MISINFORMATION

Russian Agent Maria Butina Claims Ukrainians Are Bombing Themselves

Ryan Bort   Wed, March 9, 2022

Russia Parliament - Credit: Ilya Pitalev/Sputnik/AP Images

Maria Butina, the Russia agent who infiltrated the National Rifle Association and charmed several Republican figures before landing an 18-month prison sentence, has emerged as one of Vladimir Putin’s most vocal advocates as Russian forces continue to wreak havoc on Ukraine and its people. In fact, Butina is so deep in Putin’s propaganda hole that she’s suggesting it’s Ukraine itself, not Russia, laying waste to Ukraine.

“We have tons of evidence that the Russia army does not touch, does not bomb civilian populations,” she told BBC Radio’s Nick Robinson on Wednesday.

The remark came at the end of a tense exchange in which Robinson pressed Butina on whether she believed Ukraine has been bombing itself. “I want to seriously see the evidence that these are Russians,” Butina said before touting Russia’s plan to create “humanitarian corridors” to evacuate people from Ukrainian cities under attack. The corridors, however, lead into Russia and Belarus. “They are citizens of Ukraine, they should have the right to evacuate to the territory of Ukraine,” a spokesperson for Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelensky told Retuers.

“Are you suggesting that the shells that are flattening Ukrainian cities are being fired by Ukrainians?” Robinson asked again.

“I hope not,” Butina said. “I hope no one in the world can bomb their own population. I don’t want to believe in that and I don’t want to believe can torture an orthodox priest, but I talk these people, many of them. It’s un-normal.”

It continued like this, with Butina refusing to offer any evidence or deny that Ukraine is bombing itself.

Butina followed up her claim that Ukraine is bombing itself with a Telegram post arguing that Zelensky is not in Ukraine. “Zelensky in Kyiv? The facts say otherwise,” she wrote, linking to a post citing things like Zelensky’s hairstyle changing as “evidence” that he has fled the nation.

Zelensky has been in Ukraine since the invasion, and even shot a video from his office in Kyiv on Monday night.

Butina was deported from the United States to Russia in 2019 after serving time for working as a Russian agent. She’s now a member of the Russian parliament, and has been using her notoriety to spread disinformation about what’s happening in Ukraine, and to show support for Russia’s aggression.

One of the ways she’s done so is by wearing a “Z,” which began appearing on Russian tanks last month and has since become a symbol of support for the invasion. Butina shot a video of herself drawing a “Z” on her lapel, and her Instagram is filled with “Z” imagery.

“Do your work, brothers,” Butina said in the video, according to The New York Times. “We will always support you.”

Butina is a big fan of the “Z.”

Fracis Scarr, who monitors Russian state TV for the BBC, noted that Butina last month appeared on a Russian talk show to argue that Kyiv shouldn’t be handing out arms to Ukrainians because “people don’t know how to handle them and a child might be killed at home.”

Butina’s comments are ironic considering she founded a Russian nonprofit called Right to Bear Arms before heading to America to cavort with the NRA, which she pleaded guilty to using to create a backchannel between the Trump administration and Russia.

Butina’s ability to ingratiate herself with the NRA led to contact with several GOP-affiliated figures. She even claimed to have used her Trumpworld connections in 2016 to help influence Trump’s pick for secretary of state.

She was also friendly with lawmakers like Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), who was one of three Republicans who last week voted against a resolution supporting Ukraine.

Butina isn’t the only red-haired Russian agent standing up in support of the invasion. Anna Chapman, who in 2010 pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges before being deported, is using the “wave of patriotism” the attack has inspired to hawk her clothing brand.

“What a wave of patriotism and faith in our country I have not seen Russian people in my entire life … Thank you for this,” Chapman wrote on Instagram. “On this wave of patriotism, I would like to fill you in on my clothing brand, which I created out of love for my country.”

Biden Administration Might Be Signaling Another Student Loan Freeze

Murjani Rawls
Wed, March 9, 2022,

White House press briefing in the Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House in Washington, Tuesday, March 8, 2022.

