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Associated Press

‘Very hectic’: US troops rush to Europe amid war in Ukraine

Russ Bynum – March 2, 2022

Russia Ukraine War Deployment

SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — They had barely a week to prepare — getting medical screenings, making sure bills would be paid, arranging for relatives to care for children and pets — before marching with rucksacks and rifles onto a plane bound for Germany.

“It’s been very hectic and stressful, but overall it’s worked out,” Army Staff Sgt. Ricora Jackson said Wednesday as she waited with dozens of fellow soldiers to board a chartered flight at Hunter Army Airfield in Savannah.

They’re among 3,800 troops from the 1st Armored Brigade of the Army’s 3rd Infantry Division, based at nearby Fort Stewart in southeast Georgia, ordered to deploy quickly and bolster U.S. forces in Europe after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

In all, the Pentagon has ordered about 12,000 service members from various U.S. bases to Europe, with a couple of thousand more already stationed abroad shifting to other European countries.

The soldiers’ mission overseas is to train alongside military units of NATO allies in a display of force aimed at deterring further aggression by Russia. It’s not that different from the role the brigade played last year during a scheduled rotation in South Korea.

But Jackson, a 22-year-old tank gunner from Pensacola, Florida, said this deployment feels different. Although U.S. forces aren’t intervening in Ukraine, that war has increased tensions in neighboring NATO countries.

“I’m a little nervous, but it’s OK,” Jackson said.

Maj. Gen. Charles Costanza, the 3rd Infantry’s commander, said the rapid deployment has had a mixed impact on morale within the brigade, which had been in the midst of training.

Younger, single soldiers, he said, have been excited to embark on their first mission overseas. But more experienced soldiers with families, used to a routine deployment calendar with plenty of time to prepare, have felt the disruption more.

“They were in the field shooting gunnery when we got the official word that it was time for them to go,” Costanza said. “You have a lot of them married, or with a new baby, and it’s their first time to really do a no-notice deployment.”

Costanza said soldiers and their families were told to expect the deployment to last six months, which could be extended — or perhaps shortened — depending on developments in Ukraine.

“There is no intent to have any U.S. service member fight in Ukraine,” Costanza said. “And they know that.”

For Sgt. 1st Class Joshua Cooner, departing for Germany means leaving his three daughters — ages 7, 5 and 3 — just a few months after he returned home from South Korea.

A 35-year-old tank crewman and platoon leader from Fort Myers, Florida, Cooner said he’s trying to keep the 15 soldiers under his command focused on the day-to-day training mission without dwelling on the invasion and war that prompted it.

“Something I’ve preached to my soldiers about, when we talk about stress and being able to control stress, is to focus on the things that are in our sphere of control,” Cooner said.

Sgt. 1st Class Crystal Allen, who works in logistics, and her husband, a soldier assigned to a different battalion in the 1st Brigade, were also leaving two children at home.

The married soldiers’ son and daughter had been picked up by Allen’s mother to stay with her in Kentucky while their parents deployed.

“I’m very honest with the kids and I don’t lie,” said Allen, 35. “I tell them exactly what I’m going over to do and they acknowledge it. I tell them where I’m going. And I pitch it to them like, ‘Hey, you get to go stay with Nanny for a little bit.’ And that’s good enough for them.”

Likewise, Cpl. Christian Morris’ in-laws were looking after two dogs belonging to him and his wife, an Army medic who’s also headed to Germany.

The 21-year-old soldier from Bend, Oregon, who serves in a supply unit, said he’ll be glad to have his spouse nearby, though they won’t be living together while deployed.

“It’ll just be, ‘Hey, you want to go grab something to eat if we have the chance?'” Morris said. “That’ll be about the most interaction we’ll be realistically allowed to have.”

The New York Times

A War the Kremlin Tried to Disguise Becomes a Hard Reality for Russians

Ivan Nechepurenko and Anton Troianovski – March 3, 2022

SOCHI, Russia — On Feb. 23, Razil Malikov, a tank driver in the Russian army, called his family and said he would be home soon; his unit’s military drills in Crimea were just about wrapping up.

The next morning, Russia invaded Ukraine, and Malikov hasn’t been heard from since. On Monday, Ukraine published a video of a captured soldier in his unit, apologizing for taking part in the invasion.

