International press review
Headlines: Russia determined to fight its war in Ukraine to the end
A bombed building in the city of Kharkiv, April 27, 2022 (photo illustration).
© AFP - Yasuyoshi Chiba
By: Clementine Pawlotsky
4 mins
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If “
the civilians of Mariupol taste freedom
” as the British daily
The Independent recalls,
many media insist on the determination of Russia to carry out this war until the end.
This is the case, for example, of the
Wall Street Journal
, which recalls that Moscow is “
stiffening its occupation
”.
And this now goes beyond the military field: the American daily tells how the Kremlin “
introduced rubles, Russian schools and statues of Lenin
” into the occupied territories of southern Ukraine.
“
For both sides
, continues the newspaper,
education is a crucial battlefield
”.
Thus, in the Zaporizhie region, "
Russian forces are trying to reopen schools as part of Moscow's project to
're-educate'
the inhabitants
(...)
and eliminate patriotic feeling
".
For this, comments
Le Temps
, "
aggression, whatever its real goals, is invariably staged as the war of liberation of a Ukrainian people united to the Russians by blood ties
".
The Swiss newspaper explains that Russia relies on “
the Russian myth of the great patriotic war
” with, of course, its share of “
manipulations
”.
There is no doubt, summarizes
Le Temps
, that “
this nostalgia was a driving force behind the invasion of Ukraine
”.
In the territories liberated by the Ukrainian forces, the shadow of war is likely to hover for a long time
"
Mines and ammunition threaten the return of civilians
", headlines
Le Soir.
The Belgian daily reports that “
in certain liberated areas such as the Kiev region, Ukrainians have decided to return home.
Sometimes only to find a land of mines stuffed with unexploded ordnance
”.
The newspaper sees it as a "
major obstacle to repatriation as well as the resumption of agriculture
(...),
one of the pillars of the national economy
".
“
These weapons
, adds
Le Soir, perpetuate the risks even after the war
” and “
export the danger beyond the front line
”.
The Belgian newspaper comes to this conclusion: “
clearing the hundreds of thousands of contaminated square kilometers will take decades
”.
For example, “
even in Belgium, unexploded ordnance dating from the two world wars is still unearthed
”.
The controversial management of the Covid-19 pandemic by the Chinese authorities
“
Indignation crosses the wall of censorship
”, tells us the
New York Times
, which takes the example of Shanghai where “
Angry residents are wondering about the cost of the
health measures” decided by the authorities.
Indeed, “
at the height of the pandemic
”, underlines the American newspaper, they “
invested in office skyscrapers to transform them into mass isolation centers
”.
The stated objective is clear: “
eliminate the Covid
”.
But if the initiative has "
strengthened the Chinese Communist Party in power
", it has also and above all "
fueled a deep frustration with regard to the government, its failures and its excesses
", analyzes the newspaper.
The
South China Morning Post
goes even further, estimating that “
leading Chinese cities
” have lost “
their luster, following the health restrictions imposed by the Covid-19
”.
The Chinese newspaper says that these restrictions have even “
pushed residents to move to smaller towns
” or even to “
leave China completely
”.
The country, summarizes
Le Temps
, is “
the only major economy to remain faithful to a draconian strategy of eliminating Covid, with painful confinements
”.
The Swiss daily also pays tribute to Régine, who died on May 1 at the age of 92
"
The
'queen of the night'
has slipped away
", the newspaper tells us, all hailing the memory of an "
inexhaustible night owl
", a "
singer
" and "
businesswoman
" who "
reigned over more than 20 nightclubs in the world
”.
Tributes that can be found even in the press across the Atlantic.
For the
New York Times,
for example, Régine knew how to “
breathe nightlife into new life
”.
The newspaper recalls that the empire built by this “
plump and effervescent empresaria with flamboyant red hair
” extended to New York “
and beyond
”.
And it is his whole journey that the
New York Times
retraces , from the “
Jewish child abandoned at an early age by his single mother
” to the arrest of his father by the Nazis, “
a drunken Polish refugee
”.
“
Régine
”, continues the newspaper, then “
hid in a convent where she was beaten
”, before selling “
bras in the streets of Paris
”.
It was then, the newspaper reveals, that she “
swore to herself that she would one day become rich and famous
”.
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