The midterms are fast approaching, and one of the easiest wins the Biden Administration can have in their favor is some form of permanent student loan relief. President Biden has pushed back on canceling up to $50,000 of debt, despite representatives in Congress calling for it to be done.

In December 2021, Biden announced an additional grace period–stating federal student loan payments would resume in May. Now, the administration is dropping hints to another extension impacting millions of borrowers , according to Politico.

Education Department officials have instructed the companies that manage federal student loans to hold off on sending required notices to borrowers about their payments. While the White House has not given an official date, nor did the guidance a concrete one, all signs are pointing to another delay in payments.

White House chief of staff Ron Klain stated in his interview with “Pod Save America” last week that the White House was pondering another delay and deciding whether to use executive action to cancel a certain amount of debt before they resume.

From Politico:

“The Department will continue communicating directly with borrowers about federal student loan repayment by providing clear and timely updates,” an Education Department spokesperson told POLITICO on Tuesday. “The Department’s Federal Student Aid office will also continue communicating regularly with servicers about the type and cadence of servicer outreach to borrowers.”

President Biden noted in his campaign that a minimum of $10,000 per person should be forgiven. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has stated Biden has the power to cancel up to $50,000 of student debt “with a flick of a pen.” Sixteen thousand borrowers have had $415 million in loans erased in terms of defense against for-profit schools like DeVry. According to Forbes, the Biden administration also announced 100,000 student loan borrowers have been identified as qualifying for $6.2 billion in student loan forgiveness in an expanded program for public service workers.

From as far back as October 2021, Education Secretary Miguel Cardona stated the administration was looking at how broad an action they could take regarding federal student loans.

Climate change: CO2 emissions at

record high after pandemic dip, IEA finds

Akiko Fujita

·Anchor/Reporter

Tue, March 8, 2022, 

Global carbon dioxide emissions spiked to historic levels in 2021, offsetting the pandemic-induced decline from its previous year, according to a new report by the International Energy Agency (IEA).

The 6% growth in CO2 emissions output was largely driven by a dramatic increase in coal usage brought on in part by record high natural gas prices, the IEA analysis found.

The report, which does not include the impact from a rise in energy prices triggered by the Russian invasion of Ukraine highlights the delicate balance global economies must now face, in addressing a global supply shortage, while pushing for investments in renewable energy to stay in line with broader climate ambitions.

Oil prices climbed to near 14 years-highs this week, as the U.S. and UK announced a ban on Russian oil and gas imports. The European Union, which relies on Russia for roughly 45% of its natural gas needs, said it would reduce imports by two-thirds by the end of the year.

“There are many areas [where] we can take steps which can help to reduce the Russian oil and gas, but at the same time bring us closer to our climate course,” said Fatih Birol, executive director of the IEA, in an interview with the Financial Times.

The spike in 2021 comes after coronavirus-related restrictions led to the largest annual drop in CO2 emissions in 2020, with a 6% decline. That led to calls for governments to put sustainability at the center of their economic recovery.

But the surge in energy prices brought on by soaring demand, coming out of the pandemic have complicated those ambitions.

Coal accounted for more than 40% of the growth in CO2 emissions, largely because the cost of operating coal power plants were "considerably lower" that those of gas power plants for much of 2021.

“Gas-to-coal switching pushed up global CO2 emissions from electricity generation by well over 100 million tonnes, notably in the United States and Europe where competition between gas and coal power plants is tightest,” the report said.

China led all nations in CO2 emissions growth, led by a sharp increase in electricity demand that relied heavily on coal power. Electricity demand in China grew by 10% in 2021, the largest ever experienced in China.

The sobering report comes just months after world leaders gathered in Glasgow to reaffirm their commitment to curb harmful emissions to maintain the Paris climate goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees celsius by the middle of the century. While the pact stopped short of calls to eliminate the use of coal altogether, it called for a “phase down,” under pressure from India and China.

Even with a rebound in fossil fuel usage, the IEA said clean energy continued to gain market share. Renewable energy sources and nuclear power contributed to a higher share of global electricity generation than coal, the report said. Renewables-based generation reached a record high, while output from wind and solar energy also increased.

