The Stan R. Mitchell report for 4/19/22.
Happy Tuesday, everyone! Hope your week is off to a great start!
There’s not been a lot of military news since Friday, so I thought I’d dedicate the majority of this newsletter (minus the motivation and wisdom at the bottom) to the brave defenders of Mariupol.
Mariupol is a besieged city in Ukraine, which is surrounded by Russian forces and has been under brutal attack since Russia invaded Ukraine in late February — almost eight weeks ago.
You can see the city below, in the middle part on the right side of the graphic (on the coast).
The defenders have little to no ammunition. They have been taking ammunition off of dead soldiers, as well as some they’ve gotten into the city from smuggling.
But that ammunition is running out (or almost out). One British volunteer recently had to surrender because they ran out of ammunition.
Here’s more about him here:
The Russians, being complete barbarians, bashed him in the head a few times, according to information from his family.
But so far they haven’t killed him. And as I was writing this, word broke of another British soldier who had surrendered.
Hopefully, with the video of these two alive, they won’t be executed. But there are dozens, if not hundreds, of other Ukrainians still fighting. (Or trying to fight with what ammunition that they have.) It’s very difficult to get word out from the city.
The Russians are down to taking one final part of Mariupol:
The member of Parliament above is pointing out what even The Washington Post has written about: an epic steel plant built decades ago to withstand nuclear bomb blasts.
Here’s another glimpse of it.
While I continue to worry about the defenders of Mariupol, and really all of Ukraine (but especially them), we’ll end with two glimmers of hope for them.
First, this, in which there is talk about re-supply and how long they prepared for the defense of it.
And also this from a Stars and Stripes reporter, which was posted today (a little more than an hour ago).
At any rate, keep the proud defenders that remain in your hearts and minds (and prayers, if you’re the praying kind).
And here’s a video from one of them, that was posted a day ago but I’m betting was recorded more than a week or so ago, when times weren’t as impossibly as challenging as they are now. You can watch it in honor of them, if you please. (It’s only moderately graphic, but mostly shows soldiers just trying to survive and smile in the most hellish of conditions.)
Finally, let’s end with some motivation and wisdom.
That’s it for this edition. Want to talk to me directly? Email me at the following address: authorstanrmitchell@yahoo.com. I love hearing feedback, compliments, and even constructive criticism. : )
As a reminder, please be kind and endeavor to love your fellow Americans. We need to pull this country together, and that starts with all of us.
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Semper Fidelis,
Stan R. Mitchell
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