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In exercising discretion over how unverified or false content is moderated, social media companies have decided to pick a side, said Alex Stamos, the director of the Stanford Internet Observatory and a former head of security at Facebook.

I think this demonstrates the limits of fact-checking in a fast-moving battle with real lives at stake, Mr. Stamos said. He added that technology platforms never created rules against misinformation overall, instead targeting specific behaviors, actors and content.

A Ukrainian city falls. Russian troops gained control of Kherson,the first city to be overcome during the war. The overtaking of Kherson is significant as it allows the Russians to control more of Ukraines southern coastline and to push west toward the city of Odessa.

That leaves the truth behind some wartime narratives, like an apparent assassination plot against Mr. Zelensky or simply the number of troops killed in battle, fairly elusive, even as official accounts and news media share the information.

Those narratives have continued as the war marches on, revealing the contours of an information war aimed not just at Western audiences but also at Russian citizens. At the United Nations on Monday, the Ukrainian ambassador, Sergiy Kyslytsya, shared a series of text messages that he said had been retrieved from the phone of a dead Russian soldier.

Mama, Im in Ukraine. There is a real war raging here. Im afraid, the Russian soldier apparently wrote, according to Mr. Kyslytsyas account, which he read in Russian. The tale seemed to evoke a narrative advanced by officials and shared extensively on social media that Russian soldiers are poorly trained and too young, and dont want to be fighting their Ukrainian neighbors. We are bombing all of the cities together, even targeting civilians.

The story, whether true or not, appears tailor-made for Russian civilians particularly parents fretting over the fate of their enlisted children, experts said.

This is an age-old tactic that the Ukrainians are trying to use, and that is to draw the attention of the mothers and the families in Russia away from the more grandiose aims for war onto, instead, the human costs of war, said Ian Garner, a historian focusing on Russia who has followed Russian-language propaganda during the conflict. We know that this is really effective.

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In Ukraines Information War, a Blend of Fact and Fiction - The New York Times

LVIV, Ukraine One week into their invasion of Ukraine, Russian forces are ramping up assaults on civilian areas, making strategic advances in the coastal south and beginning to lay siege to major cities.

The invasion by President Vladimir V. Putins troops, which began on Feb. 24, kicked off Europes largest ground war since World War II.

In the days since, parts of towns and cities along Ukraines eastern border with Russia have been reduced to rubble by Russian forces, according video evidence verified by The New York Times and interviews with residents who fled. Major cities, including the capital, Kyiv, have faced significant onslaughts, with Ukrainian officials saying Russian forces had taken control of the first major city in the war, the strategic southern port of Kherson.

As the war moves to an increasingly brutal phase, Russian artillery and rocket fire have cut off electricity, water and heat to many communities. Reports are also multiplying of Russian strikes against hospitals, schools, apartment complexes and critical civilian infrastructure. And a humanitarian crisis looms: More than a million people have already fled the country, according to the head of the United Nations refugee agency.

Even as Russian forces continue their onslaught, soldiers and civilian warriors from Ukraine, a country of 44 million, are fiercely resisting the attack of its much larger and more heavily armed neighbor.

Russia has been making huge gains across the country, especially in the south, but it has yet to gain air superiority over Ukraine, a strategic setback for Mr. Putin that analysts attribute to Ukraines fighter jets and surprisingly resilient air defenses. Officials from Ukraine and the United States also say that a number of Russian units which reportedly include many young, poorly trained conscripts have been hampered a bit by delays, poor morale and shortages of food and fuel.

President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine vowed on Thursday to regain control of parts of the country where Russian forces had made gains.

I am sure of this: if they entered somewhere, it is only temporarily, he said in an address to the nation. Well drive them out. With shame.

Heres how the war is evolving:

After facing stiffer than expected resistance, Mr. Putin has escalated the bombardment of Kyiv as his forces seek to topple the government. As many as 15,000 people, mostly women and children, have taken up residence in the subway system, The Timess Andrew Kramer reported from Kyiv.

This week, a missile hit a television tower in Kyiv, and airstrikes hit a residential area of Zhytomyr, a city less than 100 miles west of Kyiv. A video verified by The New York Times also showed what appeared to be two Russian warplanes flying at low altitude moments before an airstrike hit a residential apartment complex in Irpin, a city on Kyivs northwestern limits.

Such attacks, along with a convoy roughly 40 miles long of Russian military vehicles that has been moving toward Kyiv in recent days, have stirred fears that troops may encircle and bombard what just a week ago was a peaceful, modern European capital of about 2.8 million people. But on Thursday, there were indications that the convoy may be struggling with soggy ground and other logistical issues slowing its advance.

Mr. Putins forces have already surrounded the northeastern city of Kharkiv, 20 miles from the Russian border, and have been pummeling it from the outside with missiles and artillery shells.

Taking Kharkiv, Ukraines second-largest city, would be a major strategic prize and could allow Russia to consolidate its forces in other areas. But holding a city requires significant troop presence, and Russia is already facing a rebellion of the general public. It is unclear what Russian forces plan to do should they gain control of government buildings or how they would deal with what would probably be an insurgent effort to oust them.

