Seven Hours of Hell
How China hedged their bets on a Russian victory in Ukraine
“This night was hot, I do not remember so many missiles since the beginning of the war.”
—a friend in Kharkiv
“How many times has anyone ever seen a US General bow to the widow of a fallen US soldier, sailor, or marine?”
Hello from Lviv, 11 March 2023. Yesterday, President Zelenskiy attended the funeral of the warrior known as Da Vinci, real name Dmytro Kotsiubailo, one of the youngest commanders of a battalion in Ukrainian history. Called Da Vinci because he was an artist, he was also one of the heroes, as a teenager, of Ukraine’s peaceful and revolutionary Maidan protests.
Nine years after that Revolution of Dignity, his funeral was held steps away from Maidan, the public square of Kyiv, at St. Michael’s Golden Domed Monastery. People, including General Zalushnyi, commander-in-chief of Ukraine’s military, knelt before his open casket carried through the streets.
An American veteran who spend time volunteering in Ukraine sent this photo of the funeral and these words:
“I think this perfectly encapsulates Ukraine and the Revolution of Dignity, a true revolution of the people. The Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine bows to the wife of a fallen soldier ("Da Vinci"). How many times has anyone ever seen a US General bow to the widow of a fallen US soldier, sailor, or marine? Says a lot.”
Plus: American Brennan Phillips provides perspective on what China is up to these days:
“Will we incorporate Ukraine as the European bulwark against Russian and Chinese aggression for which they have sacrificed, or try to bribe our way to safety from the threat of Russian and Chinese bombs?”
Read on for more.
—Joe Lindsley
WITHIN:
—Daily War Journal Video
—Daily War Analysis
—Daily War Music from Ukraine
—Greetings from Ukraine’s ‘Memestry of Defense’
“[It's something rare in our world of corporate and automated radio regular, real humanity.”
—Neil Steinberg, in the Chicago Sun-Times, on Joe Lindsley’s daily Ukraine reports with Bob Sirott of Chicago’s WGN Radio. We invite you to follow on YouTube.
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Bakhmut Still Holds, As Russian Sends 81 Rockets, 6 of Them 'Unstoppable' for now
by JOE LINDSLEY
LVIV—Arriving via the overnight train from Kyiv, I woke to the news that Russians had been through the night sending missiles all over Ukraine and with and more incoming. Here's what happened.
Plus: Russian shelling harms largest nuclear plant in Europe; and the Georgian people stand against their government.
DAILY WAR JOURNAL—ON CHICAGO’S WGN RADIO:
War Day 380: Ukrainians Survive Winter; What Russia Hates the Most
from Friday 10 March: My daily Ukraine report on Chicago's WGN Radio with Bob Sirott
“I must bring to mind once again
That joy always came after pain … ”
—from “Le pont Mirabeau” by French poet Guillaume Apollinaire, adapted for the song “Vesna Mirabeau,” a French-Ukrainian mixture created by France’s top musicians and Ukraine’s Slava Vakarchuk
Yesterday it was nearly 60 degrees Fahrenheit in Lviv. I thought of the song above because for the first time the weather feels like spring. People were smiling in the sunshine, and after the terrible morning Thursday it's a sign that it is possible to keep going. People—mothers with children, kids playing on their own, nuns, soldiers, foreign volunteers, old folks walking, young people on benches—are strolling the parks and cobbled streets.
I saw one of the Points of Invincibility — the warning tents. It was not needed that day. A sign of a victory — there have been many deaths in battle and from missile strikes but Ukraine has survived the winter, the people have adapted, kept each other warm and fed.
A girl I met in Kharkiv told me she doesn’t remember seasons in the time of war. Was there a summer? She can only see and smell the smoke of war. It is still February 24 — and yet, on this blue sky day in Lviv, as with every day of survival, there’s a confidence in the air …
Still, across the country in Kharkiv, it was chilly, 45 degrees. And many people are still without power. Yesterday, from the missile attacks at 5am until nearly midnight, nearly 20 hours, no one had electricity, water, heat, internet, and phone service was sporadic. So it was hard for them even to know whether or not there woudl be further attacks.
Listen to the report above and the music below.
DAILY WAR MUSIC:
"Joy always follows sorrow.”
