And if it had been Zelensky? How the war became bigger than any one person
Ukraine’s Minister of Internal Affairs Denys Monastyrsky was killed Wednesday in a helicopter crash. The cause is still unknown, but the high-profile victim could just have well been President Volodymlyr Zelensky instead. For Ukrainian journalist Anna Akage, it raises the question of whether there are indispensable figures on either side in a war of this nature.
The news came at 8 a.m., local time: a helicopter had crashed in Brovary, near Kyiv, with all the top management of Ukraine's Ministry of Internal Affairs on board, including Interior Minister Denys Monastyrsky. There were no survivors.
Having come just days after a Russian missile killed dozens in a Dnipro apartment, the first thought of most Ukrainians was about the senseless loss of innocent life in this brutal war inflicted on Ukraine. Indeed, it occurred near a kindergarten and at least one of the dozens killed was a small child.
But there was also another kind of reaction to this tragedy, since the victims this time included the country's top official for domestic security. For Ukrainians (and others) have been wondering — regardless of whether or not the crash was an accident — if instead of Interior Minister Monastyrsky, it had been President Volodymyr Zelensky in that helicopter. What then?
Indeed, the Ukrainian president was asked about it during his video appearance at the WEF summit in Davos on Wednesday. Without blinking, he said he is not afraid of being targeted, and is focused on getting Ukraine the military aid it needs from Western allies.
But posing this question, at this moment — imagining Ukraine without its now iconic war leader — offers a surprising moment of clarity.
Sure, Volodymyr Zelensky is far more recognizable than Denys Monastyrsky, or even Valerii Zaluzhnyi, the commander-in-chief of Ukraine’s Armed Forces. Both inside and outside of Ukraine. It is also undeniable that Zelensky's courage in the first days and weeks of the war were vital, even decisive, in rallying the armed forces and the nation — and the rest of the world — to repel the Russian onslaught.
Even six months ago, perhaps, we might imagine that the loss of Zelensky could have changed the course of the war, and our collective history.
But not now.
And it's not because the names and personalities don't matter. Quite the opposite: All the names have become far too important. The Ukrainian people have lost too much, have paid too high a price in taking on a bigger, better-armed enemy daily.
Yes, Zelensky's role continues to be critical, and he remains enormously popular. Yes, his premature death would be painful for the nation. But by now, both the war machine and mobilized national war effort have reached maturity. Ukrainians are driven by a love for their nation and hatred of the enemy that extends far beyond any one person.
But there is a seemingly paradoxical analogy on the other side of this war.
The situation in Russia also seems to be riding on one man: It is Vladimir Putin who decided to go to war, who is uniting the nation behind his false pretext for the invasion and brutal targeting of innocent lives, doubling down with a nationwide mobilization last fall.
And yet, here as well, a change of the leader will not change anything. Even if Putin suddenly died before dinner tonight, this war will be with us for many more meals to come. Russian soldiers will continue shooting at Ukrainian residential houses, not because of love for their homeland, but because a new set of superiors are driven by the same fear and thirst for power as Putin.
A nation that grew up fearful of NATO attacks, Western influence, LGBTQ rights, and a post-Christian soulless culture will continue to fight, will be ready for sacrifice.
The propaganda-washed brains of their so-called "deep people," that is, the tens of millions of people living outside of Moscow and St. Petersburg, have long ago formed a picture of their reality, and will not give it up just because some other blue-ish corpse of the leader in the Kremlin casket will replace Lenin.
The conclusion suggests itself: This is not a war between Putin and Zelensky; it is a war between Russia and Ukraine, a war between two tectonic plates of time, where one has moved into the future, and the other is permanently stuck in the past.
Perhaps the only comfort for Ukrainians right now is about the very nature of time, which can only move forward.
— Anna Akage
• Key Ukraine-NATO summit on weapons supply: The defense ministers of Ukraine, NATO and other countries are meeting today at Ramstein Air Base in Germany to discuss shipment of new military equipment needed in the war against Russia. Meanwhile, a video made by Russia's Wagner mercenary group to encourage recruitment for the war in Ukraine alongside Russian troops has prompted outrage in Serbia.
