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LVIV, Ukraine One week into their invasion of Ukraine, Russian forces are ramping up assaults on civilian areas, making strategic advances in the coastal south and beginning to lay siege to major cities.

The invasion by President Vladimir V. Putins troops, which began on Feb. 24, kicked off Europes largest ground war since World War II.

In the days since, parts of towns and cities along Ukraines eastern border with Russia have been reduced to rubble by Russian forces, according video evidence verified by The New York Times and interviews with residents who fled. Major cities, including the capital, Kyiv, have faced significant onslaughts, with Ukrainian officials saying Russian forces had taken control of the first major city in the war, the strategic southern port of Kherson.

As the war moves to an increasingly brutal phase, Russian artillery and rocket fire have cut off electricity, water and heat to many communities. Reports are also multiplying of Russian strikes against hospitals, schools, apartment complexes and critical civilian infrastructure. And a humanitarian crisis looms: More than a million people have already fled the country, according to the head of the United Nations refugee agency.

Even as Russian forces continue their onslaught, soldiers and civilian warriors from Ukraine, a country of 44 million, are fiercely resisting the attack of its much larger and more heavily armed neighbor.

Russia has been making huge gains across the country, especially in the south, but it has yet to gain air superiority over Ukraine, a strategic setback for Mr. Putin that analysts attribute to Ukraines fighter jets and surprisingly resilient air defenses. Officials from Ukraine and the United States also say that a number of Russian units which reportedly include many young, poorly trained conscripts have been hampered a bit by delays, poor morale and shortages of food and fuel.

President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine vowed on Thursday to regain control of parts of the country where Russian forces had made gains.

I am sure of this: if they entered somewhere, it is only temporarily, he said in an address to the nation. Well drive them out. With shame.

Heres how the war is evolving:

After facing stiffer than expected resistance, Mr. Putin has escalated the bombardment of Kyiv as his forces seek to topple the government. As many as 15,000 people, mostly women and children, have taken up residence in the subway system, The Timess Andrew Kramer reported from Kyiv.

This week, a missile hit a television tower in Kyiv, and airstrikes hit a residential area of Zhytomyr, a city less than 100 miles west of Kyiv. A video verified by The New York Times also showed what appeared to be two Russian warplanes flying at low altitude moments before an airstrike hit a residential apartment complex in Irpin, a city on Kyivs northwestern limits.

Such attacks, along with a convoy roughly 40 miles long of Russian military vehicles that has been moving toward Kyiv in recent days, have stirred fears that troops may encircle and bombard what just a week ago was a peaceful, modern European capital of about 2.8 million people. But on Thursday, there were indications that the convoy may be struggling with soggy ground and other logistical issues slowing its advance.

Mr. Putins forces have already surrounded the northeastern city of Kharkiv, 20 miles from the Russian border, and have been pummeling it from the outside with missiles and artillery shells.

Taking Kharkiv, Ukraines second-largest city, would be a major strategic prize and could allow Russia to consolidate its forces in other areas. But holding a city requires significant troop presence, and Russia is already facing a rebellion of the general public. It is unclear what Russian forces plan to do should they gain control of government buildings or how they would deal with what would probably be an insurgent effort to oust them.

Whats clear for now is that laying siege to Kharkiv will most likely inflict heavy collateral damage on civilians as the war grinds on. There are already reports of men, women and children in Kharkiv going days without food and water, huddled in freezing basement shelters as Russian forces continue to bombard a city that just a week ago had a population of 1.5 million.

Russia is also mounting increasingly brazen attacks on Kharkivs downtown infrastructure, a strategy intended to make the civilian population flee as part of a precursor to a ground invasion. Missiles have been hitting administrative buildings, and there have been clashes with Russian forces as they probe and test the citys defenses.

Russia has made important strategic gains in recent days across southern Ukraines Black Sea coast. Securing the south would cut off the Ukrainian governments access to vital ports and could allow Russia to bring troops and supplies in by sea.

