Source: Max Kukurudziak, Unsplash
It’s nothing less than a revival of a new Cold War to counter VOA and BBC broadcasts during Russia’s assault and occupation of Ukraine.
The international community, the United States and NATO are all reacting vigorously to the latest news about Russia’s forces threatening Kiev, the Ukrainian capital, and its southern shore communities.
The Associated Press reports that the United Nations launched an urgent appeal on March 1 for $1.7 to respond to what that news agency called “the soaring humanitarian needs” of threatened populations in Ukraine and its 4,000,000 people who have fled the country.
Moscow invaded Ukraine on February 23, but 12 days later, miles-long columns of Russia’s tanks remained stalled on the outskirts of the Ukrainian capital, Kiev. Some reportedly had been hit in defensive airstrikes by Ukrainian forces or had run out of gas.
Yet despite determined resistance, Russia has attacked and occupied several port cities along the country’s southern coast.
Vivid images of heroic civilian resistance have dominated Western TV and radio reports
—Musician David Martelli was shown on CNN-TV, towing his piano to the Ukraine-Polish border to well desperate Ukrainian civilians seeking to escape the war. It was one of several frontier crossings Mr. Martelli visited as March dawned.
—In Brighton Beach near New York City, halfway around the world, Russian-American citizens were shown on city streets in a CNN report protesting the Kremlin’s invasion, as the United States network among many others focused on the crisis.
—Yale University history professor Timothy Snyder assessed the cost of human lives in Ukraine. He estimated that 360,000 Ukrainians have been killed in Moscow’s assault, 4,357 of them on March 6 alone.
Russian media on Moscow’s invasion of its neighbor Ukraine is blocked
The Washington Post reported on March 5 that Russia’s internet censor has said it will block access to Facebook, which the Post characterized as a massive cut to Russian citizens’ access to information about Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
Facebook’s President for Public Affairs Nick Clegg said: “Soon, millions of Russians will find themselves cut off from reliable information, deprived of their everyday ways of connecting with family and silenced from speaking out.
“We will do everything we can to restore our services so they remain available to people to safely and securely express themselves and organize for action.”
As a 36-year veteran of the Voice of America (VOA), Alan Heil traveled to more than 40 countries a foreign correspondent in the Middle East, and later as director of News and Current Affairs, deputy director of programs, and deputy director of the nation’s largest publicly-funded overseas multimedia network. Today, VOA reaches more than 275 million people around the world each week via radio, television and online media. Read More
