Back Story Newsletter
Good morning,
War In Ukraine
Russian President Putin continues to drive his forces forward in Ukraine destroying residential neighbourhoods, killing innocents, destroying hospitals, museums and savagely assaulting cities.
This war can’t be hidden as social media posts from Ukrainians trapped and terrorized show us tanks firing on buildings, and the horrendous aftermath of the Kremlins invasion, it denied for months would take place.
And of course media coverage in the West is blanket coverage, while in Russia they try to hide the video and still avoid the words “invasion” or “war”.
Yesterday I heard a Fox news team which travelled outside of Kyiv was hit with an artillery round. A cameraman, who I worked with in Iraq, was at first reported missing, and then it became clear he was killed in the van with the local producer. The bodies of Pierre Zakrzewski and Oleksandra Kuvshynova were identified later in a local morgue, and the reporter Benjamin Hill still alive, has life changing injuries.
Pierre was a tornado of energy, fun to work with, and a great professional. Why this news team ventured out of Kyiv north towards areas known to be extremely dangerous, is a huge question for Fox management. What story was worth Pierre’s and Oleksandra’s life?
It’s not good enough to write this off to bad luck. Did they have a security advisor (which most news teams now always travel with) who let them take that route? Who did they decide to travel with and why?
Increasingly news organizations employ desk managers in New York and London who manage budgets, but are unclear as to what field gathering teams are doing and how they will get there and come home again. But it was like that 10 years ago too.
The news business runs on chaos, because thats the nature of what we do. But this is 21st Century war coverage in a 20th century war. The Russian’s don’t care who is in the line of fire, and if journalists, especially western journalists, are a casualty of the conflict.
There will be more journalists killed. There are now 3 dead. And news teams need to understand the violence is increasing and becoming more indiscriminate, and the risk taking should be lowered.
Overnight more shelling of Kyiv and a 12 storey apartment building was hit and has collapsed.
In the coastal city of Mariupol Russian troops are holding 400 people in a hospital “like hostages” says the Deputy Mayor there, including Doctors and patients.
Yesterday 20 thousand people were allowed to leave the city of 400 thousand. Exhausted evacuees spoke of frightening journeys out of the city and a stench of death on the streets. Mariupol is a war crime as Russian troops have destroyed huge neighbourhoods as Putin tries to seize Ukrainian Cities along the Black Sea cutting off Ukraine from coastal waters.
Today Ukraines President Zelenskiy is set to address the U.S. Congress and will plea for more assistance and U.S. President Biden now says he will travel to Europe next week for an extraordinary NATO meeting.
The British Ministry of Defense reports overnight Russian advances largely stalled saying “The tactics of the Ukrainian Armed Forces have adeptly exploited Russia’s lack of manoeuvre, frustrating the Russian advance and inflicting heavy losses on the invading forces”.
So no clear victory is visible for Putin‘s unhinged and bloody attack in Ukraine. Does that make cease fire talks anymore realistic? The Ukrainians say discussions are becoming more substantial, but only Putin will call off this assault, and he appears unwilling to do so even as his own country is reeling from sanctions and teetering on economic collapse.
If Putin’s past adventures in Chechnya and Syria are any example, this war could go on for months or more.
Coming up on Back Story w/Dana Lewis podcast this week, I speak to two officials on the threat of Chemical weapons in Ukraine. Both note the U.S. has intelligence information an attack by Russia appears to be imminent, and the U.S. is warning Russia of severe consequences. What is the history of the chemical/biological warfare program inside Russia and whats the evidence Putin has restarted deadly programs?
Try to have a good day everyone. Please share this letter and subscribe.
RIP Pierre Zakrzewski.
Dana