📩 NEWSLETTER | The zoom of war

One week everything revolves around the PP and, in one day, all that seems insignificant.

Good Morning.

where does the day go

The zoom of war

From afarthe first hours of a war look like this:

Vladimir Putin has launched Russia into a military attack on Ukraine that has been carried out by land, sea and air. From the east and from the south with bombardments, from the north also with ground troops who have advanced so fast that last night they were already at the gates of Kiev, where this morning The first explosions have occurred. On the way to the capital, Russian forces seized symbolic enclaves such as the old Chernobyl nuclear power plant.

The operation goes far beyond what almost any politician, diplomat or military officer who has spoken in recent days had publicly anticipated. Putin was expected to deploy to the pro-Russian areas closest to his border, but not this. The dozens of places attacked are, as far as we can tell, military or government targets, which have reported the first hundred dead.

from a little closerwe see something else.

Near each of those red crashed dots on the map above, there are scenes like this. Rows of cars full of families trying to leave the largest cities or the towns near strategic places. There are citizens seeking shelter in subway tunnels, in cellars, in abandoned houses in the countryside. Gas stations and supermarkets are now a place of tension. And the first thousand people they are already crossing the borderfleeing to other countries. In total there are already more than 100,000 people displacedaccording to UNHCR.

And a little closer…

“This is inexplicable,” Igor Likhvanchuk tells my partner Gabriela Sánchez. She is one of the hundreds of people who have been stuck in the Kiev metro for hours with the arrival of the news that the troops were advancing towards the capital. She now she is in the basement of a friend’s house. She has also spoken with Oksana, and with Izan. His stories they are the face of what this war can mean. Millions of people ask the same question: Stay or run?

Russia to war

today on the podcast We try to explain the basics of this attack, in case you don’t quite understand what’s going on.

Let’s return to the plane of geopolitics to explain the reactions to this move by Putin, built on a lie (which he had no intention of attacking) which, it must be said, convinced many but not the US. The most natural thing is to consider: if Putin is Washington’s archenemy, the US will intervene militarily in Ukraine. That in theory, at least for now, will not happen. The US does not want to escalate the military conflict with a nuclear power and, moreover, does not have the NATO tool because Ukraine is not a member of NATO so it has no right to be defended by its armies.

So Biden and the European Union sanctions have been announcedwhich will be harsh, but have not intimidated Putin in the past.

what remains to ask right now is: when is Putin going to stop? What is he hoping to achieve? I don’t know, but what I do know is that my partner Íñigo Sáenz de Ugarte explains very well what are the political and historical motivations of the Russian leader, who never believed that there were reasons for Ukraine to be an independent state from Russia. And another thing to ask: who can convince him to stop? Last night Macron called Putin, but the shots are not going out there, but rather for China and for the Russian oligarchies that feel their businesses abroad are threatened.

In Moscow and other Russian cities we have seen demonstrations against the war. It must be said that they are not massive. Perhaps because of the fear of repression and in fact there have been hundreds of arrests. In Spain, as in other countries, there have been concentrations of Ukrainians who live here, contrary to what they see as desperate in the media.

Reactions in Spain . The government has condemned the attack.Pablo Casado (do you remember how important Pablo Casado was yesterday?) Has offered “the support of the PP to the Government” and there is not much controversy. There are those who think that anyone who fights American imperialism is, by definition, “one of the good guys.” In fact, there are those who think that fighting American imperialism automatically means being on the left. Vladimir Putin has been sheltered under this confusing mantra for decades, whom leftist leaders and groups in many countries have defended or avoided criticizing. In Spain, the left is breaking those moorings, it has taken the “No to war” also against Putin and they point to him (also) as an imperialist. The Communist Party, United We Can, Yolanda Díaz (and paul churches) or Alberto Garzon have expressed their rejection to the war started by Russia and to the figure of Putin, without this obviously meaning taking American policies for granted.

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Trivial Tertullian

Blue – How many inhabitants does Ukraine have: 12 million, 6 million or 44 million?

pink – What program does journalist Ana Pastor present and direct on La Sexta?

Yellow – Since what year did Vladimir Putin hold power in Russia, alternating the position of prime minister and president?

Brown – Who is the president of the Popular Party?

Green – What are the caterpillars covered with stinging hairs that are a plague among the pine forests of Spain called?

Orange – Do Russian teams play in European football competitions such as the Champions League?

Answers

Blue – 44 million.

pink – The objective

Yellow – 1999

Brown – Paul Married.

Green – Processionaries

Orange – Yes

On Monday we read each other again. I hope all goes well.

A hug,

Juanlu.