Does Eurovision show Ukraine versus the world?
Day 811: What Made Russia's Kharkiv Incursion Possible?
Ukrainian Freedom News: THE MOST COMPREHENSIVE DAILY LOOK AT THE REALITY IN UKRAINE.
THE WRAP: Yesterday, 14 May, the Russians pounded Kharkiv city, at least five separate bombings spaced throughout the day and night. Anthony Blinken, US Sec of State, played guitar in a Kyiv bar.
WITHIN TODAY’S EDITION:
Ukrainian Freedom Voices: Max Burtsev, our Kharkiv editor, shares a photo essay of yesterday’s Russian-sent destruction in his city.
The biggest sign of hope: Anthony Blinken singing? No. I think it’s the spirit of the Kharkiv people. They’re not running away. And it’s the spirit of Ukrainians who keep singing even amid the hell—see below our latest WGN Radio War Journal.
The biggest concern: Will the Russians breakthrough further into Kharkiv region?
The biggest question for Washington: The Russians were able to amass troops on the Kharkiv region border but Washington did not permit Ukrainians to attack them with American weapons until the Russians actually crossed the line into Ukraine. Maybe this is why the Ukrainian fortifications were away from the actual border.
TUNE IN TODAY, LIVE AT 8:19 AM EASTERN US TIME for Joe Lindsley’s daily report from Ukraine on Chicago’s WGN Radio with Bob Sirott. Or follow our social media or this newsletter for the daily video version.
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90 SECONDS OR LESS:
The decadent West. The evil from the East. Does Eurovision show Ukraine versus the world?
This video is proving controversial. What do you think?
WAR ART
Pushing Dragons Off the Map …
Art by Neivanmade, Art Director, UFN
DAILY WAR JOURNAL ON CHICAGO’S WGN RADIO
War Day 811: What Made Russia's Kharkiv Incursion Possible?
🇺🇦 Every Day Until Victory on Chicago’s WGN Radio with Bob Sirott: Joe Lindsley reports every single weekday 10 minutes from Ukraine 🎙️ Monday 13 May 2024
LVIV—I went to some music shows over the weekend, and I learned about Ukraine's long history of punk defiance, in music, protests, and resistence, of tyrants. Meanwhile, Zelenskiy asks for Patriot missiles to protect Kharkiv city, while the Russians push on just 15 miles away.
50 MINUTES - SILICON CURTAIN: Navigating Propaganda
Calder Walton - "Spies" Charts Century-long War of 'Hot' and 'Cold' Espionage Between East and West.
Calder Walton is a world-leading expert on intelligence, national security, and geopolitics. He has written two books, the latest of which is “SPIES. The Epic Intelligence War between East and West” (2023). It is a best-selling exposé of the history of Russian intelligence, that challenges the idea that the Cold War ended with the Soviet Union’s collapse in 1991, but in fact continued after, down to the present day. Today, he argues, the West is in a new Cold War with Russia and China.
Rockin in the Free World: Secretary Blinken Jams in Kyiv While Kharkiv Is On Fire. Are These Good Optics for Victory?
Follow and join an engaging conversation on this topic on X.
by JOE LINDSLEY, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
This scene of U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken playing guitar with Ukrainian musicians at my local bar in Kyiv would be cool if Blinken and Biden and the Washington establishment gave Ukraine permission to fight back, to hit the invading Russians on Russian soil BEFORE the Russians, say, enter Northern Kharkiv region for the first time since they were kicked out in 2022.
But here it looks self-aggrandising and pathetic. I wonder if Anthony’s father Donald played the harmonica in Budapest in 1994 while signing the doc that took away Ukraine’s self-defence?
If you want to show you’re a guitar hero, GO PLAY IN KHARKIV, SECRETARY BLINKEN.
Kyiv is disneyworld for foreign politicans. They’ve ensured it has an iron dome so it’s safe but they’re still in a country at war so they get “great photo ops,” like George W.’s stupid landing on that aircraft carrier. But if they really cared, they’d go to a brave, vibrant city like Kharkiv and say, “We will not surrender!”
