At least 50 Ukrainians, including at least five children, were killed in a Russian missile attack on the Kramatorsk train station in the Donetsk region, where crowds of civilians were trying to evacuate (NPR). The attack comes as NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg warns that Russia is concentrating its military forces on fewer cities in the eastern and southern regions of Ukraine after its failure to take “many places” at once, including the capital, Kyiv.
“They underestimated the strength of Ukrainian forces,” Stoltenberg said of Russian forces, on NPR’s Morning Edition.
Allies “are determined to do more. Now and for the long term,” he said Thursday at a press conference in Brussels, per ukrinform.net. Stoltenberg said it’s more advantageous to Ukraine’s defensive effort if NATO does not publicly say what types of weapons it will supply.
Meanwhile, in opinions about Russia news
Presumably an increasing number of Americans have turned on their TVs and seen the widespread, vicious destruction being perpetrated by the Russian government on the people of Ukraine. That’s because in January only 41% of Americans considered Russia to be an enemy of the United States and now that number is up to 70%, according to polling by the Pew Research Center. Surprisingly, that’s 72% of Democrats and 69% of Republicans.
Republicans have traditionally been more seriously anti-communist and/or anti-socialist compared with Democrats, but the GOP appears more sympathetic to the current authoritarian Russian oligopoly.
Another data point is that although the Former Guy was anything but a supporter of NATO, 67% of Americans have a favorable opinion of the organization — up from 61% in 2021 — and 69% say that the U.S. benefits from being a NATO member. Again, there is an odd inversion of support of this defense organization: 85% of liberal Dems think there is benefit from membership while only 51% of conservative Republicans hold that view. Aren’t the latter all about “freedom”? Perhaps it only matters within the U.S. for them.
—Todd Lassa and Gary S. Vasilash
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