Mariupol, war crimes, and NATO’s limits
Post Reports
The Washington Post
4.4 • 5.1K Ratings
🗓️ 24 March 2022
⏱️ 24 minutes
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Summary
The United States and the E.U. announced new sanctions on Russia on Thursday as President Biden held emergency talks with NATO leaders in Brussels. Today we talk about the geopolitical moment, and hear from the families of people trapped in Mariupol.
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President Biden said on Thursday that the United States will take in 100,000 Ukrainian refugees and will commit more than $1 billion in humanitarian assistance for those affected by Russia’s continued invasion in Ukraine. As the war reached the one-month mark, Biden joined leaders from the European Union in projecting a unified front against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine while announcing additional measures to isolate the Kremlin.
We talk to Missy Ryan about how the geopolitical dynamics have changed over the past month, and how significant it is that the United States has accused members of Russia’s military of committing war crimes in Ukraine.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that assessment is based in part on U.S. intelligence and pointed to the suffering of civilians in Mariupol, a key port city that Russian forces cut off early in their invasion and then bombarded.
Russian forces have also cut off communications and electricity in the city. Reporters Siobhán O'Grady and Kostiantyn Khudov speak to Ukrainians who are desperately searching for their relatives trapped in Mariupol.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Give a helping hand this holiday season with the Washington Post helping hand. |
| 0:04.6 | This is John Kelly and I'm writing about Bread for the City, Friendship Place, and Miriam's Kitchen over the next few weeks. |
| 0:11.1 | Go to posthelpinghand.com to learn more and donate today. |
| 0:16.1 | Putin was banking on NATO being split. |
| 0:19.1 | My early conversation with him in December and early January was clear to me he didn't think we could sustain this cohesion. |
| 0:27.1 | NATO has never, never been more united than it is today. |
| 0:32.4 | Putin is getting exactly the opposite what he intended to have as a consequence of going into Ukraine. |
| 0:45.1 | President Biden's trip to NATO headquarters for this extraordinary meeting of alliance leaders is a moment to really showcase Western unity |
| 0:55.1 | in the face of Russia's invasion in Ukraine. |
| 0:58.0 | That is Missy Ryan. She covers diplomacy and national security for the post. |
| 1:03.0 | We saw President Biden today make an announcement that the United States will welcome up to 100,000 refugees from Ukraine. |
| 1:11.1 | There are additional sanctions that he is announcing on Ukraine just in conjunction with similar announcements from European countries. |
| 1:18.4 | And he's also expected to make an announcement about providing energy supplies to Europe at a time where they're really having to scramble to make up for this potential problem that they're having vis-a-vis Russian energy supplies. |
| 1:35.7 | From the newsroom of the Washington Post, this is Post Reports. I'm Martine Powers. It's Thursday, March 24th. |
| 1:43.3 | Today, we're talking to Missy about how the US and its NATO allies are coming up with new strategies in the face of Russian aggression. |
| 1:51.1 | And later in the show, we hear from people whose families are stuck in Mariable. |
| 1:56.0 | It was striking to me the fact that right after Putin launched his invasion, you had this extraordinary moment of strength from Europe where you had the EU for the first time ever decide to finance and export weapons to a country in conflict. |
| 2:20.9 | You had Germany abandoned this year's long prohibition on supplying weapons. They abandoned the Nord Stream 2 pipeline. |
| 2:28.4 | It was this moment I think reinvigorating Europe as a block that could exercise strength together with the United States and Canada. |
| 2:37.5 | And I think the big question right now is how long that position and that unity and that strength can be sustained because there are significant economic costs to it. |
| 2:48.5 | Tell me more about the solution to actually ship natural gas to Europe to make up for what they won't be getting from Russia. |
| 2:56.4 | Well, what the United States is expected to do is announce that they'll provide LNG liquefied natural gas to Europe. |
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