Russia-Ukraine war: Vladimir Putin claims he’s victim of cancel culture, compares himself to JK Rowling
Vladimir Putin has bizarrely compared himself to JK Rowling in hitting out at ‘the cancellation of Russia’, as horrific reports of mass graves in Mariupol surface.
Russia is turning its war machine toward Donbas after claiming success in the “first phase” of its invasion, which is said to have left “mass graves” across Ukraine.
It comes as Russia’s president Vladimir Putin decried the west’s attempt to “cancel” his country’s culture, comparing his treatment to that of Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling.
As reports emerged of Russia running out of munitions and troops purposefully killing commanders, the army said it would now focus on completing the “liberation” of the separatists-held regions in the east of the country.
“The main tasks of the first stage of the operation have been completed,” said Sergei Rudskoi, chief of the Main Operational Directorate of the General Staff of Russia’s armed forces.
“The combat potential of Ukraine’s armed forces has been significantly reduced, which allows (us) — I emphasise once again — to focus our main efforts on achieving the main goal — the liberation of Donbas.”
Recognition of regions in Donbas is among Russia’s prerequisites for a peace deal, along with the recognition of Crimea as part of Russia and a commitment from Ukraine not to join NATO.
Ukraine labelled negotiations with Moscow as “very difficult”, with Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba vowing not to back down on its demands for a full ceasefire, security guarantees and “territorial integrity of Ukraine”.
PUTIN DECRIES ‘CANCEL CULTURE’
Putin compared himself to Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling in the west’s attempt to “cancel” Russian culture, which he compared to Nazi book burning.
During a televised speech awarding Russian culture prizes, Putin said “progressive discrimination” against Russia was the same as its attempted cancellation of the beloved British children’s author.
“Not so long ago children’s author J.K Rowling was cancelled because she, a writer of books that have sold millions of copies around the world, didn’t please fans of so-called gender freedoms,” Putin said.
Rowling has been targeted by progressive transgender activists for observing that there are differences between men and women.
“Today they are trying to cancel a thousand-year-old country,” Putin said.
“The last time such a mass campaign to destroy unwanted literature was carried out was by the Nazis in Germany almost 90 years ago … books were burned right on the squares,” Putin said.
The Harry Potter writer responded to Putin’s comments with a tweet reposting a BBC story about jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny.
“Critiques of Western cancel culture are possibly not best made by those currently slaughtering civilians for the crime of resistance, or who jail and poison their critics,” she wrote.
Critiques of Western cancel culture are possibly not best made by those currently slaughtering civilians for the crime of resistance, or who jail and poison their critics. #IStandWithUkrainehttps://t.co/aNItgc5aiW
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) March 25, 2022
RUSSIAN COMMANDER RUN OVER BY HIS TROOPS DIES
A senior Russian Colonel run over by his own troops has died in what western officials believe was retribution for the death of their comrades.
The commander of the 37th Motor Rifle Brigade, Colonel Yury Medvedev, was reportedly run over by a tank and died of his injuries on Friday.
Conversation recordings, which have not been independently verified, were published by the Ukrainian secret service on March 22.
They purport to show two Russian soldiers who blame the death of their friend on Medvedev, according to Ukrainian journalist Roman Tsymbaliuk.
“Having waited for the right moment, during battle, he ran over the commander with a tank as he stood next to him, injuring both his legs,” Mr Tsymbaliuk wrote on Facebook.
The account was corroborated by western officials quoted as saying he was run over by his own troops.
“The brigade commander was killed by his own troops, we believe, as a consequence of the scale of losses that have been taken by his brigade,” the official said.
“That just gives an insight into some of the challenges that Russian forces are having.”
NATO estimated that between 7,000 and 15,000 Russian soldiers would have died in four weeks, compared to 15,000 in 10 years in Afghanistan.
MASS GRAVES FEARED IN MARIUPOL
The United Nations says there is evidence from satellite imagery of “mass graves” in Mariupol, where 1,035 civilians are estimated to be dead.
Matilda Bogner, head of a UN human rights team currently in Ukraine, said the agency’s monitors received information of a grave holding 200 bodies in the port city in Ukraine’s southeast.
It came as Ukraine claimed 300 people were killed in the bombing of Mariupol’s theatre on March 16.
