Watching Ukraine: Will Americans stay tuned?

The hill ^ | 04/23/2022 | TARA D. SONENSHINE

[JonPreston]

Seems so

[hflynn]

Fox is spent more time on USFL Football and NASCAR last weekend.

Looks like the same for this weekend.

[dforest]

Doubt it. Summer is here and people have better things to do.

Without attention it fizzles.

[dforest]

They have been given more than one opportunity to come out and stay alive.

Why were they told not to take it and by whom?

[Carriage Hill]

I tuned it out weeks ago.

[PIF]

I watched Fox for a half hour around 5AM and not a word about Ukraine or the border.

[ConservativeInPA]

CNN has rarely cut away from the war to cover other stories. It has 75 people in Ukraine.

How does CNN have more employees than viewers?

[BillyBoy]

>> zelensky begging for money and weapons and comparing him to Reagan. <<

I would compare that more to Churchill "begging for money and weapons" in 1940 during the Blitz.

[BobL]

They’ll keep Ukraine front and center through the election...so they don’t have to talk about inflation or the border.

[BobL]

“The media spotlight is fading. No articles on Drudge and even Kilmead removed his Ukraine 🇺🇦 pocket square”

Perhaps Kilmead is reading up a bit on what led to this war.

[BobL]

“The Ukes in Mariupol are surrounded, and they are demanding that a withdrawl be negotiated. Shouldn’t those troops just surrender at this point?”

As long as the media continues to support them, they’ll hold out, and probably die there.

[Terry L Smith]

nope! this is almost a tribal dispute.
both sides are telling whoppers.
big bad boogeyman Putin, attempting a legacy, while looking a little piqued.
Zarlensky doing fundraising acts, with something white on his desk.
Russian gear, hauled out of the Cold War antique shop, being blown to bits with the West’s newest toys ...smells like 3 day old fish.
Russian staff being sifted and shot every day ...smells too

it is a con being pulled by both sides.

[dragnet2]

No, it’s not our war, not our problem.

[Trillian]

It’s all propaganda.

[Repeal The 17th]

Can’t tune out if you never tuned in.

[FreshPrince]

As long as the west keeps the ukes supplied media coverage is not a concern for me

[Brian Griffin]

“75 people”

They must watch CNN via the Internet.

[Drew68]

As long as they trot out zelensky begging for money and weapons and comparing him to Reagan..🙄🙄

There were people here who called Zelenski "Ukraine's Trump" which is patently ridiculous.

[Vlad0]

The Ukes in Mariupol are surrounded, and they are demanding that a withdrawl be negotiated. Shouldn’t those troops just surrender at this point?

The only place in Mariupol where there are any troops remaining is in the catacombs under the giant, sprawling steel plant, Azovstal. And the ring containing them keeps getting tigher and tigher.

This is incredible war footage, but I think it's also fair to describe it as Russian propaganda, given what little one can surmise about the source. RUSSIAN MARINES AND DPR STORMING AZOVSTAL OUTSKIRTS

President Putin made a speech where he ordered that the remaining Ukrainian military troops be blockaded, but that the Russian forces not assault the plant and try to clear the tunnels, corridor by corridor. To prevent the death and injury of many Russian troops fighting in the tunnels would result in.

The rest of the city appears to be under Russian control, as evidenced by the many recent videos posted on line.

It's a very grim situation for the fighters in the tunnels, estimated at about 1,000 men. They are totally cut off and can't get resupply. They are disinclined to surrender because the majority of the force is the Azov (sometimes spelled Azoff, Asof, etc.) Brigade, which is the voluntary far-right (in Ukrainian terms) militia which helped overthrow the elected government in 2014, and has taken the lead in attacking the break-away republics in the Donbas.

They are who President Putin and the Russians refer to as "Nazis" (not a completely arbitrary claim, as there are direct links from the current Azov leaders and the Nazi Occupation Government of Ukraine, which unlike Poland, (but like France) had a strong Nazi collaborationist movement.

Unlike France, they did not have a national reckoning with their collaborationists after the end of WW2. Ukraine moved seemlessly into the Soviet Union, and so didn't have the sorts of trials and reckoning with collaborators that France had. Mostly they were allowed to merge back into Ukrainian society. They went on to form "ultra-nationalist" faction and the Azov fighters come directly from those groups.

The Azov Battalion logo on the Left, the Nazi 2nd SS Panzer Division Das Reich (1939–1945), in center. On right the "sun wheel". The background on the Azov logo is a common European White Nationalist logo, the "sun wheel" or "black sun".

When the Azov Battalion surrender they have little to look forward to. They have been promised War Crimes Trials in Russia, probably followed by life in prison in Siberia for most of them. (Russia currently has no death penalty, but it could be reinstated for these fellows, so hated are they in Russia.)

So, the plan is to starve them out. I guess their plan is that somehow the fortunes of the Ukrainian forces reverses, and they are rescued or allowed safe passage as part of a negotiated settlement. Both seem highly unlikely.

This video is unpleasant, but shows the reality of life underground in the steel plant tunnels:

INJURED AZOV FIGHTERS ROTTING ALIVE IN BOWELS OF AZOVSTAL

[Gaffer]

I haven’t watched one bit of coverage, Fox or otherwise.