Posted on 04/28/2022 4:16:04 PM PDT by Zhang Fei
As night fell that first evening, gunfights broke out around the government quarter. Oleksiy Arestovych, a veteran of Ukraine’s military intelligence service (said) “It was an absolute madhouse”. “Automatics for everyone.” Russian troops, he says, made two attempts to storm the compound. Zelensky later told me that his wife and children were still there.
Offers came in from American and British forces to evacuate the President and his team. The idea was to help them set up a government in exile, most likely in eastern Poland, that could continue to lead from afar. Speaking on a secure landline with the Americans, he responded with a zinger that made headlines around the world: “I need ammunition, not a ride.”
“We thought that was brave,” says a U.S. official briefed on the call. “But very risky.” Zelensky’s bodyguards felt the same. They also urged him to leave the compound right away. Its buildings are nestled in a densely populated neighborhood, surrounded by private homes that could serve as nests for enemy snipers. Some houses are close enough to throw a grenade through the window from across the street. “The place was wide open,” says Arestovych. “We didn’t even have concrete blocks to close the street.”
Somewhere outside the capital, a secure bunker was waiting for the President, equipped to withstand a lengthy siege. Zelensky refused to go there. Instead, on the second night of the invasion, while Ukrainian forces were fighting the Russians in nearby streets, the President decided to walk outside into the courtyard and film a video message on his phone. “We’re all here,” Zelensky said after doing a roll call of the officials by his side. They were dressed in the army green T-shirts and jackets that would become their war-time uniforms. “Defending our independence, our country.”
(Excerpt) Read more at time.com ...
Ukraine ping
Somewhat hagiographic treatment of Zelensky in the first moments of the war. Nonetheless it has to be said that at significant personal risk, he stayed in place, and gave his compatriots a living symbol around whom they could rally. In so doing, he has furnished one of the finest examples of what the late historian John Keegan called the mask of command. Arguably, without that commendable and perhaps necessary display of resolution, the Ukrainian resistance might have collapsed as quickly as analysts on both sides had predicted - in 72 hours or less.
We have absolutely no idea if he’s in the Ukraine.
3 hours ago..
There’s no point debating that Russian troll. It’s just here to earn its rubles.
he is a punk
a secure landline with the Americans, he responded with a zinger that made headlines around the world: “I need ammunition, not a ride.”
sounds real secure and smells too
Agreed, and it is not a debate as I showed that all they can do is lie, and I demonstrated it by providing evidence they were engaged in trying to pass a lie.
I so suspect their next response will be for me to prove they currently at this moment in 'Ukraine' (totally not a Russian Republic). I don't have Zelenskyy's current location and even if I did, I would not provide it so their Russian handlers know where to strike at him.
Every side does it, and must do it, to survive.
Presenting a certain front to the troops and the world is a necessity.
The article even explains it.
And if we did know precisely where he was, why some people on FR would likely want us to post his exact GPS coordinates so he could be assassinated by Russian cruise missiles out of Crimea… As far as I’m concerned the more he moves around daily the better for them in UKR and for freedom.
:)
I agree with all of that, even that bolded clause. Claims of the Putinistas notwithstanding, Zelensky being a great or even good man isn't relevant to which side I support in this war. Nor does whatever Ukrainian (or Russian) corruption that exists matter either. For me, it is the simple reason of Russia breaching 75 years of no major European wars, and returning large-scale warfare to a continent from which it should have been banished. That's just freaking evil, and not something the rest of the world should tolerate. Nor can we afford to let the Chinese think that we would sit by while they gobbled up the Pacific.
But you're also right about the critical importance of Zelensky's war leadership, which unquestionably rallied the rest of his country.
For me, it is the simple reason of Russia breaching 75 years of no major European wars, and returning large-scale warfare to a continent from which it should have been banished. That’s just freaking evil, and not something the rest of the world should tolerate.
This is the key point and sadly many simple minded Putinas can not grasp it. Russia is murdering and raping civilians on an industrial scale in Ukraine. Nothing good can come of that precedent. A world not substantively opposing that and supporting Ukraine’s self defense only encourages Putin to ramp up to Chemical and nukes. And he’s not going to nuke us. It will be “nazi” Ukraine wiped off the earth. He’s has promised to do just that. We must take him at his word that he will do it and we must increase the cost so massively that he won’t dare do it.
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