Middleboro Review 2: POLITICO Nightly: Scenes from Ukrainians abroad: Texts, guns and fear

Saturday, February 26, 2022

POLITICO Nightly: Scenes from Ukrainians abroad: Texts, guns and fear

With help from Joanne Kenen

Anti-war demonstrators hold up an Ukrainian flag at a rally against Russia’s military operation in Ukraine, in Lafayette Park near the White House in Washington, D.C. | Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

‘THE PEOPLE HAVE CHANGED’ — Many of the millions of Ukrainians who live outside Russia and Ukraine have protested in the streets of Houston and Rome, of London and Sydney. They’ve urged their governments to do more. They’ve rallied support for friends and family back home. The Russian invasion has galvanized Ukrainians across the world into action, even as they process the harrowing images on TV and phone screens.

Nightly chatted over WhatsApp this week with two POLITICO journalists with Ukrainian roots about their conversations with friends and relatives in the country: Zoya Sheftalovich, a contributing editor at the Brussels and London Playbooks, who was born in Ukraine, and moved to Australia after the fall of the Soviet Union; and Oriana Pawlyk, an aviation reporter, who grew up in Chicago’s Ukrainian community. This conversation has been edited.

Where are your family/friends in Ukraine and how are they?

ZS : I was born in the Chernivtsi Oblast, which is a region to the south of the country near the border with Romania. That’s where most people still are, though I also know folks in Kyiv, Kharkiv (where some of my family is from) and Odesa. People are sending through some pretty horrific stories and videos. I just watched a video of a woman my mum knows whose apartment building was shelled. Her face was bruised, she looked in terrible shape. She was speaking in Russian, and she vowed she was going to do everything she could to defend Ukraine till her last breath. It’s shocking.

OP: I have family in Brody and Ivano-Frankivsk. My grandmother was last in touch with the family in Brody last night, and kept asking if they would leave. But their answer was, “Where would we go? We don’t know anyone anywhere else,” and kept talking about how anxious they were. My grandmother says she’ll see if they have access to banks, but it looks like they’ve already been cut off, so getting money to them is going to be a struggle. A lot of poorer and even middle-class Ukrainians basically live paycheck to paycheck, and that is true for my extended family.

I’ve heard from friends that some women are stranded without their husbands, and some have multiple children, some with complex needs (recovering from surgery, disability), and don’t have the ability or finances to leave/drive. Their families are in other countries (away on business, tending to family before the attack) and are stuck because there’s no air travel to reunite. It’s heartbreaking. Some don’t know where to hide from the shelling and need help getting their families to these places.

What is the situation for people trying to evacuate?

OP: Friends of friends I know are trying to go west, but one is facing massive lines into Poland. When she got there, the men ages 18-60 weren’t allowed to enter because Ukraine is trying to keep as many abled fighters as it can on Ukrainian soil.

Another one of my friend’s cousins says they don’t want to leave because their 9-month-old daughter doesn’t have a passport and they fear not being accepted in any country. They also feel “unpatriotic” fleeing.

Others say they’re keeping faith in Ukraine’s soldiers.

ZS : Also the thing to remember is it’s freezing cold right now, the roads are clogged, there’s no money. Poland has set up refugee camps for Ukrainians, but to get to them, you have to brave rain and freezing cold.

Is there any sense of normalcy? Are schools still open, for example?

OP : My family in Brody, the niece has a young daughter she cares for. And school is touch and go, so she’s trying to teach her at home. But I saw reports earlier today that parents in certain regions who still are sending kids to school are sending them with information — blood type, age, etc. — in case the worst happens and they need care.

I got a response from someone in the West (another one of my friend’s cousins) who essentially said “У Львові тихо, але не знаю яка буде ніч” which means it’s quiet in Lviv now, but no one knows what the night will bring. Airfields have been decimated in the West. It’s a barrage. Then nothing. Makes it very tense.

ZS : I’ve been chatting with people in Chernivtsi, which is in the West, and it seems like things are open, but everyone is just trying to get money out of ATMs and trying to buy supplies. Apparently the lines at the shops are huge, and shelves are emptying.

How is the Ukrainian diaspora responding?

