proileri
Kenraali
Menikö Ukrainassa vai kutsuiko Putin teelle?
Menikö Ukrainassa vai kutsuiko Putin teelle?
Pihkakoski
Kenraali
Kaiken jo valmiiksi todellisuuden tuolla puolella käymisen ja päätökseen tuo rajakin nauraen ylittää. Tukikonsertti. Venäjälle.
Pitäisi epäuskoa herättää.
Nyt, tuo tuntuu täysin luonnolliselta Venäläiseltä toiminnalta, reaktiona Venäjän toimintaan.
Ymmärtääkseni, Ukrainan vapauttamisen Isänmaallinen uhrilahja. Oli kyseessä. Onnittelut perheelle ja läheisille!
Pihkakoski
Kenraali
toisto pois
Viimeksi muokattu:
Pihkakoski
Kenraali
Biden warns China’s Xi not to help Russia on Ukraine
Biden warns China’s Xi not to help Russia on Ukraine
In a call between the leaders, Biden warned of ‘consequences’ if China provides material support to Moscow as it pursues a devastating invasion of its neighbor
By Ellen Nakashima,
Adela Suliman
and
Lily Kuo
Yesterday at 7:28 a.m. EDT|Updated yesterday at 3:17 p.m. EDT
Listen to article
8 min
President Biden meets virtually with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the White House in November. (Susan Walsh/AP)
President Biden, in a nearly two-hour video call Friday, warned China’s leader, Xi Jinping, that his country would face significant repercussions if it provided aid to Russia at a time when Moscow is pressing ahead with a devastating invasion of Ukraine that has been met with global condemnation.
Biden “described the implications and consequences if China provides material support to Russia as it conducts brutal attacks against Ukrainian cities and civilians,” the White House said in a statement.
The call was part of an urgent U.S. effort to head off any Chinese moves to provide economic or military help to Russia as America and its allies try to shut down Moscow’s financial lifelines. At a time when many Western countries have imposed tough sanctions on Russia, China remains one of its few potentially powerful sources of support.
The two leaders engaged in what both sides described as a “candid” and detailed discussion as their countries navigate an array of thorny political and economic differences. The call between Biden and Xi was their first since November and was arranged at a meeting on Monday in Rome between U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan and his Chinese counterpart, Yang Jiechi.
There was little indication Friday that Xi was receptive to Biden’s entreaties that his country not come to Russia’s aid, however. In a long statement issued by its Foreign Ministry after the call, China was sharply critical of sanctions, presumably including any the United States might impose on Beijing for helping Russia.
“Implementing all-round and indiscriminate sanctions, it is the common people who suffer,” the statement said. If more sanctions come, the statement added, “it will also trigger serious crises in the global economy, trade, finance, energy, food, industrial chain and supply chain, making the already difficult world economy even worse and causing irreparable losses.”
Asian countries support sanctions with an eye toward China
Administration officials would not say whether Biden explicitly outlined the types of consequences Beijing might face if it should aid Russia in its war on Ukraine.
“The president described the implications if China provides material support, but I’m not going to publicly lay out our options here,” a senior administration official said on a press call, speaking on the condition of anonymity under ground rules set by the White House.
Most of the discussion between the two leaders was devoted to the Ukraine crisis, the official said. Biden did not make any “specific requests” during the conversation, the official said. “He was laying out his assessment of the situation, what he thinks makes sense and the implications of certain actions.”
The official added, “Our view is that China will make its own decisions.”
The conversation was latest chapter in an extraordinary interplay between three global powers. As the United States has rallied its allies to oppose Russia’s efforts to expand its sphere of control, China has sought to remain neutral, helping Moscow without alienating the West in an effort to maintain cordial ties with both.
The Biden administration, in essence, is warning China that this won’t work.
Before Russia’s invasion, Moscow and Beijing were drawing closer, and U.S. officials believe that Xi has a unique ability to influence the actions of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“We believe China in particular has a responsibility to use its influence with President Putin and to defend the international rules and principles that it professes to support,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Thursday.
