In Belgium’s Ypres, a Museum Draws a Line from World War One to Ukraine

A bed is pictured in a house destroyed during the months of Russian occupation in the village of Posad-Pokrovske, amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine, northwest of the city of Kherson, Ukraine January 30, 2023. (Reuters)
A bed is pictured in a house destroyed during the months of Russian occupation in the village of Posad-Pokrovske, amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine, northwest of the city of Kherson, Ukraine January 30, 2023. (Reuters)
TT

In Belgium’s Ypres, a Museum Draws a Line from World War One to Ukraine

A bed is pictured in a house destroyed during the months of Russian occupation in the village of Posad-Pokrovske, amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine, northwest of the city of Kherson, Ukraine January 30, 2023. (Reuters)
A bed is pictured in a house destroyed during the months of Russian occupation in the village of Posad-Pokrovske, amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine, northwest of the city of Kherson, Ukraine January 30, 2023. (Reuters)

The massed ranks of empty chairs at the Belgian World War One exhibition - one for each country and region that sent soldiers to die here a century ago - have been replaced by just two to mark the new conflict raging on the continent.

One empty chair for Ukraine, one for Russia, commemorating those who will never return to their families in both lands.

"Each chair is a symbol of the emptiness felt back at home," Stephen Lodewyck, director of the In Flanders Fields Museum in Ypres, said. "There are more parallels between World War One and the war in Ukraine than we would like there to be."

His museum first set up the massed chairs in 2018, to mark the centenary of the end of that war that had been supposed to end all wars. The chairs have been shifted around ever since as symbols of different casualties in the historic conflict.

The new honed-down display draws a clear link to the present where Lodewyck keeps hearing echoes of the past.

In World War One, the warring parties faced off across trenches for years. In Ukraine, both sides are seen dug in for a long war of attrition.

"It's almost absurd to be seeing similar trenches now in Ukraine," Lodewyck told Reuters.

Martyr cities

Century-old aerial footage in the museum's collection shows scorched fields, damaged villages and cities in Belgium.

Some of it is eerily close to the digital videos captured today by 21st century drones over Ukraine.

"Ukraine's 'martyr cities' like Mariupol, Bakhmut, Bucha makes one think of Leuven, Ypres and Passchendaele," Lodewyck said, listing names of the sites of the worst atrocities in Ukraine and World War One-era Belgium. "And the mud everywhere."

Lodewyck is not the first to make the comparison. In a speech in March last year to the Belgian parliament, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy drew a parallel between the weeks-long siege of Mariupol and the Ypres battles in World War One.

"More than 90% of all buildings in this city are completely destroyed by Russian strikes - aircraft, artillery, mortars, tanks. Thousands of peaceful Mariupol residents died. People are buried just in the city," Zelenskiy said.

The scenes were "no less appalling than you had near Ypres," Zelenskiy added.

World War One's outcome and casualty count are set out in the history books. Ukraine's war dragged into its second year on Friday with no end in sight.

The exhibition in Ypres ends with a long list of armed conflicts from civil wars raging in the aftermath of World War One to World War Two to Syria.

It was compiled before Russian President Vladimir Putin sent his troops over the border into Ukraine in what he called his "special military operation". The results of that decision are marked in the museum by the two empty chairs.

"There can never be anything good about a war," Lodewyck said. "The suffering of the people is paramount."



The Next Round of Bitter Cold and Snow will Hit the Southern US

A person holds an umbrella as they walk during a winter storm, Monday, Jan. 6, 2025, in Cincinnati. (AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel)
A person holds an umbrella as they walk during a winter storm, Monday, Jan. 6, 2025, in Cincinnati. (AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel)
TT

The Next Round of Bitter Cold and Snow will Hit the Southern US

A person holds an umbrella as they walk during a winter storm, Monday, Jan. 6, 2025, in Cincinnati. (AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel)
A person holds an umbrella as they walk during a winter storm, Monday, Jan. 6, 2025, in Cincinnati. (AP Photo/Joshua A. Bickel)

The next round of bitter cold was set to envelop the southern U.S. on Tuesday, after the first significant winter storm of the year blasted a huge swath of the country with ice, snow and wind.

The immense storm system brought disruption even to areas of the country that usually escape winter’s wrath, downing trees in some Southern states, threatening a freeze in Florida and causing people in Dallas to dig deep into their wardrobes for hats and gloves.

By early Tuesday, wind chill temperatures could dip into the teens to low 20s (as low as minus 10.5 C) from Texas across the Gulf Coast, according to the National Weather Service. A low-pressure system is then expected to form as soon as Wednesday near south Texas, bringing the potential of snow to parts of the state that include Dallas, as well as to Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana.

