The New York Times Magazine - USA (2022-03-20)

Screenland

8 3.20.

Opening page: Screen grab from YouTube. Above: Marcus Yam/Los Angeles Times, via Getty Images; Alexander Venzhega/EyeEm/Getty Images

run. The videos that characterized the
confl ict were not of rifl e fi re but of pro-
tests: riot police beating demonstrators as
people shouted, ‘‘What are you doing?’’;
later, young men on the same square, out-
fi tted in motley assortments of helmets
and kneepads, counterattacking; videos
of people arguing; videos of people being
forced, in eastern Ukraine, to get on their
knees. After pro-Russian forces took over
cities in the east and the Ukrainian Army
fi nally moved to restore its authority,
there were videos of pro-Russian protest-
ers trying to prevent tanks from entering
their towns. These were the images of a
country falling apart.
Now war has arrived again to Ukraine
— in the east of the country, it never left

— and with it come new videos. In the

fi rst hours of the war there were rumors

that President Volodymyr Zelensky had

fl ed from Kyiv, as Viktor Yanukovych

fl ed before him in 2014. Then came Zel-

ensky’s video response. Standing in the

square in front of the president’s offi ce

on Bankova Street in central Kyiv, sur-

rounded by his political allies and advis-

ers, he pointed to each in turn and said

that they were tut — here. The head of the

party faction was tut. The chief of staff

was tut. The prime minister was tut. His

adviser Podoliak was tut. ‘‘Vsi my tut,’’ h e

concluded. ‘‘We’re all here.’’

The next day brought a video from the

front, a dashcam clip of a man pulling up

to an armored vehicle by the side of the

road. ‘‘What happened, boys?’’ he says

to the soldiers milling around behind

the vehicle.

‘‘We ran out of gas,’’ one of them says.

‘‘Want me to tow you? Back to Russia?’’

the driver asks.

The soldiers laugh. The driver asks

if they know where the road they’re on

leads to. They say they don’t. He says it

goes to Kyiv. They seem surprised.

This video was revealing on a number

of levels. There was the courage of the

driver, pulling up to armed soldiers in a

war zone, and the simple incompetence

of the Russian invasion, allowing an

armored vehicle to run out of gas on the

way to Kyiv. But most fascinating was the

fact that the driver could communicate so

Photo illustration by Vanessa Saba

Soldiers speak

Russian as they

fi r e o n R u s s i a n

tanks. Locals

speak Russian

as they survey

annihilated

Russian

columns.