After Friday’s call, the senior administration official said that Biden had made his case “in substantial detail, with a lot of facts and a lot of really walking President Xi through the situation, making very, very clear our views, the views of others … and the actions we’re taking now.”
The president, the official added, was candid in telling Xi “what would be necessary in order to find a diplomatic resolution to the crisis.”
If the Biden administration decided to sanction China for aiding Russia, it would be a major step with geopolitical as well as economic repercussions. Danny Russel, former assistant secretary of state for East Asia in the Obama administration, said the White House is “acutely aware” of the risks that sanctioning China could pose to the global economy.
“At the same time, they are equally conscious of the leverage that sanctions represent at a time when the Chinese economy is already struggling,” Russel said.
Warnings of possible sanctions against China are meant as deterrent, “a bit like nuclear weapons that nobody wants to use,” said Russel, now vice president for international security at the Asia Society Policy Institute. “But China won’t be able to hide behind the specter of supply chain disruption to avoid sanctions if it directly and [materially] aids Putin’s war effort.”
The call between the leaders is only one of several efforts the United States has made in recent weeks to get that message across to China. The Biden administration has made clear to Beijing its “deep concerns” about any alignment with Russia, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said earlier this week.
Pihkakoski
Kenraali
‘Another year of crazy hiccups’: Russia and China pose new threats to global supply chain
‘Another year of crazy hiccups’: Russia and China pose new threats to global supply chain
Shipping costs are going back up, and experts expect major transportation disruptions to continue through the year
By David J. LynchYesterday at 2:25 p.m. EDT
Listen to article
8 min
Trucks load and unload shipping containers at the Port of Long Beach in California. (Jae C. Hong/AP)
Fallout from the war in Ukraine and a coronavirus outbreak in China’s manufacturing heartland are putting fresh kinks in global supply chains, dashing hopes of a return this year to reliably smooth freight shipments and adding to pressure on consumer prices.
Allied financial sanctions and the closure of Russian airspace are forcing cargo planes to fly longer, costlier journeys from Asia to Europe. Dozens of Chinese factories and port warehouses that supply the United States remain shuttered amid the country’s worst coronavirus flare-up since the original wave in Wuhan. And triple-digit oil prices are inflating fuel bills for ocean carriers and truckers.
On Thursday, Maersk, the world’s second-largest cargo carrier, warned of “unpredictable operational impacts” from the Russia-Ukraine war, while in southern China, waiting times grew for ships trying to dock at the ports of Yantian, Chiwan and Shekou.
The disruptions so far are not as extreme as in the pandemic’s worst months. Chinese authorities in recent days have allowed some manufacturers, including a top Apple supplier, to reopen under tight restrictions.
But supply chain specialists said they expect conditions to deteriorate, reversing the recent improvement in the container ship backlog off the California coast and complicating the Federal Reserve’s fight against inflation.
“What people expected to be a recovery year is going to be another year of crazy hiccups in supply chains,” said Johannes Schlingmeier, chief executive of xChange, a shipping container leasing company in Hamburg.
Inside America's Broken Supply Chain
Over the past 30 years, ocean-spanning supply lines fueled prosperity, enabling the global economy to grow almost 2½ times larger, according to World Bank data.
Now, they seem snakebit.
Factory closures. Wildfires. Worker shortages. A marooned container ship blocking the Suez Canal.
Even before the Ukraine war and China’s coronavirus setback, supply chain struggles were the pandemic-era economy’s one constant. Last week, in an echo of the 2021 Suez incident, a vessel from the same shipping line ran aground in Maryland’s Chesapeake Bay.
“These things are happening more often,” said Ami Daniel, chief executive of Windward, a maritime intelligence firm in London. “The world is just becoming more complicated to trade in.”
The crises in Russia and China emerged as some of the worst global backlogs appeared to be easing. The logjam of ships off the coast of Southern California, which peaked last year above 100, has been cut in half, according to the Marine Exchange of Southern California.
Cargo began moving more quickly late last year after port officials threatened to fine terminal operators for containers that lingered on the docks. During the first two months of this year, the Port of Los Angeles processed 5.4 percent more containers than during the same period in 2021, which had been a record high.