From the southern coast, Russian troops could move northward toward Kyiv and link up with fellow Russians who have been fighting in eastern Ukraine. That would expand Mr. Putins control east of the Dnieper River, which cuts through the center of Ukraine and divides its western and eastern regions.

A Ukrainian city falls. Russian troops gained control of Kherson,the first city to be overcome during the war. The overtaking of Kherson is significant as it allows the Russians to control more of Ukraines southern coastline and to push west toward the city of Odessa.

Odessa, Ukraines biggest port city, is not as militarily significant as the nearby Crimean Peninsula, which Russia annexed in 2014. But seizing it would be essential if Russia wants to control southern Ukraine, The Timess Michael Schwirtz reported from Odessa on Wednesday.

Now that Russian forces have moved into the southern port of Kherson, they have a path to Odessa. They have also surrounded another key port city, Mariupol. If Mariupol falls, two flanks of Russian and Russian-backed fighters would be able to trap Ukraines forces in the southeast.

Russian naval ships have gathered just outside Ukraines territorial waters in the Black Sea. Ukraine has accused Russia of firing on civilian ships and using them as cover.

In western Ukraine, people have sought refuge from the invasion in Lviv, a city of ornate buildings about 45 miles from the Polish border that has so far been spared heavy combat.

But since the first air raid siren wailed a week ago, there has been a growing sense of urgency and anxiety in Lviv.

A vast network of volunteers has emerged to help both those fleeing conflict and others heading off to the front. The roads into the city have also been lined with checkpoints and hastily erected defenses.

Heavily armed soldiers patrol the streets, stopping strangers and apprehending people they contend are Russian agents and saboteurs. In one incident that a New York Times reporter witnessed in Lviv on Tuesday, several men were pulled out of a red sedan in the heart of the old town and bundled away by security.

In restaurants that remain open, bottled water is now served exclusively in plastic bottles. The glass ones are being used to make Molotov cocktails.

Marc Santora reported from Lviv, Ukraine, and Mike Ives from Seoul.

Original post:
Here's How the Russia-Ukraine War Is Evolving - The New York Times

At Kramers, an independent bookstore in Washington, D.C., a lot of books about Russia and Ukraine are sold out. The books started going off the shelves a little more than a week ago as the world braced for a Russian invasion of Ukraine, general manager Llalan Fowler said.

"People have definitely been picking up the Russian books more, like Putin's People and that sort of title," she told NPR. "A lot of the books that are available to us about Ukraine and Russia and their relationship and their history are out of stock already at our supplier."

Many customers come into the shop knowing what they want, she said. But if you're not sure what to reach for first, here's a roundup of books about Ukraine that you might want to dive into.

I Will Die in a Foreign Land, by Kalani Pickhart

Pickhart's debut novel is on Fowler's to-read list. Named among the New York Public Library's best books of 2021, I Will Die in a Foreign Land chronicles what Ukrainian protests looked like in 2013 and 2014, as demonstrators pushed for closer ties with NATO and the European Union.

Pickhart told KJZZ's "The Show" last month that the book has garnered more attention as tensions grew between Russia and Ukraine.

"I think a lot of folks are looking for more information and to sort of understand the conflict in a way that's sort of digestible, essentially just trying to get a sense of the emotional movement of what's going on," Pickhart said.

Lucky Breaks, by Yevgenia Belorusets

A fiction book on Fowler's list, Lucky Breaks, translated from Russian by Eugene Ostashevsky, is a collection of short stories about women living in the aftermath of war in Ukraine. Belorusets, a Ukrainian writer, centers on ordinary lives a florist, a cosmetologist, a card player, among others.

Hip Hop Ukraine: Music, Race, and African Migration, by Adriana Helbig

Helbig, who chairs the University of Pittsburgh's music department, saw African musicians rapping in Ukrainian during the Orange Revolution in 2004. The revolution followed a presidential election, which many claimed to be corrupt and fraudulent.

