WAR IN UKRAINE: March 27, 2022
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS: Day 32
The streets of Lviv were noticeably quieter Sunday after two separate strikes in the city on the previous day - including an oil storage depot and a military facility. A city parking lot attendant told me he saw vehicles departing the city Saturday. Lviv’s Rynok Square had about a quarter of the pedestrian traffic it did the previous Sunday.
Reaction inside Ukraine to US President Joe Biden’s historic Warsaw speech was lukewarm at best. Critics said that although it backed Ukraine strongly, an attempt afterwards to walk back remarks calling for regime change in Moscow showed weakness or confusion on the part of the White House. Earlier, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky had asked for one percent of NATO military assets.
Speaking of the embarrassing walk-back of the regime change remarks by the White House, Washington Post columnist Josh Rogin said: ““The worst of all worlds is that he intentionally did it and then the White House claims he accidentally did it. Because what that projects is a muddle. It makes it looks like the president and the White House don’t know what they are doing and can’t get their story straight.” (Watch the CNN segment below featuring Josh and myself).
Slavutych, a city in northern Ukraine built for evacuees from Chornobyl, has been seized after three days of heavy fighting. Said its mayor: “Slavutych is under occupation from today. We steadfastly defended our city. Three days ago we received an ultimatum to surrender it without a fight, but our military, the National Police, decided to defend the city. They could not do otherwise, they are military, they work for it.” (Ukrainska Pravda)
Separately, the nuclear research reactor at the Kharkiv Institute of Physics and Technology has come under renewed Russian fire. Ukrainian authorities have not yet been able to assess damage to the site, due to constant shelling. A Ukrainian official on Saturday said there were legitimate fears that Russian forces could take over or damage some of the other nuclear reactor facilities in Ukraine.
Dozens of Ukrainian communities, monasteries move to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine. Its leader, Metropolitan Epiphanius I of Kyiv, made the announcement via Twitter on March 26. The Ukrainian Orthodox Church reported earlier on March 25 that 28 communities in nine oblasts have officially switched from the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate) to the independent Orthodox Church of Ukraine since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. (Kyiv Independent).
British intelligence indicates that Russians are relying on long term missiles because Russian pilots are afraid of being shot down. Britain’s foreign Minister said that sanctions on Russia may be lifted once it stops the war, fully leaves Ukraine and provides guarantees there will be no further aggression.
Actor Sean Penn threatened to smelt his Oscars in public if Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky is not invited to speak at the Academy Awards today. In the end, the TV comedian-turned-politician was not invited however a moment of silence for Ukraine was observed. The actor is shooting a documentary for Vice about the Ukrainian-Russian war, and he met with Zelensky last week.
Ukraine’s government has opened a portal for citizens to begin registering material and physical damage suffered as a result of the invasion. This should help in shortening delivery time for reconstruction aid. Infrastructure damage in Ukraine thus far is estimated to be in the range of $60-billion.