“Fluidity and velocity on our docks continues to improve,” Gene Seroka, executive director of the Port of L.A., told reporters this week.
But Lars Jensen, chief executive of Vespucci Maritime in Copenhagen, called the apparent progress “a mirage,” saying ocean carriers have been redirecting vessels to other U.S. ports, including Charleston, S.C., creating smaller jams there.
Port officials expect imports to keep rising this spring as retailers rebuild thin inventories. Many companies are bracing for continued difficulties getting what they need when they need it.
Hamilton Beach, a maker of coffee pots, blenders and toaster ovens, told investors this month it anticipates that supply chain constraints and higher transport costs will “continue through this year.” Executives plan to raise prices in response, an illustration of how supply line snarls are fueling the highest consumer price inflation in 40 years.
Inflation explained: How prices took off
“If you look at the L.A. port, you don’t really see relief in sight yet. Solving these supply chain bottlenecks will still take more time,” said Michael Wax, chief executive of Forto, a freight forwarder based in Berlin.
After declining late last year, the cost of sending a standard shipping container from China to Los Angeles rose by 20 percent over the past two months to $16,353, according to the Freightos index.
That’s more than 12 times what it cost in the months before the pandemic.
The recent surge in oil prices hasn’t helped. The price of a metric ton of the low-sulfur bunker fuel used by oceangoing cargo ships topped $1,000 earlier this month, roughly twice its pre-pandemic mark.
Supply lines already were stretched when Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24.
Apart from its role as a supplier of oil and gas, Russia is not nearly as significant to the global economy as is China. But the fighting and the sanctions that abruptly severed the country from routine commerce are sending shock waves through cargo channels.
Fed raises interest rates, plans seven total hikes this year
As sanctions started to bite this month, the number of container ships stopping at Russian ports on the Baltic Sea, including St. Petersburg, plunged by 40 percent, according to data from Windward.
Nearby ports in Estonia, Latvia and Germany saw a roughly comparable increase in traffic, as ships were diverted from Russia.
Many shippers are exceeding the prohibitions detailed in the U.S.-led sanctions. Some companies are avoiding Russian-flagged vessels. Others balk at hiring a ship captained by a Russian.
“What we’re seeing is more disruption, more congestion and more delays,” said Daniel. “And that is not going to change.”
Major cargo carriers have stopped accepting new shipments to Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. Maersk has offloaded goods that were midway to Russia when the war began at a small Danish port, in Kalundborg, according to Jan Tiedemann, senior shipping line and port analyst for Alphaliner, an information and research firm.
Inspections by European customs authorities of goods intended for Russia are causing cargo to stack up at regional hubs and spread delays across the carrier’s global network, “impacting our customers’ supply chains,” Maersk said in an advisory posted on its website.
Hapag-Lloyd is dropping Russia-bound cargo at ports in the Black Sea, such as Constanta in Romania, Burgas in Bulgaria and Turkey’s Gemlik, the shipping line said in a customer advisory.
Sanctions have basically erected a wall around Russia. Cargo that normally traveled on rail links between China and Europe now is being shifted to ships or planes. On an annual basis, about 1.5 million containers could be affected, according to Niels Larsen, who heads North American operations for DSV, a Danish transport and logistics company.
But those shipments will add to existing congestion. Space aboard container ships already is at a premium. Aircraft traveling from China to Europe must divert around closed Russian airspace, adding up to six hours to travel time and requiring, in some cases, an additional refueling stop, Larsen said. That effectively reduces capacity on airfreight channels that are already operating well below pre-pandemic levels. And when the aircraft land, they will disgorge their loads at already crowded airport cargo-handling operations.
“This will have enormous ripple effects that no one has prepared for,” Larsen said. “We’ll be back to the early days of covid, when it really became bad.”
In China, the government imposed tight coronavirus restrictions on more than 50 million people in key cities, including Shenzhen, Shanghai and Changchun, starting on March 13. Companies in the affected areas account for three-quarters of China’s exports, according to Capital Economics.
The moves came amid an alarming surge in infections of the omicron variant of the coronavirus. Under China’s zero-tolerance policy, even a handful of cases is sufficient to trigger harsh restrictions on activity.