“He had no idea they could send him to Ukraine,” Malikov’s brother, Rashid Allaberganov, said in a phone interview from the south-central Russian region of Bashkortostan. “Everyone is in a state of shock.”

The reality of war is dawning across Russia.

On Wednesday, the Russian Defense Ministry for the first time announced a death toll for Russian service members in the conflict. While casualty figures in wartime are notoriously unreliable — and Ukraine has put the total of Russian dead in the thousands — the 498 Moscow acknowledged in the seven days of fighting is the largest in any of its military operations since the war in Chechnya, which marked the beginning of President Vladimir Putin’s tenure in 1999.

Russians who long avoided engaging with politics are now realizing that their country is fighting a deadly conflict, even as the Kremlin gets ever more aggressive in trying to shape the narrative. Its slow-motion crackdown on freedoms has become a whirlwind of repression of late, as the last vestiges of a free press faced extinction.

This week, lawmakers proposed a 15-year prison sentence for people who post “fakes” about the war, and rumors are swirling about soon-to-be-closed borders or martial law. The Education Ministry scheduled a video lesson to be shown in schools nationwide Thursday that described the war against Ukraine as a “liberation mission.”

And in Moscow, the regional office of the Committee of Soldiers’ Mothers of Russia has been fielding 2,000 calls a day since last Thursday.

“The parents’ first question is: What happened to my child?” said Alexander Latynin, a senior committee official. “Is he alive?”

Seizing on the worries of Russian families, Ukraine has pushed to publicize the fact that many young Russian soldiers were dying or being taken prisoner — a reality that the Russian military did not acknowledge until Sunday, the fourth day of the war. Ukrainian government agencies and volunteers have published videos of disoriented Russian prisoners of war saying they had no idea they were about to be part of an invasion until just before it began, and photographs and footage showed the bodies of Russian soldiers strewn on streets and fields.

The videos are reaching some Russians directly. Yevgeniya A. Ivanova, for instance, identified a friend of hers, Viktor A. Golubev, who appeared in one of the videos. In it, Golubev said he “feels guilty for his wrong actions” on Ukrainian soil and calls on Putin “to find a compromise to avoid war.”

To some Russians, the toll in human lives is reason enough to oppose the war, and OVD-Info, an activist group that tallies arrests, has counted at least 7,359 Russians detained during seven days of protests in scores of cities across the country.

“It’s the third decade of the 21st century, and we are watching news about people burning in tanks and bombed-out buildings,” Alexei Navalny, an opposition leader, wrote in a social media post from prison Wednesday, calling on Russians to continue to rally despite the withering police crackdown. “Let’s not ‘be against war.’ Let’s fight against war.”

Members of the Russian elite also continued to speak out. Lyudmila Narusova, a member of Russia’s upper house of Parliament, told the independent Dozhd television channel Sunday that dead Russian soldiers in Ukraine lay “unburied; wild, stray dogs gnawing on bodies that in some cases cannot be identified because they are burned.”

“I do not identify myself with those representatives of the state that speak out in favor of the war,” Narusova said. “I think they themselves do not know what they are doing. They are following orders without thinking.”

The Russian International Affairs Council, a government-funded think tank, published an article by a prominent expert describing the war as a strategic debacle. The expert, Ivan Timofeev, said Ukrainian society would now “see Russia as an enemy for several decades to come.” He added a veiled warning directed at government officials who were now cracking down on people speaking out against the war.

“History shows that those who look for ‘traitors’ sooner or later themselves become victims of ‘enthusiasts’ and ‘well-wishers,’” wrote Timofeev, the council’s program director.

But the discontent showed no sign of affecting Putin’s campaign, as Russia’s assault on Ukraine widened, with heavy fighting reported for the port city of Mariupol on the Sea of Azov. The government signaled it would only intensify its crackdown against the war’s critics — including those who called it a “war” rather than, in the Kremlin’s anodyne term, a “special military operation.”

“Individuals who carry out falsification must be punished in the most severe way,” said Vasily Piskaryov, a senior lawmaker in Putin’s party. “They are discrediting the absolutely rightful and understandable actions of our armed forces.”

His proposed punishment: 15 years in prison. The Parliament, which is controlled by the Kremlin, will take up the law Friday.