This is Vesna Mirabeau, the song excerpted and discuss above. The French and Ukrainian languages are both considered among the most melodics and in this song they flow together quite nicely.
Vesna Mirabeau (feat. Jean-Louis Aubert, Auren, Clarika, Niki Demiller, Kent, Nesles, Ullie Swan, Sanseverino, Florent Vintrigner, Remy Sarrazin, Myriam Serfass, Dima Tsypkin) · Okean Elzy · Jean-Louis Aubert · Auren · Clarika · Niki Demiller · Kent · Nesles · Ullie Swan · Sanseverino · Florent Vintrigner · Remy Sarrazin · Myriam Serfass · Dima Tsypkin · Sviatoslav Vakarchuk · Sviatoslav Vakarchuk Myriam Eddaïra · Myriam Eddaïra
DAILY WAR ANALYSIS:
China's Debt-Trap Diplomacy in Ukraine
How China hedged their bets on a Russian victory in Ukraine
by BRENNAN PHILLIPS
During an official visit to Kazakhstan and Indonesia in September and October 2013, Chairman Xi Jinping announced the official launch of China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). The BRI is a vast network of transportation and infrastructure projects connecting China with countries around the globe. To date, 151 countries – or two-thirds of the world's population – have signed on to the BRI, and it has been touted as a way for China to expand its economic and geopolitical influence.
One country impacted by China's influence was Ukraine. Despite mass protests, on December 3rd, 2013 - just three months after Xi's announcement - Kremlin-backed Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych shelved a free trade agreement with the EU and flew to China. Three months later, on February 22nd, 2014, Yanukovych was ousted and fled to Moscow. He left behind hundreds of dead protestors, a new Russian naval base in Crimea, and a multi-billion-dollar commitment to China's BRI. The Kremlin had lost control of the Ukrainian economy.
Five days later, Russia spring-boarded an invasion into Ukraine from its new naval base, igniting a violent, years-long partisan war. The West was reticent despite thousands of Ukrainian casualties and their pleas for help. There would be no tangible response until September 2014, when US President Obama approved a small package of nonlethal aid.
As the West retreated, China advanced. In the face of a protracted war and little Western assistance, a vacuum was created in the Ukrainian economy. China was glad to fill the void. In 2017, Ukraine officially joined the Belt and Road Initaitive, leading China to become Ukraine's largest trading partner and number one importer of Ukrainian agricultural products, minerals, and weapons systems. Although China's infrastructure and military investments complicated Western relationships with Ukraine, Western absence exacerbated the issues.
By 2021, billions of dollars in BRI-related projects were underway throughout Ukraine's transportation, construction, energy, and telecommunications industries. Chinese state-owned companies invested hundreds of millions of dollars in building and dredging ports in Mykolaiv, Mariupol, and Odesa. China's paramilitary organization, Bingtuan, purchased 250,000 acres of Ukrainian farmland for "cultivation." Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei, banned by the US and UK, won contracts to help build Ukraine's cellular network and signed agreements to cooperate on cybersecurity and cyber-defense.
On February 4th, 2022, on the opening day of the Winter Olympics, Xi met with Putin, declaring a "no limits partnership" with "no forbidden areas of cooperation," promising to collaborate more against the West and backing each other over Ukraine and Taiwan - Beijing demanding Ukraine not be admitted into NATO and Russia opposing independence for Taiwan. Just two days later, Xi met with Polish President Duda to reaffirm Poland as the primary logistics hub for the BRI's New Eurasian Land Bridge. Ukraine was the bridge, Poland was the distribution center, and Europe was the target customer.
The contents of Xi and Putin's conversation are unknown, but considering the risks to the BRI and based on how Xi and Putin described their conversation, it defies credulity to suggest that Putin failed to inform Xi of his pending invasion. Assessing China's material and economic support for Russia over the past year and now their consideration of providing lethal aid, it becomes apparent that Xi hedged his bets, giving Putin the green light to invade Ukraine, thereby ensuring a Russian victory and guaranteeing the success of the BRI's New Eurasian Land Bridge.