ZS : The Ukrainian defense ministry has been asking the diaspora (well, anyone really) to contribute funds to Ukraine’s defense. Lots of people have been doing that.

OP : There’s already a website dedicated to upcoming rallies across the U.S. and internationally. The Orange Revolution was big back in 2004, bringing the communities out, the 2014 invasion was mightier and now a full on war has every single Ukrainian I know raising their voice stateside. Ukrainians at home and overseas wish that the U.S. and NATO would do something more. They feel they’ve been left behind when all the warning signs have been there for months, and in many cases, years. They just are hoping more can be done aside from sanctions.

This is the start of what could be a longer term war. How are Ukrainians preparing?

ZS: I think the West has made it pretty clear that Ukrainians are on their own, there will be no other boots on the ground.

People are stocking up on supplies, food, medicines, they’re hunkering down. But actually a lot of people are also picking up arms. Little old ladies picking up their guns. It seems like Ukrainians have really been galvanized by the past 8 years, and where there may not have been much nationalism or patriotism before, there seems to be now. Zelenskyy has really restored pride to Ukrainians too. I think it’s a different country now than it was even just a few years ago. The people have changed.

OP : Praying.

Welcome to POLITICO Nightly. Reach out with news, tips and ideas at nightly@politico.com. Or contact tonight’s author at rrayasam@politico.com, or on Twitter at @RenuRayasam.

HAPPENING MONDAY: A WOMEN RULE INTERVIEW: Join Cecilia Rouse, chair of the Council of Economic Advisors, and Morning Money author Kate Davidson for a conversation exploring President Biden's economic agenda, the administration's plans to tackle financial losses women suffered during the pandemic and what it will take to elevate more women to leadership ranks in the U.S. economy. SUBSCRIBE HERE.

WHAT'D I MISS?

— Jackson hopes nomination ‘will inspire future generations of Americans’: Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson, the first ever Black woman picked to serve on the nation’s highest court , said today that she hopes her path “will inspire future generations of Americans.” “If I’m fortunate enough to be confirmed as the next associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, I could only hope that my life and career, my love of this country and the Constitution and my commitment to upholding the rule of law and the sacred principles upon which this great nation was founded, will inspire future generations of Americans,” Jackson said at a White House event, flanked by President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.

— U.S. will sanction Putin, Lavrov and other Russian officials: The U.S. government will impose direct sanctions on Russian President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov , the White House announced today, joining the European Union as Russian forces continue their full-fledged assault on Ukraine. The EU announced today it will freeze the assets of Putin and Lavrov as part of a sanctions package. The package does not include restricting Putin’s travel to the EU, though Psaki suggested the U.S.’s sanctions might include a ban impacting the Russian presidents’ travels to the United States.

— CDC says most Americans can now take off masks as Covid cases plummet: The majority of Americans can now choose to take off their masks in indoor public settings, including in schools, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced today . CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said data supports state and local officials, schools and businesses in 70 percent of the country updating their guidelines to allow people the option to wear a mask. The move marks a milestone in America’s two-year fight against Covid-19 — one that relied heavily on masks to control the spread of the virus.

— Delta suspends its agreement with Russia’s Aeroflot airlines: Delta Air Lines has suspended its alliance with Russian-carrier Aeroflot over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The sharing agreement allows passengers to fly on one another’s flights and book trips on the same ticket. The spokesperson said Delta does not operate services to Ukraine or Russia and does not fly routes through either country’s airspace or near the borders.

DON’T MISS CONGRESS MINUTES: Need to follow the action on Capitol Hill blow-by-blow? Check out Minutes, POLITICO’s new platform that delivers the latest exclusives, twists and much more in real time. Get it on your desktop or download the POLITICO mobile app for iOS or Android. CHECK OUT CONGRESS MINUTES HERE.

FROM THE HEALTH DESK

BOOST TO THE FUTURE — Commonwealth Fund Journalist-in-Residence at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Nightly contributor Joanne Kenen emails us:

As Covid (we hope) becomes a more manageable, lower grade threat, what will happen to vaccines?