Some feared that Putin could go even further, repressing dissent to an extent unseen in Russia since Soviet times. Tatiana Stanovaya, a scholar who has long studied Putin, wrote it was “more than logical” to expect that lawmakers this week would approve the imposition of martial law in order to block the open internet, ban all protests and restrict Russians from being able to leave the country.

Such speculation, fed by how quickly the Kremlin was moving to block access to individual news media outlets and arrest protesters, has led increasing numbers of Russians to flee the country.

Echo of Moscow, Russia’s flagship liberal-leaning radio station, was taken off the air Tuesday for the first time since the Soviet coup attempt of 1991. Leading staff members of Dozhd, Russia’s only remaining independent television channel, left the country Wednesday after access to its website was blocked.

“It’s clear that the personal security of some of us is under threat,” wrote Tikhon Dzyadko, the channel’s editor-in-chief, explaining why he had decided to “temporarily” depart.

There was also evidence that, even though the war took many Russians by surprise, significant numbers had come to accept it as unavoidable or forced upon Russia by an aggressive NATO. The economic crisis touched off by the West’s harsh sanctions reinforced that narrative for some. On Wednesday, the ruble plumbed new lows as more companies like Siemens and Oracle announced they would reduce their operations in Russia and as the central bank ordered the Moscow stock exchange to remain shut Thursday for the fourth straight day.

At a Moscow shopping mall Wednesday, a young couple lining up for cash at an ATM said they opposed the war. And yet they said that the way the world was punishing them for it was not fair, either, considering that the United States had fought its own wars in recent decades without coming under harsh international sanctions.

“Just as you can criticize the government, you can criticize Western countries,” said Maksim Filatov, 25, who manages a hookah bar business. “When there were analogous situations in other countries involving the United States, there were no such attacks, and they didn’t drive the country into crisis.”

And the Committee of Soldiers’ Mothers, despite being a firsthand witness to the tragedy wrought by the war, had decided to support it, according to Latynin, the senior official. He echoed the words of Putin, who last week described his “special military operation” as one of “self-defense.”

“We understand that no armed conflict comes without victims,” Latynin said. “But this was a necessary step, because it was impossible to go on like this.”

Business Insider

A Russian businessman has put a $1 million bounty on Vladimir Putin’s head, calling for military officers to arrest him as a war criminal

Cheryl Teh – March 2, 2022

• Russian businessman Alex Konanykhin has put a $1 million bounty on Vladimir Putin’s head.
• He has called on Russian military officers to go after Putin and arrest him as a war criminal.
• Konanykhin said he was putting up the bounty to “facilitate the denazification of Russia.”

A Russian investor has put a $1 million bounty on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s head, asking for Russian military officers to arrest Putin as a war criminal.

“I promise to pay $1,000,000 to the officer(s) who, complying with their constitutional duty, arrest(s) Putin as a war criminal under Russian and international laws,” said crypto investor and California-based businessman Alex Konanykhin in a Facebook post on Wednesday.

Konanykhin claimed that Putin had violated the Russian constitution by “eliminating free elections” and “murdering his opponents.”

“As an ethnic Russian and a Russia citizen, I see it as my moral duty to facilitate the denazification of Russia. I will continue my assistance to Ukraine in its heroic efforts to withstand the onslaught of Putin’s Orda,” Konanykhin said, using the Russian word for “horde.”

Konanykhin told Insider that he had put up the bounty — which will come from his own funds — to show that the military assault on Ukraine is not being conducted in his name.

“If enough other people make similar statements, it may increase the chances of Putin getting arrested and brought to justice,” he added.

Konanykhin said he has not visited Russia since 1992. When asked about whether he feared reprisal from Putin, the businessman said: “Putin is known to murder his opponents. He has millions of them now.”

According to Vice, Konanykhin was at one point worth $300 million. He is now a member of the “Circle of Money” on the television series “Unicorn Hunters,” along with Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak and former ‘NSync singer Lance Bass.

Konanykhin was granted political asylum in the US in 1999 but ran the risk of being deported when his status was revoked four years later. His asylum status was reinstated in 2007.

Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has prompted a backlash from Russian oligarchs and lawmakers. In a rare moment of dissent, three Russian lawmakers also spoke out this week about Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

Yahoo! News

French government seizes yacht of top Putin ally Sechin as sanctions on oligarchs continue

Christopher Wilson, Senior Writer – March 3, 2022

The French government announced it had seized the yacht of Igor Sechin, head of the Russian energy giant Rosneft, before it could leave a port where it was being repaired.

According to a government statement, customs officials seized the yacht Amore Vero in La Ciotat, a Mediterranean port near Marseille, on Wednesday night into Thursday morning after finding it was owned by a company linked to Sechin. The action fell under European Union sanctions meant to freeze the assets of Russian oligarchs, put in place after the country invaded Ukraine last week.

“At the time of the inspection, the ship was making arrangements to sail urgently, without having completed the planned work,” said the French Ministry of Economy and Finance, noting that marked a violation.

Sechin is a former deputy prime minister who has worked with Russian President Vladimir Putin for decades, dating back to the St. Petersburg mayor’s office in the 1990s. Rosneft is the state-controlled oil giant, of which BP announced it would be selling a 20 percent stake following the invasion.

In placing Sechin on the list of Russians to personally sanction, the European Union called him “one of Vladimir Putin’s most trusted and closest advisors, as well as his personal friend,” adding that “he has been in contact with the Russian President on a daily basis” and “is considered to be one of the most powerful members of the Russian political elite.”

The 280-foot ship was delivered in 2013, according to the website of its builder, Oceanco. The Amore Vero features a sundeck with a jacuzzi and a main deck swimming pool that can convert into a helicopter platform.

“Thank you to the French customs officers who are enforcing the European Union’s sanctions against those close to the Russian government,” French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire tweeted.

Forbes reported on Wednesday that the German government had seized the 512-foot yacht Dilbar, valued at nearly $600 million. The yacht is owned by Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov, who was described by the European Union as one of Putin’s “favorite oligarchs.” Usmanov issued a statement on Tuesday calling his placement on the list of targeted Russians “unfair, and the reasons employed to justify the sanctions are a set of false and defamatory allegations damaging my honor, dignity, and business reputation.”

In addition, CBS News reported on Thursday that Putin’s alleged personal yacht, the Graceful, was spotted in a satellite image in Russian territorial waters, safe from sanctions. Tracking data shows the ship left Germany two weeks before the Russian president launched his invasion into Ukraine. Reuters has reported that at least five Russian-owned superyachts have flocked to the Maldives, which has no extradition treaty with the U.S.

Russian-owned yachts spotted in the Maldives

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Yahoo! Finance

Russian energy has West in ‘stranglehold’: Bill Browder

Max Zahn and Andy Sewer – March 3, 2022

The sanctions regime slapped on Russia by the US and its allies continues to feature one glaring omission: an embargo on oil and gas, which accounts for nearly half of Russia’s export revenue.

When asked on Wednesday about sanctioning Russian oil exports, President Joe Biden said, “Nothing is off the table.” Biden faces mounting pressure from Senators like West Virginia Democrat Joe Manchin, who is partnering with Alaska Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski on a bill that would ban the import of Russian oil.

While an oil and gas embargo would help cripple Russia’s financial resources, the nation’s “stranglehold” on the Western energy supply may prove too damaging for the US and its allies, says Bill Browder, an asset manager who for years specialized as an investor in major Russian firms, including the state-owned natural gas giant Gazprom.

Browder told Yahoo Finance he supports an embargo but understands the reluctance from countries reliant on Russian energy.

Russian President Vladimir Putin “kind of has us in a stranglehold, which is why the energy sector has been more or less left untouched,” says Browder, the CEO of Hermitage Capital Management and a longstanding critic of Putin.

“It’s going to be hard — it’s going to be a tough balancing act — because 40% of German households rely on Russian gas, 100% of Italian households, 100% of Australian households,” he adds.

Even in the absence of an embargo on Russian oil and gas, prices have spiked in recent days. U.S. oil prices on Wednesday surged to their highest level in over a decade, as the global benchmark Brent exceeded $113 per barrel.

After Biden expressed an openness to sanctions on Russian oil on Wednesday, the administration seemed to minimize the likelihood of such a move. “We don’t have a strategic interest in reducing the global supply of energy,” principal deputy press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters, according to a report from CNN.

