in 2014.
Remember all this started 8 years ago when Ukrainians toppled the Russian backed President in Kyiv, over a desire to join the EU and escape from Putin’s domination.
Putin now seeks to destroy Ukraine, openly stating he doesn’t think it’s a real country, or at least a country he can control.
Weapons to help Ukraine defend itself are pouring into the country from America and NATO nations in the west.
The sanctions against Russia appear to be having huge effects as Moscow’s mayor warned that 200,000 people risked losing their jobs in the capital alone, while the head of the central bank warned that the effects of Russia’s isolation were just starting to be felt.
Putin meantime stated he thinks the west is being hurt more by the sanctions than Russia. Putin is stubborn and disconnected from the pain he’s inflicting in Ukraine and the discomfort Russians feel.
The problem with Putin is he won’t turn back from his war, because victory for him is key to the survival of his regime. Defeat in Ukraine will make his position untenable and wipe away the illusion he is Russia’s great protector, an image created and groomed for years by a Kremlin propagandists who control media by force.
I think now we are starting to see the first signs of Russian unrest and anger over this war. Some of it from the sinking of the Russian warship Moskva, where the Kremlin has tried to cover up the losses of sailors lives taken in the Ukrainian missile strike of the ship in the Black Sea.
But the families of sailors are Demanding answers, and refusing to accept the idea most of the crew was escaped in life boats. Over 500 sailors were on the Moskva and no one knows for certain how many died, but it may be as many as 400.
When I was based in Russia as a reporter we had similar cases of Kremlin cover up, including the sinking of the Russian submarine Kursk. The Kremlin at first admitted there were survivors, but when a bungled rescue attempt failed to get to sailors trapped under water, Putin’s spokesman claimed everyone died instantly which was untrue.
Again when terrorists took more than 1000 parents, teachers, and mostly children hostage at a school in Beslan, Kremlin spokesman Peskov claimed only 100-150 people were held hostage in the school as it burned in a bloody gun battle between Russian special forces and the same Chechen rebels who now fight for Putin in Ukraine.
Peskov told me personally the numbers of dead were only several dozen, as bullets flew not a block away from where we stood and the school burned. But the truth would be revealed by Independent reporting despite the Kremlin cover up.
Today the numbers of Russian soldiers dying in Ukraine is desperately being suppressed by Putin’s regime, even as it is likely as high as 20 thousand already.
And as the relentless shelling of Ukrainian towns and cities by Russian forces trying to seize a country of 44 million people continues, those numbers of dead on both sides will dramatically and sadly increase.
What ever happened to ceasefire talks? They are virtually dead too.
(I am moving today. Forgive typos please)
Dana Lewis