Russian steel billionaire calls the invasion of Ukraine 'a huge tragedy that is impossible to justify'

Grace Kay

Wed, March 9, 2022, 

Russian billionaire and businessman Vladimir Lisin attends the congress of Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs in Moscow, Russia on March, 19, 2015Sasha Mordovets/Getty

• Vladimir Lisin said in a letter to steelworkers he hoped Putin could find a diplomatic resolution.

• The steel tycoon wrote that the death of people in Ukraine is a tragedy that it is "impossible to justify."

• Lisin is the 81st richest person in the world, according to Bloomberg's Billionaire Index.

Russian oligarch Vladimir Lisin has called for a peaceful resolution to the attack on Ukraine.

Lisin, the chairman and main shareholder of one of the largest steelmakers in Russia, sent a letter along with the board of directors to his staff at Novolipetsk Steel (NLMK) saying that he was hopeful that the war could end soon and calling for Russian President Vladimir Putin to reach a diplomatic outcome. Reuters first reported the letter.

An NLMK spokesperson confirmed the letter with Insider.

"I would like to begin by expressing my deepest compassion to all the victims of the armed conflict in Ukraine, the families and relatives of those who died," Lisin wrote. "Lost lives are always a huge tragedy that is impossible to justify. I am convinced that peaceful diplomatic conflict resolution is always preferable to the use of force."

Lisin is one of Russia's richest men and is the 81st richest person in the world, according to Bloomberg's Billionaire Index. The steel tycoon is currently worth about $19.1 billion in US dollars. His wealth is down over $5 billion since Russia began invading Ukraine, according to the index.

Thus far, the Russian billionaire has been able to avoid sanctions, but the UK is eyeing sanctions on his 3,000-acre 17th-century Aberuchill Castle in Scotland, according to a report from BBC.

The oligarch is one of a handful of Russian billionaires to speak out against the invasion into Ukraine. Last week, Russian billionaires Mikhail Fridman and Oleg Deripaska spoke out in protest of the attack, calling for peaceful negotiations between the two countries.

Russia's wealthiest have not been immune to the impact of sanctions from Western countries. Sanctions targeting Russia's economy and financial systems have cut into their net worth. Meanwhile, the US, Canada, and European nations have also moved to take direct aim at the Russian oligarchs by seizing their Western assets.

One day after the invasion of Ukraine, Russia's 22 richest individuals lost a combined $39 billion. Since then, Russia's currency has plummeted to historic lows and brought the nation to the brink of default.

Biden Enlists Consumers to Put Squeeze on Russia’s Economy



Saleha Mohsin
Wed, March 9, 2022

(Bloomberg) -- The Biden administration is leaning on American consumers to help pay the price of its rapidly intensifying economic pressure campaign against Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The White House’s announcement Tuesday to ban U.S. imports of Russian fossil fuels marked the latest move against Russia. It also made for another way for the war in Ukraine to affect Americans at filling stations and grocery-store checkout lines.

U.S. gasoline prices hit a record high on Tuesday, according to AAA, with the average price of regular unleaded at $4.17, up 55 cents in just a week and driven by global oil prices surging to their highest levels since 2008.

The U.S. campaign carries some political peril for President Joe Biden as Democrats head into November midterm elections with control of Congress at stake and Republicans already seeking to saddle his party with blame for inflation, especially rising energy prices.

Biden acknowledged the ban on Russian oil is a decision that “is not without cost here at home.” He said it was “Putin’s war” that was hitting American consumers, and vowed to mitigate the consequences.

U.S. officials are in talks with counterparts in Venezuela as they consider waiving some sanctions, which would allow the South American nation to sell more oil on global markets. Such a step would mark a softening in the U.S.’s stance toward a regime it has previously called corrupt and undemocratic.

Back at home, the Biden administration has stopped short of directly asking U.S. energy producers to boost production to ease the pain Americans are facing at gas stations.

“It takes time to meet demand,” Wally Adeyemo, the deputy secretary of the U.S. Treasury, said on Tuesday -- indicating consumers should be braced for higher prices for now. “These high costs aren’t something that only impacts Americans,” he said, adding that much of the global economy is gripped by inflation.