We could need boosters — annually, or some other time frame. Recent studies bring us welcome hope that the existing vaccines will give long-term protection. But those studies are not definitive — and if the virus changes radically, our need for shots could change too. Older people, or those with health conditions that put them at risk, may need boosters even if the population at large does not.

Other scenarios include bigger doses of the currently available shots, or a mix-and-match approach — an mRNA, like Pfizer or a Moderna, coupled with a different kind of vaccine. Johnson and Johnson is already available; a few others could come up relatively soon for FDA review.

Depending on what future variants look like — how many mutations they have and how much danger they pose — we could need reformulated shots that target these versions of the virus. Remember, the current shot was designed to attack the strain that emerged in Wuhan in late 2019.

We could, potentially, get nasal spray vaccines which could lower the virus load in the nose and reduce transmissions, including breakthroughs. That might help get needle-averse people immunized, but some doctors and scientists think that, at first at least, a nose spray would likely supplement traditional injections, rather than replace them.

Eventually, we may have universal or near-universal coronavirus vaccines that can protect against all or almost all coronaviruses.

“We are looking at everything,” a senior Biden administration health official told Nightly. But right now, scenarios are only scenarios. Nobody can really be sure what’s next.

Syringes for use with the Pfizer coronavirus booster vaccination are prepared in Tokyo. | Carl Court/Getty Images

To dig a little deeper, Nightly talked to Barry Bloom, a giant in the field of immunology and infectious disease and former dean of Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Takeaway one from our conversation: It’s not us, but the virus that’s in charge.

But the virus, Bloom explained, isn’t primarily interested in making humans sick. All the virus wants is to survive – and that sometimes means variants compete with one another, like when Omicron largely displaced Delta.

In that virus-to-virus struggle, humans are just “collateral damage.”

One thing that’s captured Bloom’s scientific attention: technology involving “nanobodies,” which are, in layperson’s language, teensy weensy antibodies that “have the ability to get into all kinds of places” — including, research suggests, the coronavirus spike.

Using nanobodies, researchers have been able to immunize llamas and alpacas — and harvest them, so they can be cheaply and easily reproduced for potential use on humans.

“Really good people and companies are working on it,” Bloom said. Once the alpaca is immunized, the nanobodies can be “produced by the bucket” in a cheap and accessible substance like yeast. So your neighborhood brewery could become your neighborhood nanobody center, giving us a new treatment.

The combination of vaccination and immunity post-infection is putting “enormous evolutionary pressure” on the virus right now, Bloom said.

That’s the upside. Bloom knows there’s another possibility. The virus could mutate to make the current vaccines ineffective. “That would come to us as a completely new virus that we are unprepared for immunologically.” But he reminded us that we know how to make vaccines fast now. A new one could be ready in a matter of months.

But Bloom knows the limits of trying to guess what the coronavirus will do next. “Predicting variants,” he said, “has not been a winning strategy.”

NIGHTLY NUMBER

1,180 percent

The increase in orders from Texas for abortion pills from the international nonprofit Aid Access in the first week after the Texas law banning the procedure after six weeks of pregnancy took effect in September. According to a new study published today in the Journal of the American Medical Association, orders for the drugs increased from about 11 purchases per day to more than 137 per day.

PARTING WORDS

NOT HEADLINING CPAC — In his 20-minute speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference, Ron DeSantis hit on everything from immigration and “mob violence” to critical race theory, the Bill of Rights and the peril of a “biomedical security state.”

One thing the Florida governor — who is a U.S. Navy veteran and former member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee — did not mention on Thursday was Ukraine.

It was a curious, but not entirely surprising, omission by one of the GOP’s leading presidential prospects as the world watched the Russian invasion unfold in real time, David Siders writes.

DeSantis was hardly alone in avoiding the subject at CPAC, where Russia’s offensive — just hours old — drew only glancing interest at one of the party’s most prominent gatherings of the year. Even in a country where conflicts abroad rarely animate the electorate, it was one of the starkest indicators in decades of how far foreign policy has fallen on the Republican agenda. No longer is the GOP the party whose president once told Mikhail Gorbachev to “tear down this wall.”

Today, said Ryan Horn, a longtime Republican strategist in the Midwest, “Ronald Reagan is probably rolling around in his grave.”