More than 50 Chinese factories in the electronics, automotive and consumer products industries were shut this week, according to Everstream Analytics, a supply chain risk analytics company.
“The risk that global supply chains’ links within China get severed is the highest that it has been in two years,” Capital Economics warned clients this week.
Omicron fallout and tough labor talks likely to rattle supply chains
While southern ports remain open, nearby warehouses are closed and trucking services are limited. At Yantian, coronavirus testing has reduced trucking capacity by more than half, according to Everstream. Some shipments that normally would cross the border to Hong Kong via truck are now taking the short journey by sea.
Ships are waiting two days to dock there while nearby Shekou is not accepting vessels until March 19, when the wait upon reopening is expected to be three days.
“We’re anticipating six to eight weeks of manufacturing backlogs, shipping delays and congestion,” said Julie Gerdeman, Everstream’s chief executive. “We’ll feel the impact of this probably in four weeks.”
By week’s end, Chinese authorities had allowed Foxconn and a number of other manufacturers to resume operations using a “closed loop” system, ferrying workers between their company-provided housing and the factory.
Chinese cargo already is taking longer than ever to move from the factory gate to its port of departure, almost three times as long as before the pandemic, according to data from Flexport, a freight forwarder based in San Francisco.
In the short term, a slowdown in goods coming from China will be good news for California ports that still face a traffic jam of inbound vessels. But once Chinese factories and ports return to normal operations, a surge of seaborne traffic will head for the West Coast, executives said, probably aggravating existing jams.
Nikolajev ja Odessa ovat eteläisessä Ukrainassa.
Nikhris
Majuri
Tuossahan se lukee - tuo paikka on Ukrainassa.
Olihan se.
Liitteet
Pihkakoski
Kenraali
Tuossahan tuo on. Ytimekkäästi ilmaistuna. Monen foorumilaisen ja ilman foorumiakin (nössöt) toimeentulevien suomalaisten kasvava ajatus-mieli-pohdinta.
Itse olen ollut epäilevällä kannalla, Karjalan suhteen. Mutta jos tuohon mentäisiin, miksi pysähtyä Karjalaan. Hymiö.
Rantojen mies
Kenraali
Toivookohan Xi myös, että USA ja NATO käy dialogia sekä Kiinan että Taiwanin kanssa, ja että ottavat toimissaan huomioon kummankin turvallisuustarpeet. Esim. sijoittamalla joukkoja Taiwaniin?
Jos ei, niin Xi voi vaikka syödä paskaa näiden sotarikollisia myötäilevien kommenttiensa kanssa.
Pihkakoski
Kenraali
Tuossa(kin) on monta liikkuvaa osaa. Haasteena ei ole pelkästään tuo. Vaan myös se, että näkemyksestä liikkuvien osien suhteista toisiinsa. Vieläpä muuttuvassa maailmassa. Pitäisi olla riittävää ymmärrystä ja ennakointia.
Toki. Voidaan myös toimia kuten Venäjä tekee. Silmät kiinni ja Isänmaallista sotaa huutaen, kohti ja päin.
Pirustako näitä supervaltojen superjohtajien yli-aatoksia tietää. Pieni ja arkinen ihminen.
Kohtuullisen varmaa ainakin tähän saakka on ollut se, että mikäli vikaan jokin menee. Juurikin se pieni ja arkinen ihminen tästä ensimmäisenä tietoiseksi tulee. Usein lopullisella tavalla.
edit; näkemyksestä
Viimeksi muokattu:
Pihkakoski
Kenraali
Tässä arvailua, Venäjällä tapetuista journalisteista: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_journalists_killed_in_Russia
Vaikka lista olisi täydellinen, mitä se lähtökohtaisesti ei voi olla. Niin mikäli hyväksytään ajatus valtiollisen roolin mahdollisesta merkityksestä po. asiassa. Ei aina välttämättä suoraan, mutta toimijana yhtäkaikki.
Ulos jää tuon (oletetun) toiminnan vaikutus, ilman erillistä pohdintaa. Ei ole tarvetta tappaa kaikkia. Riittää että teet sen riittävän laajassa merkityksessä. Vaikuttaaksesi --> Itsesensuuri.