She added that sanctions “would raise prices at the gas pump for Americans,” something that the White House is “very aware of.”

Despite reluctance to sanction Russian oil exports, the U.S. and its allies have taken steps to damage the long-term prospects of Russia’s energy sector. Germany halted certification of the Nord Stream 2, a 750-mile natural gas pipeline that would connect the two nations.

Plus, the U.S. unveiled new export curbs that will target oil refining technology headed to Russia, Reuters reported on Wednesday.

“Now you’re going to see massive accelerated strategic diversification going on,” Browder says.

“You can’t make a decision and say, ‘Tomorrow we’re going to buy gas from the Qataris,'” Browder says. “You need ports and pipelines and all sorts of other stuff.”

In the late ’90s and early 2000s, Browder’s firm delivered strong returns by exposing corruption at major Russian companies, bringing about company shake-ups, and boosting share prices. In 2005, Browder was denied re-entry to Russia and later became the victim of a Russian government scheme to undermine his firm, he says.

Sergei Magnitsky, a lawyer hired by Browder to investigate Russian corruption, was arrested and died in Russian custody.

Speaking to Yahoo Finance, Browder explained why an oil and gas embargo aligns with the primary goal of sanctions on Russia.

“The main reason that we’re doing any of this stuff is to deplete his resources, so he doesn’t have the finances to continue his military expansion,” he says.

“Therefore, if that’s the objective, then we should cripple any resource he has that generates cash,” he adds.

Fox News

Expect air warfare in Ukraine to ‘fundamentally’ change over next 72 hours, former fighter pilot says

Matt Leach – March 2, 2022

The Russian Air Force could soon engage Ukraine at a higher level, a former F-22 fighter pilot told Fox News on Tuesday.

“I think over the next 72 hours, we’re going to see a fundamentally different picture for the Ukrainian Air Force, and I’d expect to see more high-level engagement by the Russian Air Force,” Dan Robinson, a Royal Air Force veteran and former F-22 fighter pilot, said Tuesday evening.

Overnight, Russia launched the largest air assault of the invasion so far, according to. Wednesday marked the seventh day of the invasion.

Russian forces have increased their attacks on Ukraine’s crowded urban areas, including bombing a TV tower in the capital of Kyiv and continued shelling in Kharkiv.

RUSSIA LAUNCHES LARGEST AIR ASSAULT OF UKRAINE INVASION: LIVE UPDATES

However, the airspace over Ukraine is still contested and Ukrainian air and missile systems remain “viable and intact,” a senior U.S. Defense Department official said Tuesday.

“The big thing is, though, what is to come? You have to wonder whether the Russian Air Force will emerge over time,” Robinson told Fox News. “That’s the real question.”

ZELENSKYY CONDEMNS RUSSIAN MISSILE ATTACK ON HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL: ‘BEYOND HUMANITY … DAMN THEM’

“As to why they haven’t emerged so far, there’s speculation around the actual capability of the Russian Air Force versus the perceived capability of what they have,” Robinson said.

“There’s speculation around a lack of sophisticated precision-guided munitions and targeting pods, which allows a certain degree of standoff and to preserve range,” he continued. “Without those, they have to get up close and personal, which drags them to within range of things like Stinger missiles that Ukrainian soldiers can operate on the ground.”

Robinson said implementing a no-fly zone above Ukraine would lead to direct conflict between NATO and Russian pilots.

“That is extremely problematic in terms of the escalatory nature of what is what this potentially could be,” he told Fox News.

President Biden has said U.S. forces will not be used inside Ukraine, and there is no consideration for a no-fly zone.

Yahoo! News

Photos: Residential areas hit by missile strikes as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine enters 7th day

Dylan Stableford and Yahoo News Photo Staff – March 2, 2022

As Russia’s military assault on Ukraine entered its seventh day Wednesday, images taken by photographers inside the war-torn sovereign nation show the devastation left by the apparent bombings of civilian targets.

According to Ukrainian officials, Russian forces are escalating attacks on civilian areas in some of Ukraine’s largest cities.

In Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-biggest city, the roof was blown off a regional police headquarters as well as a university building, officials there said.

In Gorenka, outside the capital, Kyiv, houses were left destroyed by what local residents said was a Russian airstrike.