“The extent of civilian casualties and the destruction of civilian objects strongly suggests that the principles of distinction, of proportionality, the rule on feasible precautions and the prohibition of indiscriminate attacks have been violated,” Ms Bogner said.
UKRAINE ACCUSES RUSSIA OF USING ‘PHOSPHORUS’
Ukraine accused Russia using incendiary “phosphorus bombs”, which are banned under international conventions from being used against civilians but allowed against military targets.
Ukrainian officials including President Volodymr Zelensky have claimed the weapons, which leave a signature white trail in the sky, were deployed against a village in the Lugansk region and at Irpin outside Kyiv.
The Kremlin has denied the allegation, which has not been independently verified.
“Russia has never violated any international convention,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov retorted.
Phosphorus, a substance that catches fire on contact with the air, “is not classified as a chemical weapon, it’s available to many of the world’s armies,” Olivier Lepick, a researcher with France’s Foundation for Strategic Research (FRS), told broadcaster LCI.
It is used to create smokescreens to hide troop movements, illuminate the battlefield or destroy buildings by fire — but can “cause absolutely horrific damage, extremely large burns” if it hits people, he added.
As an incendiary, it is not covered by the Convention on Chemical Weapons which entered into force in 1997.
However it does fall under the 1983 Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons, which restricts fire weapons without forbidding their use altogether.
RUSSIA SUFFERS MAJOR SETBACK
Russia appears to be running out of precision guided munitions, a Reuters report said, citing a senior Pentagon official.
It also looks to rely on the so-called dumb bombs and artillery, the official added.
Russia also seems to be suffering high failure rates, which is around 60 per cent for some precision-guided missiles, three US officials told Reuters.
The report comes after Under Secretary of Defence for Policy Colin Kahl also speculated that he did not believe President Vladimir Putin wants to have an all-out conflict with NATO.
BIDEN WARNS RUSSIA ‘WE WOULD RESPOND’
US President Joe Biden has warned Russia that NATO could respond if chemical weapons are used against Ukraine.
“We would respond. We would respond if he uses it. The nature of the response would depend on the nature of the use,” the president said after a summit of NATO leaders in Brussels.
His comments immediately provoked speculation NATO troops or other assets could be used to help Ukraine, with the country under a devastating attack by Russian invaders for the past month.
Mr Biden previously said neither NATO or the US would send troops to Ukraine to avoid a direct confrontation with Russia.
He said any decision would not be made until Russia had acted – but he insisted Mr Putin had miscalculated.
“Putin was banking on NATO being split. It was clear to me that he didn’t think we could sustain this cohesion. NATO has never, never been more united. Putin is getting exactly the opposite of [what] he intended to have as a consequence of going into Ukraine.”
The Times in London reported British government sources as saying the response would
“depend on the circumstances” and they could not see the West “taking any action that might lead to pulling them into war”.
NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said the alliance was “determined to continue to impose costs on Russia to bring about the end of this brutal war”.
He warned Russia against mounting any chemical attack in Ukraine – and said the alliance has activated “chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear defence elements” for allied forces in eastern Europe.
NATO has already rushed tens of thousands of extra troops to its eastern flank in the wake of the invasion, and leaders launched four new “battle groups” in allies Hungary, Bulgaria, Slovakia and Romania.
Mr Stoltenberg said the alliance would also “reset” its eastern defences in the long term by adding “substantially more forces” to face off against the threat from Moscow.
ZELENSKYY CALLS ON WEST TO INJECT ‘ALL THE WEAPONS WE NEED’
Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told the gathering of NATO leaders to flood weapons into the country.
As battles raged across Ukraine, with television footage showing a large Russian warship ablaze at dockside near the southern city of Mariupol, Mr Zelenskyy addressed the emergency summit and a G7 leaders’ meeting by video link.
He said the West should provide “all the weapons we need” to “prevent the deaths of Ukrainians from Russian strikes, from Russian occupation.”
Mr Zelenskyy said that Russia was using phosphorus bombs, which cause severe burns, conducting indiscriminate shelling of civilians, and could resort to “full-scale use” of chemical weapons.
Ukraine has already lived through “a month of heroic resistance. A month of the darkest suffering”.
“To save people and our cities, Ukraine needs military assistance without restrictions,” he said.
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