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Pope Francis, when addressing the Easter crowds at the Vatican, said it was an ‘Easter of War’. This was not absolutely correct as it is the Catholic’s Easter but not Easter for the 30m Ukrainian Orthodox Christians who were celebrating Palm Sunday, the beginning of Holy Week. Worshippers held willow branches and holy water was sprinkled on them. No doubt holy water mixed with tears. These moments were captured by worldwide photographers. Easter comes this Sunday for Ukrainian Orthodox Christians.
Though Putin is now concentrating on Donbas, the north is not entirely being left alone. Lviv, which was a relatively safe city, was bombed leaving seven dead and 12 injured. Kharkiv, the second-largest city, has been bombed leaving five dead and 13 injured.
It was a newsworthy item a few weeks back when the Snake Island Ukrainian soldiers, asked by the Warship Moskva to surrender, allegedly replied, ‘Go F**** Yourselves.’ Then the equivalent happened. The Moskva was hit by two Neptune missiles fired 25 miles inland from Odessa. Turkish drones were there to distract the crew and it was a direct hit.
This has led to six-hour queues outside post offices in Ukraine to purchase the stamp with those words that have become immortalised after Snake Island. The sinking of the Black Sea flagship Moskva has not been good for Russian morale.
Bill Browder who is an ex-top investor in Russia says Putin is a little man and needs the Ukraine war to survive. His popularity went up after the invasion of Crimea and his nibbles in Russian-speaking Georgia. The Dictator in Kazakhstan has gone and Putin is propping up the present one in Belarus. Putin and the oligarchs have allegedly stolen about 1 trillion rubles from the Russian people.
Russian state television has been showing captured Britons Aiden Austin and Shaun Pinner because an exchange is wanted for Putin’s pal Viktor Medvedchuk, a captured Ukrainian oligarch.
Meanwhile, Easter brought no bunnies, only bombs for Severodonetsk in eastern Ukraine where five died as Russia mounted its campaign in the South East. According to a post on Telegram, the town of Kreminna in eastern Luhansk fell to the Russians.
Zelensky has complained that undocumented Ukrainians have been deported to Russia, including 5,000 children. Their whereabouts are unknown.
In early April mobile crematoriums were brought into Mariupol where there are an estimated 21,000 dead. Russians have been digging up bodies of previous victims to hide Russian atrocities. The bodies lying unburied on the streets of Irpin and Bucha were too obvious and orders have been given for a cover-up in Mariupol.
Mariupol is the main port that ships wheat from Ukraine to Africa and the rest of the world. The Russians are after ports like Odessa as well which are part of the tranche of ports from the Crimea to Mariupol. Whoever controls these ports controls the Ukrainian economy.
When I wrote this the last defenders of Mariupol were holed up in the Azovstal steelworks. The deadline for surrender was Easter Sunday, which was refused. Zelensky has asked for safe passage from there for women, children and civilians. He has accused Russia of kidnap and torture in areas under their control.
Zelensky in conversation with Tapper on CNN said the world at Holocaust Remembrance says ‘Never Again’ but now genocide is happening in Ukraine. ‘Never Again’ are just hollow words from the West, who have no guts.
John Lennon in his song Imagine said there was nothing to kill and die for.
Imagine there’s no heaven, It’s easy if you try, No hell below us, Above us only Sky. ... Imagine there’s no countries It isn’t hard to do Nothing to kill and die for And no religion too. Imagine all the people living life in Peace, You.
