Russia invaded Ukraine early Thursday morning.
Summary
Vladimir Putin announced a “special military operation” against Ukraine early Thursday morning – in other words, invasion with the purpose of regime change.
- Putin declared his intent to “demilitarize” and “de-Nazify” a nation whose current president and prime minister are both Jewish, but not to occupy it.
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky delivered a defiant address before the Russian invasion, calling for peace but vowing that Ukraine would fight to defend its independence.
- Explosions were heard across Ukraine, including its three largest cities – Kyiv, Kharkiv and Odesa –shortly after the invasion began. Casualties are already in the hundreds.
- Putin warned any foreign attempt to interfere with Russia’s invasion would lead to “consequences they have never seen” – nuclear war.
- As Russian bombs landed in Ukrainian cities, the United Nations Security Council read statements urging de-escalation and the UN Secretary-General quoted a John Lennon song in a moment of utter powerlessness.
- Axios covered President Joe Biden’s statement after the Russian invasion. Biden promised, “the United States and its Allies will respond in a united and decisive way.” He predicted the invasion would “bring a catastrophic loss of life and human suffering.”
- The Guardian published an in-depth visual guide to the Russo-Ukrainian War, including maps of the conflict areas, satellite imagery, historical background and graphics comparing the two countries’ military forces.
- The Intercept reported that Saudi-Russian collusion is driving up gas prices. Saudi Arabia has moved closer to Russia after spats with Obama in 2015. The Saudi king recently refused Biden’s pleas to increase production to offset Russian oil.
- Fox News covered Biden’s reversal on the Nord Stream 2 pipeline. After waiving sanctions imposed by the Trump Administration in May 2021, Biden reversed course. He re-imposed them Wednesday after Germany announced it would halt the pipeline’s certification.
- National Review’s editors wrote on “the Ukraine catastrophe,” saying the “US response has failed to meet the moment” and calling the Biden Administration “feckless.”
- The Wall Street Journal zoomed out and put the Ukraine crisis in the context of the three-way great power competition between the United States, Russia, and China. Unlike the 1950s, “Russia and China have built a thriving partnership.” Russia’s status as a critical gas supplier and China’s as the world’s manufacturing powerhouse make them forces to be reckoned with.
Author’s Take
Pray for Ukraine and its people.
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© Dominic Moore, 2022
