Fragments of Ice review – fascinating chronicle of Soviet collapse through the lens of a Ukrainian ice skater
Film-maker Maria Stoianova mines her father’s video diaries from the 1980s and 90s to document the decline of communism – and his obsession with western shopping mallsHere is an interesting film which does not render up its meaning easily: a personal piece about memory, and an enigmatic essay about the decline and fall of the Soviet Union as it was experienced by one family in Ukraine, based entirely on home-movie video footage. It is innocent and transparent, and yet subtly encumbered by the sadness of history. I can imagine Adam Curtis quoting this in its entirety for some new compilation about the post-communist 20th century.Film-maker Maria Stoianova presents us with video clips shot by her dad, Mykhailo Stoianov, an ice skater and ice dancer with the Ukrainian national ice ballet company who, throughout the communist 1980s and into the new era, toured the US, Canada, the Middle East and western Europe. (Mykhailo even played Blackpool in the UK.) The skaters were a privileged cultural group, encouraged by the Soviet state as diplomatic standard bearers and a source of hard foreign currency, but closely monitored by the KGB at all times; Maria remembers her father recounting a tense conversation with an intelligence officer about working for them. Continue reading...
Ukraine war briefing: Putin expects US negotiators in Moscow; fuel rationing in Siberia as crisis bites
Russian president says he expects to host US representatives once Middle East crisis eases; Siberian region of Irkutsk sets 50-litre limit at state-run outlets. What we know on day 1,586Vladimir Putin says he expects US negotiators to come to Moscow, once Washington had reached an agreement with Iran over the Middle East conflict. “We expect that after all the events are over, after the active phase on the Iranian track has passed, we will see the arrival of those representatives of the US administration with whom we have already met in Moscow repeatedly,” the Russian president told Russian journalist Pavel Zarubin. “We are ready to continue negotiations and ready to continue negotiations and discuss all the details.” Putin was responding to a question on the state of Russian-US relations after the G7 summit in France, when Donald Trump said Russia should “make a deal with Ukraine”. On Wednesday, the US President said his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy was doing well in the war against Russia, having previously said he lacked the “cards” to win.Russia’s president acknowledged “a certain shortage” of fuel after Ukrainian retaliatory strikes on energy infrastructure sparked by his invasion of the country. “As for strikes against critical infrastructure in general, and energy infrastructure in particular, of course these attacks on our infrastructure facilities create problems, that’s obvious,” said Putin in an interview published by the Kremlin on Sunday. “Right now we’re observing a certain shortage, but it’s not critical.” The priority now was to improve air defences and protest fuel supplies particularly in Russian-occupied Crimea, he said. Fuel deliveries to the Black Sea peninsula by land and sea will be increased, Putin said.A governor in Siberia announced that drivers will be allowed to buy no more than 50 litres (13 gallons) of fuel per vehicle per day at state-run Rosneft fuel stations in the province. Igor Kobzev, the governor of the Irkutsk region, made the announcement as fuel shortages spread across Russia. Russia’s deputy prime minister Alexander Novak said Moscow was actively reviewing fuel export agreements to avoid compromising domestic needs.Zelenskyy said his forces had struck two oil refineries inside Russia over the weekend. A drone strike that sparked a blaze at a refinery in Slavyansk-na-Kubani, a town in Russia’s Krasnodar region, killed one person in Slavyansk and wounded another in a nearby village, local authorities said. Zelenskyy also claimed that another Russian refinery, in the Yaroslavl region around 700km (435 miles) from the Ukrainian border, was hit during the night-time strikes. There were no immediate reports from Russian authorities about the strike on the Yaroslavl refinery. Local governor Mikhail Evraev reported on Sunday morning that some roads between Moscow and the region’s capital, Yaroslavl, were temporarily closed due to “an enemy attack by Ukrainian drones”. Zelenskyy wrote on Telegram: “Each [strike] means a reduction in the resources that fuel the Russian war machine, and another step toward peace.”A Russian attack killed two people in Zaporizhzhia – a city in southern Ukraine – and injured 16 others, including two children, said regional administration head Ivan Fedorov. In Russia’s border region of Belgorod, Ukrainian drone strikes killed one person and injured another earlier on Sunday, according to the acting local governor, Alexander Shuvayev. Russia’s Defense Ministry said its forces shot down 213 Ukrainian drones during the night, including over Russia, occupied Crimea and the Black and Azov seas. Meanwhile, Russia attacked Ukraine with 142 long-range strike drones and eight missiles overnight, according to the Ukrainian air force. Of those, 125 drones and seven missiles were struck down, the air force said. Continue reading...
