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To Watch Ukrainian War Film
April 1, 2024 Editor, The News-Gazette: Recently my wife and I watched Mstyslav Chernov’s Academy award-winning documentary “20 days in Mariupol,” which depicts the horrors of that city under Russian assault in the first weeks of the war in Ukraine.
The film graphically reveals a cataclysm of human suffering mainly inside “hospital number 2” where an overwhelmed and undersupplied medical staff strive to save lives as wounded civilians are rushed to operating rooms. Amid the blood and suffering a doctor implores Chernov to “show it” so the world will see Russia’s crimes.
So Chernov shows a doctor gently closing the eyes of a dead boy about 4 as a nurse weeps; Ilya — a 16-year-old whose legs were blown off by a Russian shell whose father cry’s “My son!” while stooping over the boy’s shrouded body; a mother collapsing over her 18-month-old infant who couldn’t be saved; Irena carried bleeding from a blownup maternity ward crying “Kill me” knowing her unborn is dead and who dies shortly thereafter.
The dead, including Ilya and other children, are shown dropped into a mass grave as Mariupol is reduced to rubble.
This documentary is unsparing but it must be seen to appreciate the human cost of Russian depravity in Ukraine.
For that reason I urge Congressman Ben Cline to watch the film on which is free on YouTube. Mr. Cline shamefully opposes American military aid to Ukraine, the practical result of which is that thousands more Ukrainians are killed or maimed by Russia.
Congressman Cline clearly prioritizes his political career over Ukrainian lives and American national security, which will be severely undermined by a Russian victory in Ukraine but watching “20 days in Mariupol” may convince him that he can regain his honor, redeem his character, and prove his patriotism by changing course and supporting immediate aid to Ukraine. EDWARD GRIMES Lexington