Whats clear for now is that laying siege to Kharkiv will most likely inflict heavy collateral damage on civilians as the war grinds on. There are already reports of men, women and children in Kharkiv going days without food and water, huddled in freezing basement shelters as Russian forces continue to bombard a city that just a week ago had a population of 1.5 million.

Russia is also mounting increasingly brazen attacks on Kharkivs downtown infrastructure, a strategy intended to make the civilian population flee as part of a precursor to a ground invasion. Missiles have been hitting administrative buildings, and there have been clashes with Russian forces as they probe and test the citys defenses.

Russia has made important strategic gains in recent days across southern Ukraines Black Sea coast. Securing the south would cut off the Ukrainian governments access to vital ports and could allow Russia to bring troops and supplies in by sea.

From the southern coast, Russian troops could move northward toward Kyiv and link up with fellow Russians who have been fighting in eastern Ukraine. That would expand Mr. Putins control east of the Dnieper River, which cuts through the center of Ukraine and divides its western and eastern regions.

A Ukrainian city falls. Russian troops gained control of Kherson,the first city to be overcome during the war. The overtaking of Kherson is significant as it allows the Russians to control more of Ukraines southern coastline and to push west toward the city of Odessa.

Odessa, Ukraines biggest port city, is not as militarily significant as the nearby Crimean Peninsula, which Russia annexed in 2014. But seizing it would be essential if Russia wants to control southern Ukraine, The Timess Michael Schwirtz reported from Odessa on Wednesday.

Now that Russian forces have moved into the southern port of Kherson, they have a path to Odessa. They have also surrounded another key port city, Mariupol. If Mariupol falls, two flanks of Russian and Russian-backed fighters would be able to trap Ukraines forces in the southeast.

Russian naval ships have gathered just outside Ukraines territorial waters in the Black Sea. Ukraine has accused Russia of firing on civilian ships and using them as cover.

In western Ukraine, people have sought refuge from the invasion in Lviv, a city of ornate buildings about 45 miles from the Polish border that has so far been spared heavy combat.

But since the first air raid siren wailed a week ago, there has been a growing sense of urgency and anxiety in Lviv.

A vast network of volunteers has emerged to help both those fleeing conflict and others heading off to the front. The roads into the city have also been lined with checkpoints and hastily erected defenses.

Heavily armed soldiers patrol the streets, stopping strangers and apprehending people they contend are Russian agents and saboteurs. In one incident that a New York Times reporter witnessed in Lviv on Tuesday, several men were pulled out of a red sedan in the heart of the old town and bundled away by security.

In restaurants that remain open, bottled water is now served exclusively in plastic bottles. The glass ones are being used to make Molotov cocktails.

Marc Santora reported from Lviv, Ukraine, and Mike Ives from Seoul.

Original post:
Here's How the Russia-Ukraine War Is Evolving - The New York Times

At Kramers, an independent bookstore in Washington, D.C., a lot of books about Russia and Ukraine are sold out. The books started going off the shelves a little more than a week ago as the world braced for a Russian invasion of Ukraine, general manager Llalan Fowler said.

"People have definitely been picking up the Russian books more, like Putin's People and that sort of title," she told NPR. "A lot of the books that are available to us about Ukraine and Russia and their relationship and their history are out of stock already at our supplier."

Many customers come into the shop knowing what they want, she said. But if you're not sure what to reach for first, here's a roundup of books about Ukraine that you might want to dive into.

I Will Die in a Foreign Land, by Kalani Pickhart

Pickhart's debut novel is on Fowler's to-read list. Named among the New York Public Library's best books of 2021, I Will Die in a Foreign Land chronicles what Ukrainian protests looked like in 2013 and 2014, as demonstrators pushed for closer ties with NATO and the European Union.

Pickhart told KJZZ's "The Show" last month that the book has garnered more attention as tensions grew between Russia and Ukraine.

"I think a lot of folks are looking for more information and to sort of understand the conflict in a way that's sort of digestible, essentially just trying to get a sense of the emotional movement of what's going on," Pickhart said.

Lucky Breaks, by Yevgenia Belorusets

A fiction book on Fowler's list, Lucky Breaks, translated from Russian by Eugene Ostashevsky, is a collection of short stories about women living in the aftermath of war in Ukraine. Belorusets, a Ukrainian writer, centers on ordinary lives a florist, a cosmetologist, a card player, among others.

Hip Hop Ukraine: Music, Race, and African Migration, by Adriana Helbig

Helbig, who chairs the University of Pittsburgh's music department, saw African musicians rapping in Ukrainian during the Orange Revolution in 2004. The revolution followed a presidential election, which many claimed to be corrupt and fraudulent.

Through ethnographic research of music, media and policy, Helbig's book delves into the world of urban music, hip hop parties and dance competitions, along with interracial encounters among African immigrants and the local population.

Jews and Ukrainians in Russia's Literary Borderlands: From the Shtetl Fair to the Petersburg Bookshop, by Amelia Glaser

This book, which covers much of the 19th century and part of the 20th century in Ukraine, explores how those working and writing in Russian, Ukrainian and Yiddish communicated and collaborated at places like commercial markets and fairs. Glaser's study seeks to show that Eastern European literature was much more than just a single language and culture.

