Ukraine’s Pleas Grow Louder as It Runs Short on Ammunition and Putin Talks of Empire
Ukraine is running out of ammunition for Soviet-era artillery pieces as its military tries to hold the besieged city of Sievierodonetsk. President Volodymyr Zelensky said his country needed more weapons and E.U. membership.
Oh, and all metrics of COVID are up. All metrics of news today are poopy.
Putin the Great? The Russian president likens himself to a famous czar
I thought Putin was dying of cancer. Or was the victim of a coup. Guess not.
Among President Vladimir V. Putin’s motives for invading Ukraine, his view of himself as being on a historic mission to rebuild the Russian Empire has always loomed large. On Thursday, Putin went further, comparing himself directly to Peter the Great.
It was a new, if carefully staged, glimpse into Mr. Putin’s sense of his own grandeur.
[Putin] opened [a Potemkin town hall meeting] by reflecting on Peter’s conquest of the Baltic coast during his 18th-century war with Sweden.
Putin described the land Peter conquered as rightfully Russian.
“He was returning it and strengthening it,” Mr. Putin said, leaning back in his armchair, before hinting with a smile that he was now doing the same thing in his war in Ukraine. “Well, apparently, it has also fallen to us to return and to strengthen.”
