With rumored FSB moves against Putin and Mariupol on the verge of collapse, the situation in Ukraine is fluid.

***

Go Ad-Free, Get Exclusive Shows and Content, Go Premium Today - $1 Trial

FNC: Ukrainian forces at the Azovstal steel factory in Mariupol said Tuesday that Russia’s military is now storming the complex.

The move comes almost two weeks after Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his military not to storm the plant, but rather block off the last pocket of resistance in the besieged Ukrainian city.

Asked about reports in Ukrainian media that the plant was being bombarded, Sviatoslav Palamar, the deputy commander of the Azov Regiment that is holed up there, said “it is true.”

Vadim Astafyev, a Russian Defense Ministry spokesman, said Tuesday that Ukrainian fighters holed up at the plant “came out of the basements, took up firing positions on the territory and in the buildings of the plant.” Astafyev said Russian forces along with rebel forces from Donetsk were using “artillery and aircraft… to destroy these firing positions.”

Go Ad-Free, Get Exclusive Shows and Content, Go Premium Today - $1 Trial

Mariupol Mayor Vadym Boychenko said earlier Tuesday that more than 200 civilians are still at the Azovstal factory following United Nations-assisted evacuation efforts there in recent days, according to Reuters.

***

Is Joe Biden An Embarrassment To Our Country?

By completing the poll, you agree to receive emails from DrewBerquist.com, occasional offers from our partners and that you've read and agree to our privacy policy and legal statement.

***

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov again expressed his nekulturny ignorance and the peasant provincialism of his government, as he said in regards to make believe “Nazis” in Ukraine, “For some time we have heard from the Jewish people that the biggest antisemites were Jewish.” Ah yes, Sergei talks to a lot of Jews.

“When they say ‘How can Nazification exist if we’re Jewish?’ In my opinion, Hitler also had Jewish origins, so it doesn’t mean absolutely anything,” Lavrov added. Strike two on peasant provincialism.

Israel struck back. “Jews did not murder themselves in the Holocaust,” the Israeli foreign minister said. “The lowest level of racism against Jews is to accuse Jews themselves of antisemitism.”

 

Zelenskyy commented on the situation. “Russia’s foreign minister openly and without hesitation said that the biggest anti-Semites were allegedly among the Jews themselves. And that Hitler allegedly had Jewish blood. How could this be said on the eve of the anniversary of the victory over Nazism? These words mean that Russia’s top diplomat is blaming the Jewish people for Nazi crimes. No words.

“This means that the Russian leadership has forgotten all the lessons of World War Two,” he added. “Or perhaps they have never learned those lessons.” Bingo.

***

British PM Boris Johnson spoke by video to the Ukrainian parliament on Tuesday. “As you turned the Russian army back from the gates of Kyiv, you not only accomplished the greatest feat of arms of the 21st century, you achieved something deeper and perhaps equally significant: You exposed Putin’s historic folly, the gigantic error that only an autocrat can make,” Johnson said.

MORE NEWS: No Show Today

“Because when a leader rules by fear, rigs elections, jails critics, gags the media, and listens just to sycophants, when there is no limit on his power — that is when he makes catastrophic mistakes,” he continued, speaking of Biden…I mean Putin.

Johnson added that “Putin’s mistake was to invade Ukraine, and the carcasses of Russian armor littering your fields and streets are monuments not only to his folly, but to the dangers of autocracy itself. Your children and grandchildren will say that Ukrainians taught the world that the brute force of an aggressor counts for nothing against the moral force of a people determined to be free. They will say that Ukrainians proved by their tenacity and sacrifice that tanks and guns cannot suppress a nation fighting for its independence and that is why I believe that Ukraine will win.”

This piece was written by David Kamioner on May 3, 2022. It originally appeared in LifeZette and is used by permission.

The opinions expressed by contributors and/or content partners are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views of DrewBerquist.com. Contact us for guidelines on submitting your own commentary.