Adeyemo highlighted that American consumers have so far been resilient amid the spike in inflation.

“What’s impressed me about the American people is that they have shown they are willing to pay a price to protect democracy,” he said in an interview.

But it’s not certain how long that will last.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has sparked a feverish run-up in the prices of just about every commodity -- from oil to grains and metals -- and that will inflict even more financial pain on consumers already struggling with rampant inflation.

The U.S. relies on Russia and Ukraine for key energy and agricultural products. The two nations’ combined wheat, barley and maize exports make up 21% of the global total, and their supply of sunflower oils account for 60%. Wheat prices hit an all-time high on Tuesday. An unprecedented surge in nickel saw the London Metal Exchange suspend trading.

Oil prices hovered around $128 a barrel as investors price in risks of total economic isolation for Russia. Bloomberg Economics estimates that, at $120 a barrel for crude, inflation could accelerate to an annual 9% by April, and end the year near 7%.

“There’s no question that the U.S., at some point, will need to decide how much economic cost we’re willing to shoulder in exchange for imposing those costs on the Russians,” said Dan Katz, a former adviser at the Treasury during the Trump administration who is now at Amberwave Partners.

A March 7 Quinnipiac University poll found that 71% of Americans would support a ban on Russian crude oil, even if it means higher U.S. prices at the pump. But the survey didn’t ask respondents about specific prices they’d be willing to tolerate.

The spike in prices will be a backdrop for midterm elections in November, likely hurting the Democratic Party’s chances of keeping control of Congress. Inflation has colored Americans’ view on where the nation is heading, with consumer sentiment at its lowest level since 2011.

Soaring costs, though, have hidden the powerful jobs recovery from the depths of the pandemic shutdowns. Unemployment has fallen to 3.8%, well below the 6.4% average of the last economic expansion. Households also benefited from a historic expansion in federal support for families, with stimulus checks and enlarged child-tax credit payouts.

Much of that comes from the American Rescue Plan, which Biden signed into law one year ago.

Federal Help

On a Tuesday trip to Memphis, Tennessee, Adeyemo celebrated the one-year anniversary of that rescue package, which he credited with ensuring that the U.S. economy and its consumers are in a “position of strength.”

“When we look at our peers, our recovery is stronger than theirs because we made strong investments,” Adeyemo said.

Adeyemo spent the day in Memphis meeting with city and county officials who he said created the “strongest” program to distribute federal funds, providing $43.1 million in 16,000 cash payments to residents and landlords, helping tenants pay rent and avoid eviction.

More than $25 billion from Treasury’s Emergency Rental Assistance Program has been spent or earmarked. The remaining portion of the $46 billion pandemic-relief initiative will be distributed by mid-2022, according to Adeyemo. In meetings with Tennessee officials, Adeyemo highlighted that the Biden administration has approved leftover funds from the $350 billion State and Local Fiscal Recovery Fund can be used to invest in more affordable housing.

The support for households in that legislation may help insulate the economy from the geopolitical crisis and reduce the risk of a recession.

“The hit to consumers’ wallets from the run-up in gasoline prices will be noticeable -- but not come close to killing the expansion,” according to Stephen Stanley, chief economist at Amherst Pierpont.

Why McDonald’s Leaving Russia Might Be Just What Putin Wants

Philip Elliott
Wed, March 9, 2022,

A person passes by a McDonald's restaurant, in Moscow, Russia

 Credit - Pavel Bednyakov—Sputnik/AP

Through a gray and empty Red Square, Mikhail Gorbachev strolled leisurely with his granddaughter while using an umbrella to dodge the snow. The year: 1997. With Saint Basil’s Cathedral behind them, the pair walked into what purported to be a Pizza Hut in the center of a liberalizing Moscow, staged as part of an American advertising campaign. While the Gorbachevs sat in the corner of a separate but real Moscow-area Pizza Hut—and camera crews rolled—actors debated the legacy of the then-former Soviet leader until the matriarch of the family interjected in subtitled Russian: “Because of him, we have many things, like Pizza Hut.”

