SHIP’S SINKING INSPIRES SONG
The sinking of the Russian warship Moskva is being celebrated by Ukrainians as an iconic victory, including in a new song by one of the country’s most popular rock musicians.
Vadym Krasnooky, lead singer of Mad Heads, on Saturday debuted an acoustic version of “Cruiser Moskva” at a news conference. He said he wrote the song after the sinking of the Moskva, the pride of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, which the Pentagon confirmed Friday was struck by two Ukrainian Neptune missiles.
Mad Heads, which has played rock, hillbilly and psychobilly music since its founding 25 years ago, had stopped performing when Russia invaded Ukraine in late February. Krasnooky appeared solo with an acoustic guitar in Lviv to perform the new song, which includes the refrain: “Oh, the ship, oh, the ship, Moskva burn! Burn! Burn in hell forever.”
“We have to find a way to channel all this hate,” he told The New York Times.
The song’s lyrics reference an incident from the beginning of the war, when a border guard on a rocky outpost of Ukraine reportedly responded to Russian calls for surrender with an expletive telling the ship what it could do. A Ukrainian official has claimed that the Moskva was the ship in that incident.
“The ship became transformed into a symbol of our enemy,” Krasnooky said.
Where Russians turn for uncensored news on Ukraine.
Before Russia invaded Ukraine, Russian journalist Farida Rustamova used the Telegram chat app for one purpose: messaging friends.
But as authorities shut down media outlets that strayed from the official line, including the publications she wrote for, she started posting her articles on Telegram. Her feed there — where she has written about the consolidation of Russia’s elites around President Vladimir Putin and the reaction among employees of staterun media to an on- air protest — has garnered more than 22,000 subscribers.
As Russia has silenced independent news media and banned social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, Telegram has become the largest remaining outlet for unrestricted information. Opponents of the war use the platform for everything from organizing antiwar protests to sharing media reports from the West.
Closing of Ukrainian ports could trigger food catastrophe, U. N. warns.
GENEVA » As Russia gears up for a military offensive in eastern and southern Ukraine, the United Nations
warned Saturday that closures of ports on the Black Sea could trigger a global food catastrophe that yields starvation, mass migration and political instability.
Ukraine’s silos are brimming with grains that in a normal year help feed 400 million people. But the supply chain has been disrupted by the war, with ports unable to operate normally near the heart of a war zone.
“You pull that off the market,” David Beasley, executive director of the U. N. World Food Program, said in a phone call from Ukraine’s western city of Lviv, and “you begin to realize you have a perfect storm coming our way.”
The challenge for global food supplies is keeping open the southern ports of Odesa, Chornomorsk, Yuzhny and Mykolaiv on the Black Sea coast, which are in Ukrainian hands but threatened by Russia’s anticipated offensive.
Beasley said that he had spoken by phone and set out his concerns in writing, but that the Kremlin had not responded to any of the United Nations’ concerns.
“This is where the international community has got to come in and make some very serious decisions about protecting ports for humanitarian purposes and opening up ports for the whole world,” he said.
Ukrainians seek prisoner swap. »
KYIV, UKRAINE Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said in televised remarks on Saturday that 700 Ukrainian troops and more than 1,000 civilians — more than half women — are being held captive by the Russians.
Vereshchuk said Kyiv intends to swap the captive soldiers, since Ukraine holds about the same number of Russian troops but demands to release the civilians “without any conditions.”
Italians bar Russian ships. ROME » Italy is barring all Russian ships from its ports starting Sunday, as part of expanded EU sanctions announced earlier this month. Ships already in Italian ports must leave immediately “after completing their commercial activity, according to a notice sent to port authorities.
Russians impose sanctions on European officials.
MOSCOW » Russia has barred the UK prime minister and a dozen other top British officials from entering the country in response to British sanctions imposed on Russia.
On Friday, Russia’s Foreign Ministry announced the expulsion of 18 European Union diplomats from Moscow, in retaliation for the bloc’s declaring 19 diplomats from the Russian mission to the EU and to the European Atomic Energy Community persona non- grata.