Through ethnographic research of music, media and policy, Helbig's book delves into the world of urban music, hip hop parties and dance competitions, along with interracial encounters among African immigrants and the local population.

Jews and Ukrainians in Russia's Literary Borderlands: From the Shtetl Fair to the Petersburg Bookshop, by Amelia Glaser

This book, which covers much of the 19th century and part of the 20th century in Ukraine, explores how those working and writing in Russian, Ukrainian and Yiddish communicated and collaborated at places like commercial markets and fairs. Glaser's study seeks to show that Eastern European literature was much more than just a single language and culture.

Red Famine: Stalin's War on Ukraine, by Anne Applebaum

This book delves into the famine in Ukraine created by Joseph Stalin in the early 1930s, as he sought to destroy the Ukrainian national movement. Nearly 4 million Ukrainians died and many were arrested by Soviet secret police.

On NPR's Fresh Air, Applebaum, a historian and journalist writing about the war in Ukraine for The Atlantic, explained how Vladimir Putin and Stalin saw Ukraine similarly: "as a vector for ideas that could undermine him or threaten him."

Midnight in Chernobyl, by Adam Higginbotham

Higginbotham, a journalist, spent years investigating the aftermath of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. In his book, he digs into the design flaws and Soviet secrecy that contributed to the explosion, as well as the efforts to contain the damage. He spoke to Fresh Air about the novel in 2019.

Read more:
Read these 6 books about Ukraine - NPR

This week, Ukraines ambassador to the United Nations, Sergiy Kyslytsya, read out before the General Assembly what he said were text messages a Russian soldier sent to his mother moments before he was killed. They were obtained, he said, by Ukrainian forces after the soldier died.

Mama, Im in Ukraine, the ambassador read. There is a real war raging here. Im afraid. We are bombing all of the cities together, even targeting civilians. We were told that they would welcome us and they are falling under our armored vehicles, throwing themselves under the wheels and not allowing us to pass. They call us fascists. Mama, this is so hard.

The messages read out under the global spotlight of a high-profile United Nations meeting offered a poignant reminder of the human cost of war. They also served as a potent example of how central the battle is for public opinion around the world in a lopsided war between Russias military machine and a scrappy, increasingly better-armed Ukraine.

Both sides efforts to influence the narrative and perception of the war are striking.

Ukrainian officials are using the reports and images on social media of Russian casualties to try to undercut the morale of the invading forces. President Vladimir V. Putin, meanwhile, has described the government of President Volodymyr Zelensky as a band of drug addicts and neo-Nazis. And at least some Russian soldiers appear to have imbibed the misinformation emanating from the Kremlin that their invasion would be welcomed.

Ukraines military, interior ministry and U.N. ambassador did not respond to requests for more information to help verify the authenticity of the messages read out at the United Nations.

Whatever their origins, the messages allude to an undeniable theme of the war: Fierce resistance by Ukrainian forces has denied Mr. Putin the quick and easy victory Russia appears to have anticipated, while some among Russias young military force have been ill-prepared for battle and buffeted by bad morale.

On Tuesday, a senior Pentagon official said that entire Russian units had laid down their arms without a fight after confronting surprisingly robust Ukrainian defenders. In some cases, Russian troops have punched holes in their vehicles gas tanks, presumably to avoid combat, the official said.

A Ukrainian city falls. Russian troops gained control of Kherson,the first city to be overcome during the war. The overtaking of Kherson is significant as it allows the Russians to control more of Ukraines southern coastline and to push west toward the city of Odessa.

The decision to read the text messages, Russia experts and Pentagon officials said, was also a not-so-veiled reminder to Mr. Putin of the role Russian mothers have had in bringing attention to military losses that the government tried to keep secret.

In fact, a group now called the Union of Committees of Soldiers Mothers of Russia played a pivotal part in opening up the military to public scrutiny and in influencing perceptions of military service, Julie Elkner, a Russia historian, wrote in The Journal of Power Institutions in Post-Soviet Societies.

