<
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/05/putin-war-propaganda-russian-support/629714/>
"When the Russian army first began shelling Lukashivka, a village in northern
Ukraine, dozens of residents fled to the Horbonos family’s cellar. Children,
pregnant women, bedridden pensioners, and the Horbonoses themselves headed down
below the family’s peach orchard and vegetable patches, and waited. For 10
days, they listened as shells whistled and crashed above several times an hour.
The attacks left huge craters in the land, incinerating the Horbonoses’ car and
destroying the roof of their house. Finally, on March 9, they heard the sound
of heavy weaponry and tanks entering the village: The Russian army had taken
Lukashivka.
Soldiers ordered the terrified villagers to the surface, and then threw a
grenade into the cellar, targeting any hidden Ukrainian soldiers. The
Horbonoses—Irina, 55; Sergey, 59; and their 25-year-old son, Nikita—spent the
next night in a neighbor’s cellar, but it was so wet and cold that they
returned to theirs. Upon arrival, they found five Russian soldiers living
inside.
“Where are we meant to live?” Irina asked. “This is our home.” The soldiers
told the Horbonos family that they could return home—they could all live there
together. And so the Horbonoses moved back in.
They would spend about three weeks with those five Russian soldiers, eating
together, walking together, talking together. The Russian soldiers would make
nonsensical declarations about their mission and ask alarmingly basic questions
about Ukraine, yet also offer insights into their motivations and their morale;
the Horbonoses would push back on their claims, angrily scream at them, and
also drink with them, using that measure of trust to prod at the soldiers’
confidence in Vladimir Putin’s war."
Via Joerg Fliege and Doug Senko.
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