Tuo itsesensuuri, on vaikutuksiltaan mahdollisesti jopa suoraa valtiollista sensuuria merkittävämpää. Läpi (nimetyn) kentän kulkevaa, aina olemassa-olevaa. Sekä ilmi-antopelossa, mikäli tämä riittävässä määrin saadaan toimivaksi. Hyvin tehokasta. Testatusti toimivaa.
Vaikka lista olisi täydellinen, mitä se lähtökohtaisesti ei voi olla. Niin mikäli hyväksytään ajatus valtiollisen roolin mahdollisesta merkityksestä po. asiassa. Ei aina välttämättä suoraan, mutta toimijana yhtäkaikki.
Ulos jää tuon (oletetun) toiminnan vaikutus, ilman erillistä pohdintaa. Ei ole tarvetta tappaa kaikkia. Riittää että teet sen riittävän laajassa merkityksessä. Vaikuttaaksesi --> Itsesensuuri.
Tuo itsesensuuri, on vaikutuksiltaan mahdollisesti jopa suoraa valtiollista sensuuria merkittävämpää. Läpi (nimetyn) kentän kulkevaa, aina olemassa-olevaa. Sekä ilmi-antopelossa, mikäli tämä riittävässä määrin saadaan toimivaksi. Hyvin tehokasta. Testatusti toimivaa.
Pihkakoski
Kenraali
Olen vuosia lukenut, suomeksi painettua Novaja Gazetaa. Myös sillä ajatuksella, miksi noinkin kriittisesti valtiojohtoon suhtautuva lehti. Saa olla olemassa.
En tiedä. Edelleenkään. Yksi mahdollisuus on, kriittisten osien tarkkailun ja tarvittaessa toiminnan alle saattaminen? Kootusti. Näennäisopposition sallimisen kautta, siitä kumpuavien vasta-äänenpainojen hallinta? Toki, myös lehden saama julkisuus ulkomailla, on saattanut "toimenpiteisiin ryhtymistä" hillitä.
edit; kirjoitusvirhe
En tiedä. Edelleenkään. Yksi mahdollisuus on, kriittisten osien tarkkailun ja tarvittaessa toiminnan alle saattaminen? Kootusti. Näennäisopposition sallimisen kautta, siitä kumpuavien vasta-äänenpainojen hallinta? Toki, myös lehden saama julkisuus ulkomailla, on saattanut "toimenpiteisiin ryhtymistä" hillitä.
edit; kirjoitusvirhe
Viimeksi muokattu:
Pihkakoski
Kenraali
Evacuees from besieged Mariupol describe horrors of Russian attacks
Evacuees from besieged Mariupol describe horrors of Russian attacks
By Loveday Morris
and
Anastacia Galouchka
Today at 7:23 p.m. EDT
Listen to article
6 min
People fleeing Mariupol, Ukraine, arrive at a registration center in Zaporizhzhia, 140 miles to the northwest, on Friday. (Wojciech Grzedzinski/For The Washington Post)
ZAPORIZHZHIA, Ukraine — Traumatized residents from Mariupol, Ukraine, arrived in a nonstop stream of cars at a humanitarian aid station on Friday describing urban fighting and devastation as Ukrainian forces appeared to lose their grip on parts of the battered city.
They arrived in a near-constant convoy at the city of Zaporizhzhia, 140 miles to the northwest, their vehicles marked with white flags and signs reading “children” in the hope that it would ease their way.
Some families drove cars with their windshields smashed out or shattered from the force of explosions near their homes. One car, struck in a rocket attack, looked as if it had defied the odds by being able to move at all, one side completely punched in by the impact.
But with vehicles the only way out, anything that could move was put to use. Some were crammed eight or nine people to a car.
Inside the transfer of foreign military equipment to Ukrainian soldiers
Their accounts provide a glimpse of the situation on the ground in a city that has been cut off from communications for more than two weeks.
Those fleeing spoke of weeks spent trapped in their basements with little to eat and no electricity or water. They painted a picture of a city that is no longer fully controlled by Ukrainian forces, with Russian tanks spotted in the streets.