Aye, Blinken, I’m happy for you and you nostalgic “rocking in the free world” trip. Maybe one day you’ll tell stories about this ‘magical night’ at some f****** Catalina Island Wine Festival panel after those standing for freedom in Ukraine are all burned, dead, or imprisoned.
🤮
At this very moment, for the 6th or 7th time today, Russia is sending a series of missiles to Kharkiv city, while Marie Antoinettes and Neros fiddle and diddle.
PS. Sad thing is, I think Blinken's probably an earnest sincere guy, inspired by his trip to Kyiv. But he's also got extraordinary power. And if I were him, I'd sneak off to Kharkiv and play there and make a genuine statement of strength by doing so.
Battleground Ukraine Podcast: Analysis by British military historians
UKRAINIAN FREEDOM VOICES
Scenes from Wounded Kharkiv
by MAX BURTSEV, Kharkiv Editor and founder of charity fund Volonterska.
Click to see images via Instagram.
Trending
627 views | + 8K from yesterday
I was reciting Rudyard Kipling’s “If” with friends on a supply delivery trip to Donbas.
And during that road trip I realized this: In the ancient and still flourishing Ukrainian language, the word for “if” literally means “how-what”: a workman like idea of how to achieve the impossible. Because Ukraine never colonized other countries, the Ukrainian language is an easy window into how early Indo-European humans forumated language based on necessity and possibility. —Joe Lindsley
Quick Hits
In 2000, Baroness Margaret Thatcher’s warned about Putin. World leaders did not listen.
“[The Russians] still do not value human life in the same way we do,” Baroness Thatcher said, years after she left Downing Street. She had been observing the newly-elected Putin’s cold response to a Russian submarine disaster.
Hey Marjorie Taylor-Greene, Georgia needs help!
It’s the other Georgia, but maybe the name recognition will be useful. Georgia, or Sakartvelo in its language, is a wild and spirited land with high Caucasus mountains and a Black Sea coast, where in legend Jason and the Argonauts once landed.
The past weeks, hundreds of thousands have taken to the streets to the protest the Kremlin puppet government which is seeking to pass a law that would restrict free speech. The nation’s president, a Frenchwoman by birth, vows to veto it, but the Putin friendly prime minister is cracking down violently on the people many of whom are also waving Ukrainian and American flags.
Here’s a bit of what’s happening. I used to visit Georgia/Sakartvelo often and I know the Georgian people insist on freedom, which is why they have supported Ukraine. But Russians have been trying to take over their land and currently occupy 20 percent of the country.
Kharkiv: The Soul of Freedom.
Episode 1: “You’re beating the wind.”
Here the Kharkiv writer Anna Gin offers her reflections on living in a city that the Russians shell day and night. “Who do you want to scare?” she writes. “There’s no way to break us. We can’t be broken.”
intro illustration by @citiesandsketches
Ukrainian Freedom Supply: Tools for victory
Thanks to our WGN Radio audience in the USA for continued support of our war reporting and of the civilians-turned-soldiers who stand at the front. Here’s a greeting from a Ukrainian Border Guard—incredibly crucial as Russian desperately tries to break into Kharkiv region—saying just how great it is that we got them some walkie-talkies. These little things make a positive difference. We welcome support here.
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State of the War Map: shows Russian positions and what Ukrainians have taken back; updated daily
Mriya Report: a 24/7 Twitter audio channel featuring the best Ukrainian volunteers and representatives
ABOUT US: Reporting Every Single Weekday Since Russia’s Full-Scale Invasion
"Joseph Lindsley's reports are enlightening, frightening, heart-wrenchingly and poetically descriptive." —a regular listener to the daily report from Ukraine on Chicago's WGN Radio with Bob Sirott
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No matter what: never give up and don't be afraid of nothing. This is a motto of my family ❤️ we are from Donetsk region and we are inner migrants with 10 years experience:) we don't have our house but we have our Ukraine:)))