A ceasefire agreement allowing civilians to evacuate Mariupol fell apart after the Russian military attacked civilians.
Summary
Russia and Ukraine twice agreed on a local ceasefire creating humanitarian corridors for civilians to evacuate besieged Mariupol in southern Ukraine. Both attempts to evacuate 200,000 civilians fell apart after the Russian military shelled the corridor.
- More than 1.5 million Ukrainians have fled the country in the 10 days since the war began.
- On Saturday Mastercard and Visa announced they would halt operations in Russia. Business in Russia accounted for approximately 4 percent of each company’s net revenue.
- Russia’s war of aggression is threatening the world’s food supply. Ukraine’s “vast, fertile farmlands” supply people across Europe, Africa and Asia and wheat prices have surged 55 percent since the invasion.
- Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett conducted shuttle diplomacy, flying Moscow and Berlin and speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and French President Emmanuel Macron to negotiate a resolution to the conflict.
- Kyiv requested Bennett mediate as the only democratic leader on good terms with both countries.
- The Washington Post reported on Russian attacks on Ukrainian airfields and Zelensky’s requests for more fighter jets from NATO countries.
- According to The New York Times Russian police have arrested more than 3,000 people for protesting the war. Thousands protested the conflict across Russia on Sunday.
- Politico profiled German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Germany’s historic changes in its defense, Ukraine, and Russia policies in the wake of the invasion.
- Fox News reported that there’s “no doubt” Russian corruption is playing a role in its military’s poor performance in the conflict so far.
- The Washington Examiner covered US diplomatic attempts to pull Venezuela out of Russia’s orbit since the invasion.
- The Federalist attacked Twitter’s hypocrisy for banning former president Donald Trump from the platform while allowing Russian dictator Vladimir Putin to keep his account.
Author’s Take
Over 1.5 million Ukrainians have fled their country in the 10 days since Russia invaded their country. By comparison, the 2015 Syrian refugee crisis saw 1.3 million Syrians seek asylum in Europe over the course of an entire year. The 2015 crisis destabilized European politics, contributing to the rise of far-right parties in France, Germany, Austria, Spain, and Sweden.
Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s role is remarkable in the context of European history. Russia, Ukraine, France, and Germany each have long histories of brutal antisemitism and violence against Jews ranging from Russian pogroms to the Holocaust. Imagine telling someone in 1942 that eighty years in the future the leader of the Jewish state is flying from Moscow to Berlin to broker peace.
Ten days into the largest conflict in Europe since 1945, and it’s difficult to foresee how this crisis will end. What is clear is that the world has irrevocably changed.
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© Dominic Moore, 2022