And because of one of Gorbachev’s successors, those same Russians today do not.

Pizza Hut is among the raft of Western-based companies to announce they are closing their doors across Russia as the invasion of Ukraine approaches its two-week mark. Western leaders in and out of government have been tightening the screws on Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has caused a two-million-strong refugee crisis, a spike in gas prices, and a unified front of Western allies against Moscow’s march. The symbiotic effort between government and business to make life harder for the Russian leader has amplified the efficacy, but it may have unforeseen effects on cultural diplomacy.

It’s one thing to turn off access to foreign capital and the flow of Russian oil to the United States. It’s another to turn off the latte machine at Starbucks. Even in the most amoral universe of the political economy, symbols matter. Especially when it comes to food.

The net effect has been the recall of Uncle Sam from Moscow, a striking reversal from the end of the Cold War. As Moscow opened up to the West’s footprint three decades ago, Big Mac boxes became status symbols. Such cultural interactions helped thaw relations between the two global powers and softened the image of the Eagle in the land of the defeated Bear.

Now, companies like Boeing and Ford, all Big Four accounting firms, and financial institutions like American Express have pulled out of Russia, eliminating thousands of jobs and billions in goods and services. Some, though, recognize the damage they could deal their reputations—if not America’s standing—with a total shutdown; PepsiCo is continuing to process milk, cheese and baby formula at its Russian sites while McDonald’s will keep paying its 62,000 employees despite shutting down 850 counters.

The new pressure on Russia hardens the line between Russia and the West, which may achieve its economic goal of so crippling the Russian economy that Putin decides to withdraw his forces from Ukraine. The far-fetched hope is that Putin actually loses his grip on power as oligarchs and his people decide that two decades in near-absolute power has been enough.

But the Cold War ended as much because of the Soviet system’s flaws as the West’s cultural creep into Mother Russia. Gorbachev sought to build up the system by adding transparency and accountability, opening the country for those who at least wanted to consider the West. Ultimately, the system couldn’t sustain it and, in part, consumerism conquered the planned economies. The story Russians told themselves about their glory couldn’t stand the scrutiny.

For his part, Putin calls the end of the Soviet system the greatest tragedy, one he’s trying to remedy. Which is why he won’t mourn the retreat of Western companies from his backyard.

Time and time again, history has shown how engagement can break rogue states. There’s a reason Iran’s leaders fear the rising generation that has always known the West through popular media and the Internet. The Arab Spring was a byproduct of citizens realizing the system being imposed on them didn’t have to be as repressive or corrupt—in part through social media. North Korea survives only because it has achieved a completely hermetically sealed border for most of its citizens. Those nations one step down the ladder of autocracy, such as China, can still hold onto power by cutting off access to information.

Western companies are clearly hoping they can do their part to end the war on civilians in Ukraine, and many governments in the West are welcoming them as partners in the fight against Putin’s cruelty. But there is a second edge to this scalpel: breaking up with Russia surrenders the West’s toehold inside the country. America preached its gospel of capitalism’s superiority through consumerism, and Russians were ready congregants.

Like Moscow’s embrace of change as the Cold War ended, the corporate embrace of this anti-Russia agenda may turn out to be a temporary glitch. As was the case during the divestiture campaigns against apartheid and the current BDS efforts against Israel, corporations have responsibilities to shareholders, and in the end, those often win out over political stances. ESG only provides so much cover to promote an agenda that might be in conflict with the companies’ stated fiduciary goals. It was fun to play with “woke capitalism” during the Trump years and consider it a moral stance, but the choice to oppose the erratic President who could move markets with a tweet ultimately was in CEOs’ best interests.

Companies may eventually realize isolation isn’t the best path for ending Russian attacks on Ukraine. The Soviet system was sclerotic by design, but societies find ways of evolving because powerful ideas don’t respect borders or central committees. Cultural diplomacy made Soviets question the system. Gorbachev understood that, sparking a series of reforms that he thought could keep the system afloat. Ultimately, he could not stave off the West—and ended up starring in that Pizza Hut commercial.