Red Famine: Stalin's War on Ukraine, by Anne Applebaum

This book delves into the famine in Ukraine created by Joseph Stalin in the early 1930s, as he sought to destroy the Ukrainian national movement. Nearly 4 million Ukrainians died and many were arrested by Soviet secret police.

On NPR's Fresh Air, Applebaum, a historian and journalist writing about the war in Ukraine for The Atlantic, explained how Vladimir Putin and Stalin saw Ukraine similarly: "as a vector for ideas that could undermine him or threaten him."

Midnight in Chernobyl, by Adam Higginbotham

Higginbotham, a journalist, spent years investigating the aftermath of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. In his book, he digs into the design flaws and Soviet secrecy that contributed to the explosion, as well as the efforts to contain the damage. He spoke to Fresh Air about the novel in 2019.

Read more:
Read these 6 books about Ukraine - NPR

This week, Ukraines ambassador to the United Nations, Sergiy Kyslytsya, read out before the General Assembly what he said were text messages a Russian soldier sent to his mother moments before he was killed. They were obtained, he said, by Ukrainian forces after the soldier died.

Mama, Im in Ukraine, the ambassador read. There is a real war raging here. Im afraid. We are bombing all of the cities together, even targeting civilians. We were told that they would welcome us and they are falling under our armored vehicles, throwing themselves under the wheels and not allowing us to pass. They call us fascists. Mama, this is so hard.

The messages read out under the global spotlight of a high-profile United Nations meeting offered a poignant reminder of the human cost of war. They also served as a potent example of how central the battle is for public opinion around the world in a lopsided war between Russias military machine and a scrappy, increasingly better-armed Ukraine.

Both sides efforts to influence the narrative and perception of the war are striking.

Ukrainian officials are using the reports and images on social media of Russian casualties to try to undercut the morale of the invading forces. President Vladimir V. Putin, meanwhile, has described the government of President Volodymyr Zelensky as a band of drug addicts and neo-Nazis. And at least some Russian soldiers appear to have imbibed the misinformation emanating from the Kremlin that their invasion would be welcomed.

Ukraines military, interior ministry and U.N. ambassador did not respond to requests for more information to help verify the authenticity of the messages read out at the United Nations.

Whatever their origins, the messages allude to an undeniable theme of the war: Fierce resistance by Ukrainian forces has denied Mr. Putin the quick and easy victory Russia appears to have anticipated, while some among Russias young military force have been ill-prepared for battle and buffeted by bad morale.

On Tuesday, a senior Pentagon official said that entire Russian units had laid down their arms without a fight after confronting surprisingly robust Ukrainian defenders. In some cases, Russian troops have punched holes in their vehicles gas tanks, presumably to avoid combat, the official said.

A Ukrainian city falls. Russian troops gained control of Kherson,the first city to be overcome during the war. The overtaking of Kherson is significant as it allows the Russians to control more of Ukraines southern coastline and to push west toward the city of Odessa.

The decision to read the text messages, Russia experts and Pentagon officials said, was also a not-so-veiled reminder to Mr. Putin of the role Russian mothers have had in bringing attention to military losses that the government tried to keep secret.

In fact, a group now called the Union of Committees of Soldiers Mothers of Russia played a pivotal part in opening up the military to public scrutiny and in influencing perceptions of military service, Julie Elkner, a Russia historian, wrote in The Journal of Power Institutions in Post-Soviet Societies.

For Mr. Putin, the rising death toll on the Russian side could undermine domestic support for his Ukrainian incursion. Russian memories are long and mothers of soldiers, in particular, American officials say, could easily hark back to the 15,000 troops killed when the Soviet Union invaded and occupied Afghanistan, or the thousands killed in Chechnya.

Mr. Putin has tried to counter assessments from Western officials that Russia was running into greater resistance than expected. But on Thursday, he acknowledged there had been losses, promising the families of the fallen a special payout of 5 million rubles, or nearly $50,000.

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Information Battle Over Ukraine Intensifies - The New York Times

More Russian missile strikes and shells are hitting Ukrainian cities, with tremendous damage reported. Twenty-one people have been killed in Kharkiv as a result of what appeared to be a Russian rocket attack. Russia claims it has taken over the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson, but Ukrainian officials sharply dispute this. They say they fear Russia is targeting Ukrainian civilians.

Here's what we're following today:

United Nations vote: In an emergency session, the General Assembly voted 141-5 to condemn Russia and demand that it end its war in Ukraine.

Ukraine accuses Russia of terror: The Kremlin is relying on the criminal tactics of long-range shelling of peaceful cities, Ukraine's defense minister said.

Russia shuts down media critics: Authorities have blocked two leading Russian media outlets over their critical coverage of the Kremlin's invasion of Ukraine.

Ukrainians risk everything to go home: While hundreds of thousands have fled the country, many are crossing back to join the fight.

Read more:
Russia invades Ukraine live updates: The U.N. votes overwhelmingly to condemn Russia's invasion of Ukraine - NPR