Putin’s May 9 ‘Victory Day’ is pivotal for the war – Ukrainians can wait it out
“PUTIN has so much blood on his hands, no god will ever forgive him.”
The words of an 87-year-old pensioner, spoken hours after she escaped the Golgotha that is Mariupol.
Elvira Borts said what she endured in the Sea of Azov port city, alongside her husband, was worse than the three-year Siege Of Leningrad she survived as a young girl between 1941 and 1944.
Speaking to reporters after arriving in Kyiv, Elvira — a Jew, who lost 38 members of her family during the Holocaust — said: “It felt like we were being shelled 48 hours a day as a day feels twice as long during bombardments.
The Russians knew their job — civilians were the main target and that’s what happened. We are witnessing the mass killing of civilians by Russia. We have no right to remain silent, otherwise we’d be accomplices to this killing.”
Frail, yet determined, she directly appealed to the Russian President to end the war without delay, imploring him: “I don’t know what else one can say. Putin, think and stop this massacre.”
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Her pleas for peace are unlikely to bend the will of the Russian madman.
Putin is desperate to proclaim some sort of victory in Ukraine before Russia’s May 9 Victory Day, the annual celebration of the Soviet Union’s 1945 defeat of Nazi Germany. The most important holiday in the Russian calendar, it is traditionally marked by grand speeches invoking the “heroism” and “sacrifices” of Soviet soldiers and civilians during World War Two, when 27million died.
There are also vast parades of military might in the major cities, the centrepiece being in Moscow’s Red Square.
At last year’s commemoration, Putin gave a hint of what was to come in Ukraine when he warned that Russia’s “enemies” were once again deploying the “ideology of the Nazis”.
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When he rises to the Red Square podium on Monday, his speech will be dripping with anti-fascist rhetoric. And Russians prone to the divorce from reality that nostalgia brings will lap it up.
Large parts of Russian society believe the relentless diet of propaganda about Putin’s “Special Operation” in Ukraine.
Many Russians buy into the narrative that what is unfolding in Ukraine is a continuation of the Soviet battle against Nazism, a necessary hands-dirty job to rid Europe of the last pockets of fascism.
Never mind that it’s a fantasy concocted in the delusional mind of a vertically challenged tyrant (aren’t they all?).
Russian sacrifices to defeat the Nazis in World War Two were enormous, and Putin will demand Russians be prepared to make similar sacrifices today to, as he puts it, “denazify” Ukraine.
Despite the bombast at home, the reality on the ground is that the Russian adventure in Ukraine has largely stalled. Its armies have been beaten back in the north and since Putin redirected his forces to the East, they have failed to advance much, meeting stiff resistance along the 450km front stretching from Kharkiv in the north to Mariupol in the south.
The plodding nature of the Russian effort means many Russia-watchers are expecting Putin to use his May 9 speech to declare his “special military operation” is now a war, not only against Ukraine, but against the “nefarious” West.
By doing so, it will give him the pretext to order the mandatory conscription of all males of fighting age.
Because to achieve the long-term victory in Ukraine that Putin craves, be in no doubt that many more Russians will be thrown into the bloody fray.
Of more immediate importance to Putin is the need to be able to declare any type of military win when he delivers his Victory Day speech on Monday.
Which is why the Russian army’s primary objective this weekend is to take full control of Mariupol.
The city’s last defenders are holed up in the labyrinth of tunnels buried beneath the Azovstal steel plant, alongside some 200 civilians.
Yesterday, the Russians breached the last lines of defence at the plant. In a final communique a Ukrainian commander, Colonel Denys Prokopenko, said: “A day has passed since the Russians broke through. We are fighting difficult, bloody battles.”
Their job is to hold out until May 10. If they do so, they will rob Putin of the opportunity to garland himself in victory. Their fight is the greatest and most symbolic battle of the war so far.
HISTORIC OR DAMP SWUIB?
IT is being billed as the most seismic election in Northern Ireland’s history.
But just you wait and see, regardless of today’s outcome, nothing much will change.
Sinn Féin is on course to become the largest party for the first time, outpolling the once-dominant, now soon-to-be ashen-faced DUP (Arlene, are you still out there?).
A nationalist First Minister in Michelle O’Neill will certainly stir things up and force Unionism (London doesn’t care much for you any more) to realise the old politics of division and flags is dead.
The people of Northern Ireland don’t deserve painted kerbstones and bloody memories any more. So, the onus will be on Sinn Féin to be magnanimous in victory.
The DUP must also be accepting in defeat.
Regardless of who comes out on top, I’ve a feeling the new Assembly will be much like the old – dysfunctional.
IT'S REAL DRAMA
THE first time is always the best, unless it’s sex.
After a dull first half to the second leg of the Real Madrid v Man City Champions League semi final, it seemed improbable that the first leg drama could be emulated.
I was about to switch off with City leading 1-0 when Real pulled one back in the 90th minute.
Then Real scored again in the 91st minute.
The most frantic end to a game since Man United overturned a 1-0 deficit to Bayern Munich in the space of two minutes to lift the European Cup in 1999.
Real went on to secure a remarkable victory in extra time thanks to a Karim Benzema penalty. Football, the greatest game of them all.
WHEN TWO WHITES MAKE A WRONG
HE is a jailbird serving 75 years for carjacking and home invasion – and is about to face the death penalty for capital murder.
She is a prison officer of 17-years’ standing who fell in love and last Wednesday helped him escape from prison in Alabama.
The duo, Vicky White and Casey Cole White (no relation), have been on the run since, armed with an AR-15 assault rifle, an assortment of handguns and a shotgun.
Ms White had just handed in her retirement papers. On her last day at work, she told fellow officers she was taking Mr White to court, alone, for an urgent “mental health assessment”. They haven’t been seen since.
The story has gripped America.
Before he was jailed in 2015, he made threats against his ex-girlfriend and her sister, saying that if he got out, he would kill them and he wanted the police to kill him. They are understandably terrified.
US Marshals have offered a $10,000 reward for information leading to Casey White’s capture and a $5,000 reward for information leading them to Vicky White.
A warrant was also issued for Ms White, charging her with facilitating escape.
As of yesterday, authorities say they “don’t have any idea where they might be”.
The man leading the hunt, Lauderdale County Sheriff Rick Singleton, urged Vicky White to hand herself in, telling her: “We all know how this ends.”
Where’s Tommy Lee Jones when you need him?
DOLLY ROCKER
WHOEVER inducted Dolly Parton into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame is either musically dyslexic or having a laugh – or both.
The 9 To 5 warbler is, I would suggest, one of the finest country singers ever to grace a stage (apart from John Prine). But her folksy twang isn’t Chuck Berry or the Ramones.
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Country and Western is one of those unique genres that is about the lyrics, rather than the notes. Unless you’re Garth Brooks, whose efforts are about neither. But that’s another discussion . . . or not.
I’ve nothing against Dolly, a musical survivor of the highest order. But rock ‘n’ roll she ain’t.