Mariupol, where besieged Ukrainian forces have held out for weeks, is considered an important strategic prize for Russia, a land link from annexed Crimea to areas of eastern Ukraine held by Russian-backed separatists. And residents fear that Putin will throw all the fire power he has at it.
Refugees from Mariupol. (Wojciech Grzedzinski/For The Washington Post)
“It’s like a horror movie. There’s nothing,” said Oksana, 37, who fled with her three sons, her sister and two nieces. “Everything is bombed, all the roads are bombed. We couldn’t even normally drive out. We drove a lot in circles before we found a route.”
Biden warns China’s Xi not to help Russia on Ukraine
Oksana said she fled her home on the city’s periphery for a friend’s home closer in on Feb. 24, the first day of the war, to escape the bombing on the outskirts.
The former accountant, who, like many of those fleeing, spoke on the condition her last name be withheld to protect relatives left behind, said Russian tanks parked next to the house in which they were sheltering on Wednesday.
“We asked them to take them away,” she said. “We’d written on our houses there are kids here, people here. But they did not do it.”
The tanks fired all night, she said. The force of the shelling shuddered through the house.
Russian soldiers entered the house to check documents, according to family members, and told them to mark their cars with white flags if they left to show they were civilians. When they drove out of the city, they said, they did not see any Ukrainian forces.
They followed the direct road, rather than the agreed corridor through the city of Berdyansk to the city’s west, because they couldn’t navigate to that route. They said soldiers at most of the Russian checkpoints were friendly, with some on the way out of the city giving away cookies and other sweets.
A man's car was smashed in a rocket attack. (Wojciech Grzedzinski/For The Washington Post)
But at one checkpoint, soldiers took issue with a message on her brother-in-law’s phone describing destruction in a village outside of Mariupol. They said soldiers forced him out of the vehicle with a gun to his head.
“They took him off, and then we just heard a gunshot,” Oksana said. “We thought that was it. When we saw him we started crying from happiness.”
Petro Andryushchenko, an adviser to the Mariupol mayor’s office, confirmed Russian tanks were in the city. “It’s difficult to say who is controlling what,” he said. “Mariupol is a battlefield. But we are still defending the city, and we aren’t giving up.”
He said one front line was now downtown, near a theater sheltering hundreds of civilians that was bombed by Russian forces Thursday.
Around 100 people have emerged alive from the theater bombing, Andryushchenko said. One elderly woman was badly injured and transported to a hospital. Andryushchenko said roughly 800 to 1,000 people were believed to have been in the building at the time of the attack. Some accounts put the number in the theater still missing as high as 1,300. The fighting is hampering rescue efforts, Andryushchenko said.
“How many people are beneath the rubble, we don’t know,” he said.
Maryna Selkova, 41, said the house in which she was sheltering, near the theater and university in the city center, was already on the front line on Wednesday evening. She could see members of the Azov Battalion, a far-right militia force which has made up a large contingent of Ukrainian front-line forces of the city.
“Our house was shaking,” she said, her 11-year-old son clinging to her around her neck.
They tried to leave several times, she said, but the fighting was too fierce. “It was so scary to come out, everything was exploding. We got back into the basement and tried again later.”
Mixed signals from Ukraine’s president and his aides leave West confused about his end game
They finally escaped on Thursday morning. “The theater was already bombed when we left,” she said. “We understood then we couldn’t hide anywhere.”
Many had spent a night in the village of Tokmak, now controlled by the Russians, where residents have opened their doors and cooked them meals. Some arrived injured from explosions.
Some say they want to leave the country, but few had solid plans. They were relieved just to have made it out alive.
“I never thought in the 21st century I’d live though something like this,” said Selkova, an accountant. “Now we will have to start all over again.”
Aleksei Vlasov, 35, arrived with nine family members in one car. (Wojciech Grzedzinski/For The Washington Post)
With vehicles the only means of escape, families are loading in as many people as possible. Nine members of Aleksei Vlasov and Alesya Vlasova’s extended family packed themselves into a single aging Ford Mondeo to escape. They packed the cat and their 21-year-old son’s two guitars, one acoustic and one electric, among the bundles on the roof.