Yes, let’s go back to that one-minute ad once again. It’s an artifact of an era that saw Gorbachev as a symbol of the West’s victory over its Cold War menace. The ad never aired in Russia, but the symbolism was clear in an American pizza chain using the former Soviet leader as an emblem of a changing world. Gorbachev had recognized America’s inevitability, allowing McDonald’s to open its first store in Pushkin Square in 1990; opening day served 38,000 customers, the global fast food company’s biggest day to date. “I felt like I was eating America itself,” one man told VOA in 2020 on the 30th anniversary of the store opening.

And, in another symbol of the West’s relationship with Russia, that store will now close as part of the Western withdrawal. One has to wonder what a darkened pair of golden arches in Moscow says about America’s cultural dominance. It doesn’t stretch the imagination to see Putin grinning like Ronald McDonald.

Anderson Cooper Highlights ‘Incredible Image’ From Russia That Shows Putin’s Weakness

Lee Moran

Tue, March 8, 2022, 

CNN’s Anderson Cooper said a video from Russia that has gone viral amid the country’s invasion of Ukraine perfectly sums up the weakness of its president, Vladimir Putin.

Appearing on Stephen Colbert’s “Late Show” live from Lviv, Ukraine, on Monday, Cooper recalled the footage of Russian riot police arresting a woman in her 80s for protesting the war with handmade signs on the street.

“To me, it was the most incredible image because I thought Vladimir Putin, who likes to appear half-naked riding around on a horse or in his black belt doing judo as a tough guy, is scared of an 80-something-year-old woman who is simply standing on a street holding up a sign protesting a war,” Cooper said.

He added that Russia’s new law criminalizing media reports that contradict the Kremlin’s version of events in Ukraine — including such videos and photos — was a “sign of weakness” and “fear” and “of the reality of the disinformation campaign that Russia wages.”

Watch the interview here:

 

Fox News hosts and reporter fought on air after Greg Gutfeld suggested the media is making Ukraine invasion look worse than it is


Joshua Zitser
Wed, March 9, 2022

Fox News reporter Benjamin Hall, left, and "The Five" co-host Greg Gutfeld, right.

"The Five"/ Fox News

Fox host Greg Gutfeld suggested that reporters are exaggerating the scale of disaster in Ukraine.

Reporter Benjamin Hall, who was in Kyiv, hit back and said the catastrophic picture is accurate.

Hall described how cities have been flattened and 2 million Ukrainians fled Russia's invasion.

A Fox News reporter in Kyiv openly challenged comments by his colleague Greg Gutfeld, who on Tuesday claimed that the media was exaggerating the scale of disaster caused by Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Speaking on "The Five" on Tuesday night, Gutfeld claimed that the media was trying to create "some sort of emotional response" which in turn "creates a profit for news companies."

Gutfeld compared the coverage of the invasion of Ukraine to the reporting on police brutality in the US, suggesting that the media creates a "galvanizing narrative" to elicit a reaction from the public.

"If you try to counter the drumbeat, you're seen as an inconsiderate, cold-hearted pussy," Gutfeld said.

Fellow host Geraldo Rivera responded to the comments by bringing attention to a photo published by The New York Times of a mother and her two children moments after being killed by a Russian shell.

But the real disagreement came from reporter Benjamin Hall, speaking live from Kyiv, who went on to describe what he had seen in Ukraine.

"Speaking as someone on the ground, I want to say that this is not the media trying to drum up some emotional response," Hall said. "This is absolutely what is happening."

He described how cities are being "absolutely flattened," and described the huge numbers of people evacuating for their safety.

At least two million people had fled Ukraine as of Tuesday, according to the United Nations. The Independent reported that Gutfeld's own mother-in-law is among them.

In the city of Mariupol, Hall continued, people were drinking puddle water because the Russian forces aren't allowing them to get out.

People were being shelled while fleeing, he said, a reference to the repeated failure of attempts to provide so-called humanitarian corridors to get civilians out of the city.

