SATURDAY 23 APRIL 2022

UKRAINE

MSNBC, 4:00 PM

• Mariupol Mayor says that mass grave could hold as much as 9,000 bodies.  East of Mariupol.  Another one West of Mariupol. 
• Missile strike on Odesa.  Russians claim that they are going to conquer the entire southern coast of Ukraine.
• This missile strike on Odesa may be the start of that effort.
• Black Diplomat Podcast, Terrel J. Starr (who has been in Ukraine along with Chris Sampson and Malcolm Nance).  Putin needs a victory for his people.  Bringing forth a victory in Mariupol would be something he wants and needs.  The Ukrainians will fight if they have to throw rocks.  Russia will be more isolated than ever.  What Putin is doing is genocide.  Putin talks about Ukrainians as “white trash.”  He referred to Crimean Tartars as Isalamic Terrorists.  “He (Putin) is racist.”  (Note: Starr will be returning to Ukraine). 
• Nayyera Haq, Formerly State Department:  Russia has threatened their annihilation.  Can they bring along Saudi Arabia and India to isolate Russia.  Ukraine has been destroyed.   China has not aligned with democracies in the world. 

THE KYIV INDEPENDENT

• Mariupol has been surrounded for almost two months.
• Zelensky: Ukraine will pull out of peace talks if Russia kills Ukrainian troops in Mariupol.
• Military expert Michael Kofman says that whether Donbas succeeds or fails for the Russians, the Russian military will be exhausted afterwards.
• Kuleba: Russia must be designated a state sponsor of terrorism.
• Two Russian generals killed near Kherson.
• Finland reduces electricity imports from Russia
• Russia forcibly deports 308 Mariupol residents to Vladivostok, including 90 children.
• Russians are clearing debris at the theatre that they bombed on March 16 and dumping the bodies in mass graves.
• Ukraine liberates three settlements in Kharkiv.
• Ukraine attempting to evacuate people from Mariupol on April 23.
• Civilians have been sheltering in the basements of the Axovstal plant for nearly two months.

UKRAINE WORLD

• Russians are holding “pseudo-referendums” in occupied territory.
• Zelensky: Ukraine would strengthen NATO.  Ukraine’s absence from the Alliance is a strategic mistake.
• Turkey closes airspace to Russian military and civilian aircraft flying to Syria.
• In Kherson an elevator was robbed and all grain was taken to the occupied Crimea.
• Russians force Ukrainian farmers to start sowing, demanding that they hand over all the harvest.

EUROMAIDAN PRESS (@eUROMAIDANpRESS)

• Russians abduct civic activist Panchenko, who protested their invasion.
• Article about Russian ideology.  See Euromaidan Press.