Today is Wednesday, March 9, 2022. Today the brutality of Vladimir Putin was much in evidence as a maternity and children’s hospital in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol was destroyed by Russian air strikes, officials confirmed. So far, at least 17 people have been wounded, including women in labor and staff, according to Ukrainian authorities. This disturbing development is covered in an online article for the Independent written by Laurie Churchman entitled “Ukraine: Children’s hospital ‘completely destroyed’ by Russian bombs in Mariupol.”

Iranian President Volodymyr Zelensky condemned the strike as an “atrocity” and said there were children buried beneath the rubble. He reiterated his call for Western nations to impose a no-fly zone over the country. Zelensky angrily tweeted, “How much longer will the world be an accomplice ignoring terror?” He added, “Close the sky right now! Stop the killings! You have power but you seem to be losing humanity.”

“The hospital was reportedly hit by a series of blasts, which blew out windows and ripped away much of the front of one building.” Emergency teams were seen carrying out a bleeding, heavily pregnant woman on a stretcher.

Throughout the Ukrainians’ ordeal, Russia denies ever targeting civilians – but Ukrainian authorities say at least 1,170 have been killed in Mariupol since the start of the invasion. Russian troops have been laying siege to the southern port city for days.

Thousands of people have been without power, sanitation, and basic necessities for almost a week.

Capturing Mariupol could allow Moscow to establish a land corridor to Crimea, which Russia seized from Ukraine in 2014.

In the meantime, the world just watches in horror over the death and destruction wreaked by Russia’s war machine in Ukraine. The United States has rejected the idea of having Poland provide Ukraine with MiG fighter jets, which Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin conveyed in a call to his Polish counterpart on Wednesday. The Pentagon is afraid that providing these jets via Poland would be tantamount to declaring war against Russia. One administration official said the United States was concerned Russia could interpret jets flying into Ukraine from a NATO base as an attack. The situation in Ukraine has certainly become a very knotty, complicated problem for those who are forced to watch the unfolding horror of war in a country of about 42 million people. How will this conflict end favorably for the Ukrainian people? one wonders.

On CNN tonight, I’ve been hearing the story behind a son’s call to his father in Russia about the bombing and being invaded by Russian troops in his city of Ternopil, Ukraine, in which his father did not believe his own son that he was fleeing the country because of Russian aggression. It’s a mind-boggling story that only illustrates the terrible propaganda that Putin has fed his own populace. Russians have accepted the alternate-reality behind the reasons for the invasion, in which many native Russians just accept the term being used by their Supreme Leader. They believe that it is a “special military operation,” as John Berman has characterized it on CNN, instead of an invasion or a war. The son’s name is Misha Katsurin who was trying to flee the country with his two children. The son said he tried vainly to convince his father that the city was being bombed by Putin’s forces. At one point, his father hung up on his son. Katsurin actually posted his frustration with his father on social media and created a website that aims to tell the truth of the Russian incursion into Ukraine. Wouldn’t that be a wonderful thing if more and more Russians actually realize the true nature of their “special military operation” in Ukraine. This could potentially reach millions of people who would then have a different view of Putin. Would that be enough to turn this war around? No one really knows.

Well, it’s getting late here.

Not to much to report other than I went to my usual Wednesday destination in the falling snow and rain and got two comic books to read at my Buen Sabor Restaurant and Coffee Shop, formerly known as the Forest Hills Coffee Shop. Then I drove to Austin Street to park the car and went into Citibank to do a transaction.

The kitchen is still being renovated. We have our countertop sitting in the foyer which will eventually be installed. Our neighbor, “Diane,” was charitable enough to lend us her microwave yesterday.

Later we left the apartment to drive to Lawrence, New York, where we had dinner at Lucky Boy, a Greek restaurant on Rockaway Turnpike. We brought home a slice of the excellent coconut cream pie for Diane as payback for having her appliance on loan in our apartment. We also stopped at Lowe’s Home Improvement as a favor to our contractor, “Cameron,” who needed spray paint, so we bought five cans of gunmetal spray paint for him to use in the kitchen.

Then we came home to watch Episode 6 of Ozark, the series starring Jason Bateman and Laurie Linney. What a series! It’s so dark and chilling.

Then I turned on the news that is focused only on the situation in Ukraine. I just hope that Putin could be beaten somehow. He’s an abomination!

Stay safe and be well.