Even a gym located near a Kyiv TV tower targeted by Russian missiles was nearly burned to the ground.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky decried the attacks on civilian targets as a blatant terror campaign waged by Russian President Vladimir Putin, who had insisted his “special military operation” would not target civilians.

Ukraine’s State Emergency Service said more than 2,000 civilians have been killed, but that figure could not be immediately verified.

According to the United Nations, more than 800,000 Ukrainians have fled the country since Russia’s attack began.

Those who did not flee have been forced to take up arms, making Molotov cocktails, welding antitank blockades and learning how to use assault rifles in order to defend themselves from advancing Russian forces.

Yahoo! News

Moscow says hundreds of Russian troops killed, thousands more injured in Ukraine

David Knowles, Senior Editor – March 2, 2022

Russia’s Defense Ministry said Wednesday that 497 Russian troops had been killed and 1,597 injured to date since Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered an invasion of Ukraine last Thursday.

A military adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky offered a sharply different estimate hours later, saying that over 7,000 Russian soldiers had been killed so far and hundreds had been taken prisoner, Reuters reported.

The high number of Russian casualties in Moscow’s first official tally of the war comes as Ukrainian forces have mounted a robust defense of their homeland that seems to have taken the Kremlin by surprise.

Senior Pentagon officials said in closed-door briefings Monday that the number of Russian and Ukrainian military deaths appeared to be the same, the New York Times reported, with about 1,500 killed on each side over the course of the first five days of the conflict.

On Wednesday, Ukraine’s State Emergency Service put the number of Ukrainian civilians killed even higher. “More than 2,000 Ukrainians died, not counting our defenders,” the service said in a statement.

The United Nations human rights office, meanwhile, said Wednesday that 136 Ukrainian civilians, including 13 children, had been killed in the fighting, while another 400 had been injured.

“The real toll is likely to be much higher,” Liz Throssell, a U.N. spokesperson, told reporters.

On Wednesday, Russian forces stepped up their offensive on Ukrainian cities, and Ukrainian casualty totals have yet to be updated.

Protests against Putin’s war have broken out across Russia, resulting in the arrests of more than 6,800 people. Jailed Putin critic Alexei Navalny appealed to his countrymen to continue to take to the streets to protest the war.

“Let’s at least not become a nation of frightened silent people. Of cowards who pretend not to notice the aggressive war against Ukraine unleashed by our obviously insane tsar,” he said through a spokesperson in a message posted to Twitter.

Daniel Hoffman, a former top CIA expert on Russia, told Yahoo News on Wednesday that the worst casualties of the war were yet to come.

“So Vladimir Putin, he’s going to burn down Ukraine’s house, and he feels like he can’t exist on this planet if Ukraine is striving for freedom, liberty, and democracy and economic links to the West,” Hoffman said on the “Skullduggery” podcast.

When Russia laid siege on the Chechen capital, Grozny, from December 1994 through February 1995, an estimated 25,000 to 30,000 civilians were killed, according to the World Peace Foundation at Tufts University. Moscow put the official number of Russian soldiers killed at 1,376, but U.S. officials believed the tally to be much higher.

During the Syrian government’s four-year siege of the city of Aleppo, Russia aided in that country’s relentless bombing campaign that left an estimated 31,000 civilians dead.

“I am deeply fearful we’re going to see something like Grozny or Aleppo, where Russia goes scorched earth, because they have failed, utterly failed, thus far,” Hoffman said.

Business Insider

Ukraine president says Russia’s invasion both united his country and strengthened the EU

Sinéad Baker – March 2, 2022

• Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia’s invasion had united Ukrainians more than anything else in decades.
• “During this time, we have truly become one,” he said.
• He said Russia’s actions have also united the European Union, which Ukraine has applied to join.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia’s invasion of his country had managed to unite his people and strengthen the European Union.

Zelensky made the comments in a video address on Wednesday morning, the seventh day of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and two days after Zelensky applied for Ukraine to join the EU.

Zelensky’s comments suggested that Russia’s invasion harmed its own aims of destabilizing the West and weakening Western alliances.

Russia had cited the possibility of Ukraine and other former Soviet satellite states becoming members of NATO as a reason for invading Ukraine, saying it was acting out of self-defense against the bloc’s eastward expansion.