For Mr. Putin, the rising death toll on the Russian side could undermine domestic support for his Ukrainian incursion. Russian memories are long and mothers of soldiers, in particular, American officials say, could easily hark back to the 15,000 troops killed when the Soviet Union invaded and occupied Afghanistan, or the thousands killed in Chechnya.

Mr. Putin has tried to counter assessments from Western officials that Russia was running into greater resistance than expected. But on Thursday, he acknowledged there had been losses, promising the families of the fallen a special payout of 5 million rubles, or nearly $50,000.

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Information Battle Over Ukraine Intensifies - The New York Times

More Russian missile strikes and shells are hitting Ukrainian cities, with tremendous damage reported. Twenty-one people have been killed in Kharkiv as a result of what appeared to be a Russian rocket attack. Russia claims it has taken over the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson, but Ukrainian officials sharply dispute this. They say they fear Russia is targeting Ukrainian civilians.

Here's what we're following today:

United Nations vote: In an emergency session, the General Assembly voted 141-5 to condemn Russia and demand that it end its war in Ukraine.

Ukraine accuses Russia of terror: The Kremlin is relying on the criminal tactics of long-range shelling of peaceful cities, Ukraine's defense minister said.

Russia shuts down media critics: Authorities have blocked two leading Russian media outlets over their critical coverage of the Kremlin's invasion of Ukraine.

Ukrainians risk everything to go home: While hundreds of thousands have fled the country, many are crossing back to join the fight.

Read more:
Russia invades Ukraine live updates: The U.N. votes overwhelmingly to condemn Russia's invasion of Ukraine - NPR

Sometime in the early hours of Thursday morning, video clips of Russias invasion of Ukraine started making their way around the Internet. Enormous plumes of black smoke billowed into the peachy daybreak skies of Kharkiv and Kherson. On the other side of the country, a cell-phone video, filmed from what appeared to be an apartment window in Lutsk, zoomed in over a roadwhere cars, taxis, and buses still travelledto show an explosion in the distance. A flock of startled birds flew off, and the Ukrainian voices behind the camera registered the shock that the whole world seemed to be feeling: the Russians were coming, and they had brought all their bombs, tanks, and missiles with them.

The conflict was notable for how much the public already knew about it. The Biden Administration proactively declassified intelligence about Russias intentions in Ukraine, as a means to both foil Putins false pretenses for starting the war and expose his real motivations: to restore mid-century Soviet order. Another thing was made clear early on: the U.S. would not be intervening. Ukraine isnt in NATO. The U.S. and its allies, which have adopted a series of tough economic sanctions against Russia, have no treaty obligation to defend Ukraine, no matter how sympathetic the countrys predicament might be. Whatever kind of spitball spin Fox News hosts and J.D. Vance have tried to put on thingsstoking the idea that the White House is angling to send in ground troopsthe Administration has said repeatedly that it wont get involved militarily. Yes, there will be worthy endeavors, such as providing weapons, sharing intelligence, and assisting refugees, but our geopolitical might is mostly on hold for fear of conflict with a nuclear power. Crass as it may sound, the war in Ukraine is, for Americans, more of a media experience than anything else. Mostly what we will do is watch.

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Watching a war in 2022 means digesting packaged bits from a buffet of human suffering. There is a never-ending supply of man-on-the-street interviews, podcasts produced in the dead of nightunder the spectre of deathand TV broadcasts filled with dire B-roll. Maybe we are bearing witness? Thats certainly the high-minded spin, the motivating virtue of conflict journalism. If thats the case, on Thursday, February 24th, I bore witness on an early car ride to the doctors office. There were speeches to catch up on: Putin proclaiming the need to de-Nazify Ukraine, and Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraines first Jewish president, pleading for peace. Between historical explanations of Ukraine and Russias relationship, I came across chilling, though thinly sourced, reports that the invading Russian Army would be followed by mobile crematoriums. My mind flashed to the Afghan war memorial Id seen when Id visited Yekaterinburg a few years ago: an iron soldier, sitting with a Kalashnikov in hand, head downcast, the names of all the dead encircling hima memorial to a war that people resented.

