John Brown's Notes and Essays

The 18th-century military commander and lover of Catherine the Great helped conquer Ukraine and looms large in the version of history the Kremlin uses to justify the war.  image from article:  A portrait of Prince Grigory Aleksandrovich Potemkin. Credit... Fine Art Images/Heritage Images, via Getty Images By Marc Santora , The New York Times , Oct. 27, 2022 KYIV, Ukraine — With Ukrainian forces bearing down on the occupied port city of Kherson this week, the Kremlin’s puppet rulers dispatched a team to an 18th-century stone cathedral on a special mission — to steal the bones of Prince Grigory Aleksandrovich Potemkin.   The memory of the 18th-century conque ror is vivid for those in the Kremlin bent on restoring the Russian imperium. It was Potemkin who persuaded his lover, Catherine the Great, to annex Crimea in 1783. The founder of Kherson and Odesa, he sought the creation of a “New Russia,” a dominion that stretched across what is now southern Ukraine along the Black S...

  October 31, 2022 By  Carole Landry Editor/Writer, Briefings Team; via email Welcome to the Russia-Ukraine War Briefing, your guide to the latest news and analysis about the conflict. Twelve ships carrying grain  set sail from Ukraine’s ports , even after  Russia withdrew from a deal allowing the shipments . Debris from a Russian missile shot down by Ukraine  landed in a border village in Moldova. Russia accused Ukraine of carrying out  a drone attack on the Black Sea Fleet  in Crimea on Saturday. Get the  latest updates here . Track the invasion with  our maps . These  photos  chronicle the ordeal of the war. Drinking water was available at Shevchenko Park in Kyiv today.  Brendan Hoffman for The New York Times No water, no power Most of Kyiv was  without water  today after Russia targeted critical civilian infrastructure with dozens of cruise missiles. Power was also knocked out in the capital and in other Ukrainian...