‘We have truly become one’

“During this time we have had more unity than for over 30 years before,” Zelensky said Wednesday.

“At first we were equally scared, then we felt equally painful. And now we do not care. Except for victory. Except for the truth. Except for peace. Except for the tranquility we want to achieve. Except for the lives of our people, for whom we are worried. Except for Ukraine.

“During this time, we have truly become one. We forgave each other a lot. We started loving each other. We help each other. We are worried for each other.”

Russia has met significant resistance from Ukrainians, with Western intelligence concluding that Russia appeared to have been caught off guard and moving slower than it expected.

EU ‘united’

Zelensky also said the EU had also been united against Russia.

“During this time we have united the European Union already on a new level,” he said. “Higher than formal. Higher than inter-state. At the level of the ordinary people. Millions and millions of Europeans. From the Atlantic Ocean to the suburbs of Kharkiv, where fierce fighting continues.”

He noted the standing ovation he was given after addressing the European Parliament on Tuesday, saying: “When the European parliament stood and applauded us, our struggle, it was an assessment of our efforts. Our unity.”

He later added: “Our diplomats and our friends unite the world for the sake of Ukraine and peace even more.”

The EU has taken unprecedented steps to help Ukraine against Russia, including the introduction of economic sanctions, purchasing and sending weapons, banning Russian planes from flying over its airspace, and supporting Ukrainian refugees.

Ukraine wants EU membership

Zelensky said on Monday that he officially applied to have Ukraine join the EU.

Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission president, had said before Zelensky’s application that the EU wants Ukraine as a member.

“Indeed over time, they belong to us. They are one of us and we want them in,” she told Euronews.

It is not clear when Ukraine would be able to join even if all member states agreed to its membership, as the joining process is bureaucratic and can be lengthy.

Zelensky applied directly to the European Parliament on Tuesday, saying: “We have proven our strengths, we have proven that, at a minimum, we are exactly the same as you are. Do prove that you are with us.”

Yahoo News 360

Can Europe quit Russian oil — and go green in the process?

Mike Bebernes, Senior Editor – March 2, 2022

“The 360” shows you diverse perspectives on the day’s top stories and debates. 0:19 0:59   State of the Union: Biden announced U.S. and allies will release 60 million barrels from strategic oil reserves 60 million barrels of oil from reserves around the world. 

What’s happening

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has prompted the United States and its allies to impose tough sanctions designed to isolate Russia from the world economy. While those sanctions have dealt a major blow to Russia’s financial system, they mostly have not included direct restrictions on the country’s most important industries: oil and gas.

Those exemptions show how deeply reliant the West has become on Russian energy exports, which supply about 40 percent of Europe’s natural gas and a quarter of its crude oil. Governments have warned that shutting off the flow of Russian fossil fuels could cause global energy prices to skyrocket — a shock that would be especially harmful to European countries, which were already dealing with cripplingly high energy costs before the war started.

“We’re not going to do anything which causes an unintended disruption to the flow of energy,” U.S. deputy national security adviser Daleep Singh told reporters last week.

Even without formal sanctions in place, Russia’s oil industry is reportedly scrambling to stay afloat amid the upheaval, which has made buyers and banks wary of the risks of doing business in the country. Global oil prices have shot up significantly in response.

The crisis in Ukraine has highlighted for many world leaders the importance of breaking their energy relationship with Russia. Germany, for example, suspended certification of the controversial Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline in the lead-up to the invasion. Kadri Simson, the European Union’s energy commissioner, said Monday that the assault “made our vulnerability painfully clear,” adding that it was unwise to “let any third country destabilize our energy markets or influence our energy choices.”

Why there’s debate

Europe ending or significantly reducing its reliance on Russian oil and gas would represent a major shift in the global energy market, but experts are divided over whether that disruption would be a move forward or a setback for the green energy transition that’s necessary to combat the worst effects of climate change.

Optimists are hopeful that European countries, which have already made aggressive pledges to decarbonize, will double down on their investment in renewables in order to fill the energy gap created by a drawdown in Russian imports. Others say the invasion creates potent new political ground for the green energy push, since advocates can now argue that it’s needed to bolster national security and global stability — on top of the well-documented environmental benefits.