• Greta in Davos: Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg lambasted business and political leaders attending the World Economic Forum, saying it was "absurd" to listen to them while they were the ones responsible for "the destruction of the planet."
• Alec Baldwin to be charged with involuntary manslaughter: American actor Alec Baldwin will be charged with two counts of involuntary manslaughter over the shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, who was killed in 2021 on the set of the film Rust when he accidentally fired a prop gun.
• South Korea slum fire: Hundreds of people have had to be evacuated after a fire broke out in a shanty town in South Korea's capital, Seoul. There have been no reports of deaths or injuries, but around 60 homes have been destroyed. It took more than 900 firefighters and several helicopters five hours to put out the blaze.
• Google parent company to lay off 12,000: Google’s parent company Alphabet has announced it is laying off 12,000 employees, just a day after competitor Microsoft said it would be parting with 10,000 workers. Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai sent a staff memo explaining that said the company was facing "a different economic reality" than when it was created.
• Netflix co-founder steps down: Reed Hastings is stepping down from his role as co-chief executive of Netflix, the firm he helped found more than 25 years ago. The firm will now be run by Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters, both already in senior executive positions.
• David Crosby dies: U.S. folk rock pioneer David Crosby, twice inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a founding member of The Byrds and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, has died at 81 after a long illness, his family announced Thursday.
“Germany, the embarrassing partner,” titles German weekly magazine Stern, asking if the country, in this decisive phase of the war, can “still be relied upon.” German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is facing mounting pressure to send Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine as talks between more than 50 countries are currently underway at the country’s Ramstein air base to coordinate efforts to increase weapon supplies.
+4%
Consumer prices in Japan rose by 4% in December year-on-year — the sharpest inflation increase since 1961, government data shows. Although the country’s inflation remains well below countries such as the UK and the U.S., it doubles the Bank of Japan’s long-held target of about 2%.
Weird stuff, guns & money: Inside the hideouts of mob bosses and fugitive warlords
After the capture this week of Sicilian Mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro, police revealed some notable contents of two of his hideouts after 30 years on the run. There's a long history of discovering the secret lairs and bunkers of the world's Most Wanted bad guys.
💍 Expensive watches, perfumes, designer clothes and sex pills. A day after top Sicilian Mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro was captured after 30 years on the run, police revealed some of the possessions found in the Palermo apartment where he’d been hiding out under a false name. By Wednesday, Italian daily La Stampa was reporting, police had found a second hideout near Messina Denaro's hometown in the Sicilian province of Trapani, with a secret vault hidden behind a closet, where jewelry, gold and other valuables were found.
🦛 Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar owned a handful of luxury properties, including the 5,500-acre Hacienda Nápoles estate in Puerto Triunfo, Colombia. When he was finally tracked down and shot to death by Colombian security forces in 1993, authorities got a close-up of the true extent of his possessions. The main complex included two swimming pools, a private airstrip and a race track for Escobar's collection of luxury cars. He also built a zoo to house animals including elephants, ostriches and, most famously, four hippos.
🖼️ The most infamous historical bunker, Adolf Hitler's führerbunker in Berlin, was almost destroyed after the war by East German authorities, who were concerned it would become a pilgrimage site for neo-Nazis. Photos taken after Soviet forces took control of the bunker in 1945 show the space looted and burned, including copies of news reports and a smashed painting — reportedly a 16th century work stolen from Milan. The remains of the bunker are now buried underneath a parking lot.
➡️ Read more on Worldcrunch.com
“The time of the Wild West is over.”
— Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, the European Commission’s Vice-President for Values and Transparency Věra Jourová warned Elon Musk that “we have rules which have to be complied with, otherwise there will be sanctions." The EU is putting in place a new regulatory framework aiming to protect users' rights online and remove illegal content or misinformation. Breaking the rules set by EU regulators could lead Twitter and others to face a fine of up to 6% of their annual revenue.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg talks with Ukrainian Defense Minister Olexiy Resnikov at the start of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group meeting at the Ramstein Air Base in Germany. — Photo: Boris Roessler/dpa/ZUMA
✍️ Newsletter by Ginevra Falciani, Hugo Perrin and Anne-Sophie Goninet
