* “Close the sky over Ukraine.”–Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
* “A no-fly zone is the United States declaring war on Russia.”–Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn.
* Russia’s list of American sanctions targets includes President Joe Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, Hillary Clinton and Hunter Biden. “I want to thank the Russian Academy for this Lifetime Achievement Award,” responded Clinton in a tweet.
* Three EU leaders—from the NATO countries of Slovenia, Poland and the Czech Republic–recently visited Kyiv to show solidarity.
* Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who is Jewish, has called on Israel to take sides and take a stronger stand against Russia—and emotionally compared the Putin-ordered invasion to the actions of Nazi Germany. Both Ukraine and Russia have large Jewish populations. To date, Israel has been cautious as it carves out a mediator role. Prime Minister Naftali Bennett met with Putin in Moscow earlier this month and since then has spoken to Putin twice and Zelenskyy at least six times. But so far Israel, which has delivered humanitarian aid to Ukraine, has rejected pleas to provide arms or impose sanctions on Russia. Zelenskyy reportedly wants access to Israel’s missile defense system.
To Ukraine’s frustration, Israel seems wary of antagonizing either side—and has had a good working relationship with Russia in Syria.
* A key factor in brokering a Russian-Ukrainian peace is obviously NATO. It does not, however, accept nations with unsettled territorial conflicts. No, Ukraine will not be a member of NATO any time soon.
* An estimated 10 million people have been displaced by the war in Ukraine. That’s approximately one fourth of the country’s population.
* Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Moscow would press its demand that Ukraine drop its bid to join NATO, adopt a neutral status and “demilitarize.” The latter could be the most problematic demand. How do you “demilitarize” when your arch enemy, the one that just invaded and killed your people, sits smoldering with EU and NATO vengeance on your border—whatever that looks like.
* Two words you won’t see or hear on official Russian media: “war” and “invasion.” They’ve been banned.
* Russia has now banned Facebook and Instagram.
* “The top priorities now are to continue dialogue and negotiations, avoid civilian casualties, prevent a humanitarian crisis, cease fighting and end the war as soon as possible.”–The calculating, self-serving Chinese President Xi Jinping, stopping well short of condemning Vladimir Putin for his unconscionably cruel, tragic invasion of Ukraine. It speaks volumes when China can’t actually condemn the condemnable.
* According to the annual World Happiness report, Finland ranks first and Afghanistan last of the 149 countries surveyed.