What China tried to secure through debt-trap diplomacy, Russia tried to take by force. With an independent Ukraine holding the only ticket to free trade with Europe, it threatened to sideline Russia and hold the BRI hostage, with neither China nor Russia possessing the leverage to force Kyiv to do their bidding. If Russia wins in Ukraine, China will cash in on its gamble. Belarus, Ukraine, and Russia will become a more simplified and manageable economic unit, which is how China has long viewed them from an economic/BRI perspective. European trade is what Russia wanted and now what Russia must have to survive.
Assuming the West facilitates an expeditious Ukrainian victory and their postwar recovery, Ukraine finds itself in a hitherto inconceivable position of strength with a mutually beneficial outcome for the West. A victorious Ukraine would spell the death of the BRI in Europe and, therefore, the demise of Chinese and Russian economic control and geopolitical influence over Europe.
We have reached a time for choosing. Will we facilitate a victory for Ukraine or Russia and China? Will we incorporate Ukraine as the European bulwark against Russian and Chinese aggression for which they have sacrificed, or try to bribe our way to safety from the threat of Russian and Chinese bombs? In the words of Ronald Reagan, will history record with the greatest astonishment that those who had the most to lose did the least to prevent its happening?
You can also read and share the story from our website here.
Russians Show Video of the Killing of a Ukrainian Prisoner of War Calmly Smoking
from Tuesday 7 March: My daily Ukraine report on Chicago's WGN Radio with Bob Sirott
by JOE LINDSLEY
KYIV—I describe the war-time midnight train from Kharkiv to Kyiv, while giving an update on the brutal battles of Bakhmut and a Russian killing of a Ukrainian prisoner of war, whose last words were a cool, calm, "Slava Ukraiini."
And I share stories of visiting a mostly destroyed high-rise where one old man still lives in Kharkiv's devastated Salivka district. Plus: Did you know that in the three years preceding Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the top foreign cadet at the UK's top military academy was a Ukrainian?
PREVIOUSLY—kindly forward stories to those whom might be interested:
War Day 378: Why Do The Tbilisi Protests Matter?
KYIV--Speaking from the Ukrainian capital hours before Russia would launch a massive nationwide missile strike on Ukraine, I report on the developments in Tbilisi, Georgia, where citizens are protesting what they believe is a Russian-backed attempt to curb free speech.
Six unpopular truths about Ukraine
1. Russia’s war on Ukraine is happening for one reason: Ukrainians insist on freedom.
2. The talk of war crimes misses the point. The entire war is a war crime.
3. Ukraine’s democratic corruption is not as awful as in numerous other countries.
4. Most Ukrainians are unvaccinated against coronavirus.
5. Hunter Biden made money from Russia, and not from Ukraine.
6. The US has actually given less support to Ukraine than it seems.
Read the story from Poland’s TVP World.
“[It's something rare in our world of corporate and automated radio regular, real humanity.”
—Neil Steinberg, in the Chicago Sun-Times, on Joe Lindsley’s daily Ukraine reports with Bob Sirott of Chicago’s WGN Radio. We invite you to follow on YouTube.
*UKRAINIAN FREEDOM NEWS: Please support us by subscribing and sharing this newsletter with your friends, colleagues, and family. Donations welcome here.*
ABOUT US: Ukrainian Freedom News: The wild story—so far—of free people standing for democracy, faith, dignity
"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
“I just returned from three months in Ukraine. Not my first time there, and certainly not my last; a powerful experience for me personally, but I must say that JOE’s REPORTING, HIS INSIGHTS, and, OBVIOUSLY, HIS HEART, ARE SPOT-ON.” —Jim, a Telegram follower of Ukrainian Freedom News
American journalist Joe Lindsley, in Ukraine since 2020, leads the Ukrainian Freedom News team of Ukrainians and foreigners on a mission to share real talk and real life in war-time with the world. Every weekday since late February 2022, he has reported live from Ukraine on Chicago’s WGN Radio with host Bob Sirott. You can listen to all episodes at UkrainianFreedomNews.com or via our YouTube channel.
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UKRAINIAN FREEDOM NEWS
Truth to the World | Supplies to Ukraine
Joe Lindsley, Editor-in-chief
Vitalii Gulden, Creative Producer
Beata Szrom, Operations Director
Pavlo Vitenko, Chief Reporter
Anton Hutyriak, Associate Editor
Luka Oleschyuk, Video Editor
Jean-Baptiste Besson, Field Editor
Brennan Phillips, War Columnist