It is now on or about day fifty-five of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and it looks like the fighting in the eastern part of the country, around the Donbas region, has intensified as has been signalled for a couple of weeks now. At the same time, more missile attacks have hit western cities in the country like Lviv, which has mostly been out of the fighting, so that is keeping everyone on edge, particularly given that Lviv is hosting a lot of the people who have fled from other parts of the country.
Other news from Ukraine over the long weekend:
- Thus far, the invasion has damaged about 30 percent of the country’s infrastructure, at a cost of about $100 billion.
- There were further attacks on Kyiv over the weekend, possibly in retaliation for the sinking of the Moskva
- Ukrainian fighters in Mariupol are defying Russia’s surrender-or-die orders
- Here is a look at the situation LGBTQ+ Ukrainians find themselves in during the war.
New video from Zelensky in moment of exhausted and emotional late night reflection: “52 days. We work (shows speech), we love (family photo), we are thankful (gifted cockerel from destroyed borodyanka flat), we are proud (flag), we will be victorious” pic.twitter.com/kwvfMI6XXX
— Oliver Carroll (@olliecarroll) April 17, 2022
Closer to home, Power & Politics interviewed Conservative leadership candidate Roman Baber yesterday, and it was…painful. He is not a serious person. At all. He kept speaking in facile talking points about “restoring democracy,” as though we didn’t just have free and fair elections, based on his nonsense reading of public health restrictions and what happened during the Ottawa occupation, with a dose of facile catch-phrases about “cancel culture.” And, bless her, Vassy Kapelos did gently try to push back against some of what he said, but wow. I would be very surprised if he manages to get his $300,000 in fundraising and all of his signatures to become a verified contestant because he offers nothing original, and even if this about trying to rebuild his profile after being booted from the caucus provincially, it’s a very difficult way to go about it, with not much in the way of reward.