The polar vortex that dipped south over the weekend kept much of the country east of the Rockies in its frigid grip Monday, making many roads treacherous, forcing school closures, and causing widespread power outages and flight cancellations.

Ice and snow blanketed major roads in Kansas, western Nebraska and parts of Indiana, where the National Guard was activated to help stranded motorists. The National Weather Service issued winter storm warnings for Kansas and Missouri, where blizzard conditions brought wind gusts of up to 45 mph (72 kph). The warnings extended to New Jersey into early Tuesday.

A Kentucky truck stop was jammed with big rigs forced off an icy and snow-covered Interstate 75 on Monday just outside Cincinnati. A long haul driver from Los Angeles carrying a load of rugs to Georgia, Michael Taylor said he saw numerous cars and trucks stuck in ditches and was dealing with icy windshield wipers before he pulled off the interstate.

“It was too dangerous. I didn’t want to kill myself or anyone else,” he said.

The polar vortex of ultra-cold air usually spins around the North Pole, but it sometimes plunges south into the U.S., Europe and Asia. Studies show that a fast-warming Arctic is partly to blame for the increasing frequency of the polar vortex extending its grip.

Temperatures plunge across the country The eastern two-thirds of the U.S. dealt with bone-chilling cold and wind chills Monday, with temperatures in some areas far below normal.

A cold weather advisory will take effect early Tuesday across the Gulf Coast. In Texas’ capital of Austin and surrounding cities, wind chills could drop as low as 15 degrees (minus 9.4 C).

The Northeast was expected to get several cold days.

Transportation has been tricky Hundreds of car accidents were reported in Virginia, Indiana, Kansas and Kentucky, where a state trooper was treated for non-life-threatening injuries after his patrol car was hit.

Virginia State Police responded to at least 430 crashes Sunday and Monday, including one that was fatal. Police said other weather-related fatal accidents occurred Sunday near Charleston, West Virginia, and Monday in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Kansas saw two deadly crashes over the weekend, The AP reported.

More than 2,300 flights were canceled and at least 9,100 more were delayed nationwide as of Monday night, according to tracking platform FlightAware. Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport reported that about 58% of arrivals and 70% of departures had been canceled.

A record 8 inches (more than 20 centimeters) of snow fell Sunday at the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport, leading to dozens of flight cancellations that lingered into Monday. About 4 inches (about 10 centimeters) fell Monday across the Cincinnati area, where car and truck crashes shut at least two major routes leading into downtown.

More snow and ice are expected In Indiana, snow covered stretches of Interstate 64, Interstate 69 and U.S. Route 41, leading authorities to plead with people to stay home.

“It’s snowing so hard, the snow plows go through and then within a half hour the roadways are completely covered again,” State Police Sgt. Todd Ringle said.

The Mid-Atlantic region had been forecast to get another 6 to 12 inches (15 to 30 centimeters) of snow on Monday. Dangerously cold temperatures were expected to follow, with nighttime lows falling into the single digits (below minus 12.7 C) through the middle of the week across the Central Plains and into the Mississippi and Ohio valleys.

In North Texas, 2 to 5 inches (about 5 to 13 centimeters) of snow was expected beginning Thursday, according to the National Weather Service. Snow could also hit Oklahoma and Arkansas, with some parts potentially getting more than 4 inches (about 10 centimeters).

Classes canceled in several states School closings were widespread, with districts in Indiana, Virginia, Kentucky, Missouri and Kansas canceling or delaying the start of classes Monday. Among them was Kentucky’s Jefferson County Public Schools, which canceled classes and other school activities for its nearly 100,000 students.

Classes were also canceled in Maryland, where Gov. Wes Moore declared a state of emergency Sunday and announced that state government offices would also be closed Monday. Government offices also were closed Monday in Kentucky, where Gov. Andy Beshear declared a state of emergency.

Tens of thousands are without power Many were in the dark as temperatures plunged. More than 218,000 customers were without power Monday night across Kentucky, Indiana, Virginia, West Virginia, Illinois, Missouri and North Carolina, according to electric utility tracking website PowerOutage.us.

In Virginia’s capital city, a power outage caused a temporary malfunction in the water system, officials said Monday afternoon. Richmond officials asked those in the city of more than 200,000 people to refrain from drinking tap water or washing dishes without boiling the water first. The city also asked people to conserve their water, such as by taking shorter showers.

City officials said they were working nonstop to bring the system back online.