'Peacekeeping Functions.'

1. President Vladimir V. Putin ordered troops into two Russia-backed separatist territories in Ukraine and hinted at the possibility of a wider military campaign and laid claim to all of Ukraine as a country “created by Russia” in an emotional and aggrieved address to the Russian people. Russian state television then showed Mr. Putin signing decrees late Monday recognizing the so-called Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics and directing the Russian Defense Ministry to deploy troops in those regions to carry out “peacekeeping functions.” The order was condemned as a violation of international law and Ukraine’s sovereignty by several nations at an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council on Monday night. (Source: nytimes.com)

2. The world’s attention is on eastern Ukraine, where Moscow’s forces circle. Yet Russian President Vladimir Putin’s ambitions extend far beyond. He wants to renegotiate the end of the Cold War. Whatever follows Russia’s large-scale military maneuvers, and the announcement Monday to recognize the independence of two breakaway Ukrainian regions and orders to send troops there, Mr. Putin has made clear he wants to redraw the post-Cold War security map of Europe. Mr. Putin spelled out a list of grievances Monday over the treatment of Russia by the U.S. and Europe in the past three decades. “Russia has every right to take retaliatory measures to ensure its own security,” he said. “This is exactly what we will do.” (Source: wsj.com)

3. Russia’s decision to order troops into Ukraine presented the United States and Europe with the challenge of deciding how quickly to move in imposing stiff sanctions on Moscow, seeking to balance punishment, deterrence and maintaining unity among the allies. President Biden’s initial reaction was cautious, limited to issuing a narrow set of sanctions aimed at two regions in eastern Ukraine that are partly controlled by Russian-backed separatists and that President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia recognized as independent on Monday. The targeted nature of the penalties appeared intended to allow the United States and its European allies to hold in reserve the most aggressive sanctions they have threatened to impose on Moscow if Mr. Putin carries out a full-scale assault to bring down Ukraine’s democratically elected government. (Source: nytimes.com)

4. China’s more explicit warnings in recent days against a Russian invasion of Ukraine show how Beijing is walking a tightrope, trying to build up a partnership with the Kremlin while preventing its relationship with Washington from becoming outright hostile. A shared interest in confronting the U.S. has driven the China-Russia relationship to its closest point since the early years of the Cold War seven decades ago. But since Chinese President Xi Jinping this month gave his Russian counterpart his strongest support to date in Moscow’s standoff with the West, Beijing has been calling for a resolution of the crisis through diplomatic channels, aligning its position closer to that taken by the U.S. and its allies. The shift in tone, say Chinese diplomats and advisers to the Chinese government, comes after days of closed-door deliberations by top leaders and reflects Beijing’s desire to avoid an even more adversarial relationship with Washington that could cause China to be isolated from the West and hurt the country’s development in the long run. (Source: wsj.com)

5. Russian stocks plummeted in turbulent trading Monday, on mounting concern that Moscow could soon launch an invasion of Ukraine. The Moex index plunged as much as 14.2 percent after Moscow claimed that it had destroyed two Ukrainian military vehicles that entered Russian territory, in an unconfirmed incident that would be the first direct clash with Ukrainian forces since Moscow mobilised 190,000 troops on its border. The index closed the main trading session down 10.5 per cent in the biggest one-day fall since Russia seized Crimea in 2014, according to Refinitiv data. (Source: ft.com)

6. University of Chicago Professor John Mearsheimer is a leading advocate of “realism” in the conduct of foreign policy. This lecture (delivered in 2015) addresses the Ukraine crisis of 2014. It could easily have been delivered last week. It is worth watching in full. If you’re a podcast sort of person, Prof. Mearsheimer makes many of the same arguments with regards to Ukraine in this recent interview with Andrew Sullivan. It too is worth your time. (Sources: political-science.uchicago.edu, youtube.com, andrewsullivan.substack.com)