"It's an absolute catastrophe and the people who are caught in the middle are the ones who are really suffering," Hall said.

The reporter then played a clip of people trying to flee, who described how they had left everything behind. "There is more video than we know what to do with," Hall said.

ITS NOT ALL ABOUT YOU 
Gutfeld in response asked whether he should respond to the "cheap attack" on him or move on.

HUH?
"My concern has always been when a narrative creates a story that bolsters one side, that is out of its element, we create more suffering," Gutfeld said.

Last week, in an emergency session of the UN's general assembly, a vast majority of member states voted for a resolution deploring Russia's invasion of Ukraine and calling for the withdrawal of its forces. 141 of the 193 countries voted for the resolution, with only five voting against it.

Mother shown dead on the street alongside her children in horror Ukraine photo was a Silicon Valley worker

Josh Marcus
Thu., March 10, 2022

Over the weekend, images of a family of Ukrainian civilians killed by Russian shelling outside of Kyiv inspired worldwide outrage, including from Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky, who vowed to find and punish “every b*****d” responsible.

“They were just trying to get out of town. To escape. The whole family,” Mr Zelensky said in a video address. “How many such families have died in Ukraine?”

The family in the photo, which ran with top billing in places like The New York Times, has now been identified and linked to a tech company partially based in the US.

Tatiana Perebeinis, 43, along with her daughter Alise, 9, and son Nikita, 18, were all killed shortly after they crossed a partially destroyed bridge over the Irpin River and were hit by a Russian mortar.

“We are so shocked, saddened, devastated, angry. There are no words to describe our emotions, we are so heartbroken,” Ksenia Khirvonina, a colleague of Perebeinis at the Palo Alto, California-based SEO firm SE Ranking, told The San Francisco Chronicle, adding, “they prove that (the) Russian army and Putin himself are monsters who deserve no mercy for their doings.”

Over half of the company’s employees, including its CEO, live in Ukraine.

When the invasion began, Perebeinis stayed in the country to look after her sick mother, as well as her son, who was old enough that he was required to remain in Ukraine in case he was called up by its defence forces.

“She always talked about him, how smart he was,” Ms Khirvonina added in the paper. “She was a great mother; giving her kids everything she could.”

Tatiana Perebeinis was described as ‘bright, witty, determined’ by colleagues at IT company SE Ranking where she worked as chief accountant (SE Ranking)

After hiding out in a basement when a bomb hit their apartment building, the family decided to flee because they thought they had been offered safe passage by a temporary Russian ceasefire.

Over the weekend, Russia said it would offer temporary cease fires to allow for humanitarian evacuations from major combat zones, but Ukrainian officials say they haven’t been honouring these commitments, which Russia denies.

“The Russian side is not holding to the ceasefire,” Kyrylo Tymoshenko, deputy head of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s office, has said.

In addition to attacking Ukraine’s military, Russia has also targeted highly sensitive civilian zones, including densely populated cities, power plants, and children’s and maternity hospitals. The International Criminal Court has launched a war crimes investigation in Ukraine, and UK leaders have called for Vladimir Putin to be held before a Nuremberg-style war crimes tribunal.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said its necessary because of Mr Putin’s “crime of aggression” against Ukraine.

Man returns to Ukraine after family slain while fleeing

Wed., March 9, 2022, 


SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A man whose wife and two children were killed by mortar fire in Ukraine as they tried to flee was in Kyiv on Wednesday to bury them but he said their funerals must be postponed because the morgues are full of civilians.

Sergii Perebeinis wasn't with the family when they died Monday in a civilian refugee corridor while trying to flee the suburb of Irpin for the capital. The California company that Tatiana Perebeinis, 43, worked for helped her husband return to Kyiv.

“Trying to hold on but it’s really hard," Perebeinis posted on Facebook. “Fourth day on my feet, thousands of kilometers of road."

Tatiana Perebeinis's body is “lying in a black bag on the floor" of an overflowing morgue, he said. The family's dogs also died, he said.

He posted an image of himself holding photographs of his wife and children.