We are so deluged by information about the situation on the ground, from every angle, that some have called this the TikTok War. I read a piece in the waiting room of the doctors office about how Russians were shocked by Putins aggression, how analysts chalked up his obsession with the restoration of the U.S.S.R.s borders to pandemic-era isolation. As crowds of protesters took to the streets in St. Petersburg, reports on Twitter showed videos of what were apparently Russian aerial attacks on an airport near Kyiv. President Zelensky announced that a hundred and thirty-seven Ukrainians died that day. I was sitting among mostly pregnant women, all quietly gestating and scrolling; later, Id see a video of NICU nurses in the eastern Ukrainian city of Dnipro, tending to their tiny patients laid out on benches in a makeshift bomb shelter.

Through Twitter, you could be swept into portals of essential local reporting, like that of the Kyiv Independent, which reminded me of the way that Id used the app during the Arab Spring. A decade ago, it had been a novel realization that an uprising could be documented from the ground up, in painstaking detail, complete with video evidence. The view felt intimate in a way that standup shots of news anchors in Brooks Brothers and flak jackets could never achieve. These past few days, news obsessives could feel that they had a similarly well-rounded grasp on the military, diplomatic, historical, and human contours of the Ukrainian conflict, in no small part because of civilian-filmed videos, such as one of a bombing in a neighborhood in Kharkiv with the soft crying of a woman audible in the background.

Most major U.S. newspapers have some sort of around-the-clock live blog of events. There are stark feats of photojournalism everywhere, and compelling interviews with some of the half a million Ukrainians fleeing their homes. Zelenskys 2006 turn on a dance competition show has gone viralthe actor turned wartime President has easily become the foremost Internet hero in all of this. He is also, if the Russians take control of the country, almost certainly a dead man. The story of defiant Ukrainian soldiers on Snake Island telling an invading Russian warship to go fuck yourself, before being killed, was inspiring but not true; the Ukrainian Navy now says that the soldiers are all all alive. You can find many videos of everyday Ukrainians learning how to make Molotov cocktails and signing up for street patrols to defend their country. Harder to findrightfully soare images of the civilians dead from cluster-bomb attacks.

The immersive experience of Ukraine coveragethat constant tending to our phones, the endlessly refreshed video feed of action in the countrys streets and bomb sheltersmakes us feel deeply involved in the conflict, even from a position of relative impotence in the West. We feel digitally proximate to the war, thanks to wall-to-wall coverage. Yes, theres a tangled web of Eurocentrism and racism that makes Americans more outraged at a war in Europe than one in Syria. There are parts of that scrolling that feel prurient. Are we bearing witness or simply watching things in a faraway place go boom? We both shrink from and seek out the macabre. But that connectivitywar as media experienceis still human connection. And it is perhaps as close as we get to empathy across borders and through the fog of an unfolding war.

The journalist Hussein Kesvani described online response to these first days of the war in Ukraine as memeification, the marvel-isation, the spectacle of an ongoing war rendered as entertainment. Theres nothing inherently wrong with creating heroesCasablanca was made in the midst of the Second World War, an homage to the righteousness of the Allied cause in the face of Fascism. But war is also helltrite but true. Its a dead Russian soldier lying on the ground, covered in snow, abandoned, and a six-year-old dying in front of her mother. While we might feel connected to the struggles in Ukraine through stories of bravery and valor, theyre not the full story. And its also probably about to get much, much worse for the defiant Ukrainians. They might be winning the hearts and minds of the world via social-media dispatch, but there is a long column of Russian tanks that has yet to roll into their capital city.

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A Mediated View of the War in Ukraine - The New Yorker