But skeptics fear that pressure to keep energy prices from spiking will push countries to seek out whatever fossil fuels are available to meet their energy needs — including coal, which releases about twice as much carbon as natural gas. It’s also possible that other oil-exporting nations, including the U.S., might ramp up their production to meet surging European demand, they say. And there are concerns that isolating Russia’s economy will make materials needed to produce green energy sources harder to acquire and make it more difficult to pressure Russia — the fourth most prolific carbon emitter in the world — to decarbonize its own economy.

What’s next

It’s possible that the continued assault on Ukraine could inspire western nations to impose direct sanctions on Russia’s fossil fuel industry in the near future. “Nothing is off the table,” President Biden told reporters Wednesday when asked about a potential U.S. ban on Russian oil.

Perspectives

Optimists

Russia’s invasion creates an entirely new rationale for the green energy revolution

“For all we talk about how inexpensive renewables are, and how quickly energy storage is coming down in price, that hasn’t been enough when it appears that ‘just’ the climate is at stake. Now European sovereignty is at stake.” — Daniel Kammen, energy researcher, to Los Angeles Times

Nations and individuals will be more willing to make the sacrifices needed to switch to renewables

“Much of the gas-price premium right now is driven by uncertainty — not knowing what Russian President Vladimir Putin might do next. … Ripping off the Band-Aid now would take uncertainty off the table. It would mean front-loading many of the investments that would need to happen regardless. All that does come with large upfront costs borne by ratepayers, shareholders, and taxpayers alike.” — Gernot Wagner, Bloomberg

Fossil fuel burning may increase in the short term, but over time green energy will thrive

“We may need, for the remaining weeks of this winter, to insure gas supplies for Europe, but by next winter we need to remove that lever. That means an all-out effort to decarbonize that continent, and then our own. It’s not impossible.” — Bill McKibben, Guardian

High fossil fuel prices make renewable alternatives more attractive

“Steep gas prices are, of course, a great selling point for electric cars, not that they need it at this point.” — Froma Harrop, RealClearPolitics

Without Russian gas, countries will be forced to speed up their transition to renewables

“Gas was already, at best, a short-term ‘bridge technology’ that was meant to hold Europe over between phasing out coal and oil (the dirtiest fossil fuels) and the full adoption of renewables. We can now ditch gas sooner than we had planned.” — Paul Hockenos, CNN

Skeptics

Spiking energy prices will create pressure for countries to ramp up fossil fuel burning

“High energy prices also provide grist for those who argue that the costs of the net-zero transition represent an additional and unnecessary burden at a time when many households and businesses are struggling to pay their energy bills. … In a time of inflation and cost-of-living pressures around the world, their arguments will find a ready audience.” — Mark Nicholls, Energy Monitor

Nations may prioritize fossil fuels to reach energy independence as quickly as possible

“The renewed emphasis on energy independence and national security may encourage policymakers to backslide on efforts to decrease the use of fossil fuels that pump deadly greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.” — Patricia Cohen, New York Times

Europe has few viable alternatives to Russian fossil fuels

“The flexibility is there, but each of the options is worse than just burning Russian gas; otherwise, we wouldn’t have burned Russian gas in the first place.” — Georg Zachmann, energy industry analyst, to Scientific American

Building the green energy future will be more difficult without Russia

“Existing plans to transition away from fossil fuels largely rely on siting new energy generation sources and producing consumer electric vehicles — activities that will require lots of metal that Russia produces.” — Jael Holzman, Politico

Hopes of convincing Russia to lower its emissions have become even dimmer

“Any potential for greater climate engagement with Russia before the next major climate meeting in Egypt later this year is off the table for the time being. This is a setback for international climate efforts, given Russia’s role as one of the world’s top five greenhouse gas emitters.” — Ellie Martus and Susan Harris Rimmer, Conversation

Green alternatives will take too long to meet Europe’s immediate energy needs

“Western countries, including the U.S., should follow France’s lead and either expand or relaunch their nuclear-power programs. But there should be no illusions about how long such an effort will take (or how much it will cost) to make a difference. This is not a quick solution, and nor, incidentally, is doubling down on renewables. … The best solution for now is to encourage increased oil and gas production from existing and new fields on both sides of the Atlantic.” — Andrew Stuttaford, National Review.