They wanted to pick up Alesya’s 83-year-old grandmother, but drove to her home and couldn’t find her. There was no time to hunt.
Ukrainian women stand strong against Russian invaders
Families said Russian soldiers at the checkpoints told them to delete any photographs of destruction in Mariupol. Many did, but Aleksei and Aleysa decided to risk keeping theirs, and showed pictures of the smashed windows at their family home and their meals in the dark.
Aleksei, 35, would brave driving around the city each day in search for food. Some families said they turned to looting and bartering to survive.
Their cousin Anastasiya, 25, has served with the Ukrainian military for the past five years. She gasped as she pulled out her phone to a video message showing the flag of Russian-backed separatists being hoisted on an administrative building on the city’s Left Bank, which has been subject to some of the heaviest bombardment.
“That’s not the periphery, that’s the city,” she said. “Even if they lose the city, we’ll get it
and
Anastacia Galouchka
Today at 7:23 p.m. EDT
Listen to article
6 min
People fleeing Mariupol, Ukraine, arrive at a registration center in Zaporizhzhia, 140 miles to the northwest, on Friday. (Wojciech Grzedzinski/For The Washington Post)
ZAPORIZHZHIA, Ukraine — Traumatized residents from Mariupol, Ukraine, arrived in a nonstop stream of cars at a humanitarian aid station on Friday describing urban fighting and devastation as Ukrainian forces appeared to lose their grip on parts of the battered city.
They arrived in a near-constant convoy at the city of Zaporizhzhia, 140 miles to the northwest, their vehicles marked with white flags and signs reading “children” in the hope that it would ease their way.
Some families drove cars with their windshields smashed out or shattered from the force of explosions near their homes. One car, struck in a rocket attack, looked as if it had defied the odds by being able to move at all, one side completely punched in by the impact.
But with vehicles the only way out, anything that could move was put to use. Some were crammed eight or nine people to a car.
Inside the transfer of foreign military equipment to Ukrainian soldiers
Their accounts provide a glimpse of the situation on the ground in a city that has been cut off from communications for more than two weeks.
Those fleeing spoke of weeks spent trapped in their basements with little to eat and no electricity or water. They painted a picture of a city that is no longer fully controlled by Ukrainian forces, with Russian tanks spotted in the streets.
Mariupol, where besieged Ukrainian forces have held out for weeks, is considered an important strategic prize for Russia, a land link from annexed Crimea to areas of eastern Ukraine held by Russian-backed separatists. And residents fear that Putin will throw all the fire power he has at it.
Refugees from Mariupol. (Wojciech Grzedzinski/For The Washington Post)
“It’s like a horror movie. There’s nothing,” said Oksana, 37, who fled with her three sons, her sister and two nieces. “Everything is bombed, all the roads are bombed. We couldn’t even normally drive out. We drove a lot in circles before we found a route.”
Biden warns China’s Xi not to help Russia on Ukraine
Oksana said she fled her home on the city’s periphery for a friend’s home closer in on Feb. 24, the first day of the war, to escape the bombing on the outskirts.
The former accountant, who, like many of those fleeing, spoke on the condition her last name be withheld to protect relatives left behind, said Russian tanks parked next to the house in which they were sheltering on Wednesday.
“We asked them to take them away,” she said. “We’d written on our houses there are kids here, people here. But they did not do it.”
The tanks fired all night, she said. The force of the shelling shuddered through the house.
Russian soldiers entered the house to check documents, according to family members, and told them to mark their cars with white flags if they left to show they were civilians. When they drove out of the city, they said, they did not see any Ukrainian forces.
They followed the direct road, rather than the agreed corridor through the city of Berdyansk to the city’s west, because they couldn’t navigate to that route. They said soldiers at most of the Russian checkpoints were friendly, with some on the way out of the city giving away cookies and other sweets.
A man's car was smashed in a rocket attack. (Wojciech Grzedzinski/For The Washington Post)
But at one checkpoint, soldiers took issue with a message on her brother-in-law’s phone describing destruction in a village outside of Mariupol. They said soldiers forced him out of the vehicle with a gun to his head.
