Svoboda. Liberté. Freedom

“Passengers waiting for a train to Poland in Lviv station (Ukraine), on the third day of the attack launched by Russian president Vladimir Putin. February 26.” L’Express.

I normally only publish my own material. But since I’m a bit far from Ukraine, and propaganda is going on strong, I thought I would gather a few images published in two reliable French media: Le Point and L’Express. The equivalent of Time and Newsweek. Images can be “biased” of course, framing, cropping, subject, focusing on one issue leaving others aside, etc. Yet images speak more volumes than many words. The quotes will be the translation of the original French caption. Text with no quotes will be my own rantings.

February 7, 2022. Macron, right, flew to Moscow to meet with P*tin, left, under the delusion that he could talk reason to the Russian “president”. The table has been widely commented. Fear of contagion on behalf of P*tin maybe, or just a way of putting distance and showing who’s the boss? It is worth mentioning that only a few days later, P*tin received the Kazakh president for an “intimate” chat, both sitting on chairs only three feet apart. No table for friends.

The corridors of the Kiev metro. Civilians have gathered there for shelter against bombing. Photo: Raphaël Laffargue (RL) for le Point. The London underground served as shelter during the bombings of London in WWII.

“Vladimir P*tin in reunion at the Kremlin, February 28, 2022″. (Le Point)

The long table policy seems to apply to members of his cabinet too. He is not afraid of bombing women and children, but he is of catching COVID?

Back to the Kiev underground. (RL) Those photos bear no caption in the original Le Point article. None necessary, right?

Place de la République in Paris. In Le Point I think. (Credit must be Agence France Presse. AFP). Have you noticed how protesters the world over now use English slogans, so they are understood everywhere?

“Gerhard Scrhöder, Vladimir Putin, and Jacques Chirac.” In Le Point.

Buddies. Schröder was then Chancellor (Prime Minister) of Germany, and Chirac was president of France. Schröder now sits on the board of various major Russian companies. And makes a bundle. He hadn’t resigned yet at the time I wrote this post. (Last week. As of today, Tuesday March 15th, I haven’t heard of any resignation on Schröder’s part.)

In France, former prime minister François Fillon resigned his positions on two Russian boards. Close call. One learns that dozens of former French CEO’s and/or high civil servants currently hold board positions in Russia. Interesting isn’t it? Dozens… You don’t want to get me started on “Londongrad”. P*utin has basically bought a significant number of European retired politicos/businessmen. In France, the UK, Germany and probably other major European countries.

Meanwhile, refugees are leaving Ukraine. (Sorry, lost the credits of that photo). I understand only women and children actually leave. The men stay in Ukraine to fight. The only time I personally saw something like that was in Colombia a few years ago. Refugees from Venezuela walking thousands of kms across the Andes to Peru. Fleeing Maduro’s regime. Small family groups, mother, father, little children, pushing their only suitcase by the highway. I couldn’t get myself to take pictures then. But I can still see them in my mind’s eye.

“Olga, 22 year-old Latvian student of Ukrainian origin, protests the Russian invasion of Ukraine in front of the Russian embassy in Riga.” (Le Point) She does look a wee bit alone.

Back to the underground in Kiev. Or should I say Kiyv? The little girl, a spitting image of her young mother, says hello. To the journalist? (Photo RL in Le Point). Look at the water bottles. Water. Food. Shelter. Are there enough toilets for the hundreds of people staying there?

Milla Jovovich on Instagram. Remember “Resident evil”? I guess Evil is on the loose now. Jovovich was born in Kiev.

“Ten days after the invasion of Ukraine, Kiev, the capital, has not yet fallen into the Russians hands.” (In L’Express). I understand Kiev is now nearly circled by Russian troops.

Kiev underground. (RL for Le Point). See the crutches?

Same family. Two little boys. An elder sister to the right maybe?

Stairway to Hell? Kiev metro. (Raphaël Lafargue.) (My caption. Not his)

“In Marioupol, city under siege by the Russians, the inhabitants are having an increasingly hard time finding drinkable water.” (Le Point) Siege of any city, a long time war practice since Antiquity is now banned by the Geneva convention. Who cares about conventions right? I understand there are 300,000 civilians in Marioupol.

In only a few days, the ‘usual victims’ are back to basics. Water. Food. Shelter. Survival.

“Kyív is the capital of freedom.” (RL, Le Point). This elegant (Love her trousers) young woman in the Kiev metro is right. Kiev or Kyív is the capital of (our) freedom. How old is she? Twenty? Born in this century I suspect.

“Many protests demanding the end of the war in Ukraine took place across Europe last Sunday, as here in Belgrade, Serbia.” (Le Point)

“The police arrest a woman during a protest against the invasion of Ukraine, in Moscow, February 27, 2022.” (L’Express.)

Same image as my last sketch. Two masked “policepersons” arresting a civilian. One was Asian. This one is blonde… (Will H&M leave Russia as Coca-Cola and McDonald have already announced?)

“The road to exile. At Irpin, in the suburbs of Kiev, civilians evacuate the city across a bridge destroyed by bombing, March 5th.”

Three million refugees have now fled Ukraine. More than the Spanish Republicans crossing the mountains between Spain and France, fleeing Franco.

I wrote this post on the 10th. Planning to post on the 15th. I vouch for the images and original captions. Both media are bona fide papers with a long-standing reputation. I tried to keep my own rantings to a minimum. The images speak for themselves.

Last but not least. On Monday, a young Russian woman working at one of Russia’s major public TV networks interrupted the live News report with a protest sign “No war; text in Russian; ending in “Russians against war”. Her name is Marina Ovsyanikova. She is centre and right. She has been arrested, fined, liberated though she may face criminal charges of up to 15 years prison. Bravo Marina for your courage.

Freedom in Ukrainian is “Svoboda”.

Svoboda 🇺🇦 .