Tatiana Perebeinis was chief accountant for SE Ranking, a Silicon Valley startup with headquarters in London and a large workforce in Kyiv. Also killed were her daughter, Alise, 9, and son, Nikita, 18.

Photographs broadcast worldwide showed their bodies lying next to their suitcases and a dog carrier.

“I met with correspondents, witnesses of these events. They handed me some of the personal items that were left lying on the street near the bodies,” Perebeinis wrote.

Russia has denied targeting civilians, although airstrikes hit three hospitals in Ukraine on Wednesday.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said efforts were being made to evacuate some 18,000 people from embattled towns in the Kyiv region to the capital itself. He said about 35,000 civilians have used humanitarian corridors to flee the fighting.

A work colleague, Anastasia Avetysian, told the New York Times that SE Ranking had provided emergency evacuation funds for its employees and Tatiana Perebeinis had been distributing them.

“We were all in touch with her,” Avetysian said. “Even when she was hiding in the basement, she was optimistic and joking in our group chat that the company would now need to do a special operation to get them out, like ‘Saving Private Ryan.’”

Tatiana Perebeinis “was a very friendly, brave, courageous woman with a great sense of humor, she always cheered everyone around her up, she was truly like a big sister to all of us,” Ksenia Khirvonina, spokeswoman for SE Ranking, told the San Francisco Chronicle from Dubai, where she fled on Feb. 23 from Ukraine.

“She always had answers to all our questions, even the most stupid ones, about personal finances or taxes or how to upgrade your visa cards; she had answers to everything,” Khirvonina said.

Tatiana Perebeinis stayed in Irpin, where she was living, when the Russian invasion started because her mother was sick and her 18-year-old son was required to remain in the country in case he was needed to defend it, Khirvonina said.

He had started university this year.

“She always talked about him, how smart he was,” Khirvonina said. “She was a great mother; giving her kids everything she could.”

The family’s apartment building was bombed the day before they died, forcing them into a basement without heat or food, and they finally decided to flee to Kyiv, Khirvonina said.

“But then Russian troops started firing on innocent civilians,” she said.

The Associated Press

A photojournalist who captured a horrifying photo of a family killed in Ukraine said she witnessed a 'war crime'

Lauren Frias
Tue, March 8, 2022


The photojournalist who took a devastating photo of a dead family in Ukraine said she witnessed a war crime.

Lynsey Addario's photo ran on the NYT front page on Monday, capturing the grisly reality of Ukraine.

"I thought it's disrespectful to take a photo, but I have to take a photo," she said. "This is a war crime."

The photojournalist who witnessed a mother and children being killed by a mortar in northern Ukraine called the incident a "war crime," CBS News reported Tuesday.

Pulitzer-Prize-winning photojournalist Lynsey Addario took the horrifying photo of the family lying dead in Irpin, a city about 30 miles northwest of the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv. The photo ran on the front page of The New York Times on Monday.

In an interview with "CBS Evening News" host Norah O'Donnell, Addario described the scene leading up to the shocking image that painted the reality of the Russian attack on Ukraine.

"I went forward and found a place sort of behind a wall and started photographing," Addario told O'Donnell. "And in fact, within minutes, a series of mortars fell increasingly closer and closer to our position until one landed about 30 feet from where I was standing and it killed a mother and her two children."

In the moment, she said she was "shaken up" because she had been sprayed with gravel from the mortar round "that could have killed us very easily." Nonetheless, she said she tried to "stay very focused" and keep "the camera to my eye."

As Addario was running to safety following the blast, she saw the family that was killed and thought of her own children.

"When we were told that we could run across the street by our security adviser, I ran, and I saw this family splayed out and I saw these little moon boots and puffy coat, and I just thought of my own children," she said.

The photographer said she acknowledged that it could be disrespectful to take a photo of the family, but she felt she was obligated to document the moment, given that she was in a civilian area at the time and believed that the attack was intentional.

"I thought it's disrespectful to take a photo, but I have to take a photo," she said. "This is a war crime."

"I think it's really important that people around the world see these images," she added. "It's really brave of The New York Times to put that image on the front page. It's a difficult image, but it is a historically important image."