“They took him off, and then we just heard a gunshot,” Oksana said. “We thought that was it. When we saw him we started crying from happiness.”
Petro Andryushchenko, an adviser to the Mariupol mayor’s office, confirmed Russian tanks were in the city. “It’s difficult to say who is controlling what,” he said. “Mariupol is a battlefield. But we are still defending the city, and we aren’t giving up.”
He said one front line was now downtown, near a theater sheltering hundreds of civilians that was bombed by Russian forces Thursday.
Around 100 people have emerged alive from the theater bombing, Andryushchenko said. One elderly woman was badly injured and transported to a hospital. Andryushchenko said roughly 800 to 1,000 people were believed to have been in the building at the time of the attack. Some accounts put the number in the theater still missing as high as 1,300. The fighting is hampering rescue efforts, Andryushchenko said.
“How many people are beneath the rubble, we don’t know,” he said.
Maryna Selkova, 41, said the house in which she was sheltering, near the theater and university in the city center, was already on the front line on Wednesday evening. She could see members of the Azov Battalion, a far-right militia force which has made up a large contingent of Ukrainian front-line forces of the city.
“Our house was shaking,” she said, her 11-year-old son clinging to her around her neck.
They tried to leave several times, she said, but the fighting was too fierce. “It was so scary to come out, everything was exploding. We got back into the basement and tried again later.”
Mixed signals from Ukraine’s president and his aides leave West confused about his end game
They finally escaped on Thursday morning. “The theater was already bombed when we left,” she said. “We understood then we couldn’t hide anywhere.”
Many had spent a night in the village of Tokmak, now controlled by the Russians, where residents have opened their doors and cooked them meals. Some arrived injured from explosions.
Some say they want to leave the country, but few had solid plans. They were relieved just to have made it out alive.
“I never thought in the 21st century I’d live though something like this,” said Selkova, an accountant. “Now we will have to start all over again.”
Aleksei Vlasov, 35, arrived with nine family members in one car. (Wojciech Grzedzinski/For The Washington Post)
With vehicles the only means of escape, families are loading in as many people as possible. Nine members of Aleksei Vlasov and Alesya Vlasova’s extended family packed themselves into a single aging Ford Mondeo to escape. They packed the cat and their 21-year-old son’s two guitars, one acoustic and one electric, among the bundles on the roof.
They wanted to pick up Alesya’s 83-year-old grandmother, but drove to her home and couldn’t find her. There was no time to hunt.
Ukrainian women stand strong against Russian invaders
Families said Russian soldiers at the checkpoints told them to delete any photographs of destruction in Mariupol. Many did, but Aleksei and Aleysa decided to risk keeping theirs, and showed pictures of the smashed windows at their family home and their meals in the dark.
Aleksei, 35, would brave driving around the city each day in search for food. Some families said they turned to looting and bartering to survive.
Their cousin Anastasiya, 25, has served with the Ukrainian military for the past five years. She gasped as she pulled out her phone to a video message showing the flag of Russian-backed separatists being hoisted on an administrative building on the city’s Left Bank, which has been subject to some of the heaviest bombardment.
“That’s not the periphery, that’s the city,” she said. “Even if they lose the city, we’ll get it
Fisu
Kenraali
Toihan riippuu ihan siitä, minkälainen poppoo tulee valtaan. Venäjän yltiöpäinen nöyryyttäminen vain kostautuisi tulevina vuosikymmeninä.
Rantojen mies
Kenraali
Rannikolla kannellaan painavampaakin rompetta mukana.
Ei tuo mikään jokapaikanhöylä varmasti ole, mutta ehkä käyttökelpoinen joissain tilanteissa ja ympäristöissä.
Rantojen mies
Kenraali
Tämähän on kuin Suomen Sotilaan "analyysi" sodan ensimmäisiltä viikoilta, jotka oli sellaista paniikkista defaitismia, että oikein hävetti.
Mitä Ukraina tekee tämän 10 viikon ajanjakson? Muuta kuin ilmeisesti pakenee länteen kilut ja kalut jättäen.