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      Lessons from the Edge review: Marie Yovanovitch roasts Trump on Putin and Ukraine

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      Lessons from the Edge review: Marie Yovanovitch roasts Trump on Putin and Ukraine The former US ambassador’s memoir is timely and telling, as well as a fine story of a life in national serviceFor nearly a month, Vladimir Putin has delivered a daily masterclass in incompetence and brutality. The ex-KGB spymaster and world-class kleptocrat was the guy Donald Trump wanted to be. Just weeks ago, the former president lavished praise on his idol and derided Nato as “not so smart”.Trump thought US troops were in Ukraine in 2017, ex-ambassador says in bookRead moreHow’s that working out, Donald?The world cheers for Volodymyr Zelenskiy and Ukraine, his besieged country. Russia’s economy is on its knees, its stock market shuttered, its shelves bare. The rouble is worth less than a penny. The west is not as decadent or as flaccid as the tyrant-in-the-Kremlin and President Bone-Spurs bet.With impeccable timing, Marie Yovanovitch delivers Lessons from the Edge, her memoir. The author is the former US ambassador to Ukraine who Trump fired during his attempt to withhold aid to Kyiv in return for political dirt, an effort that got him impeached. For the first time.Yovanovitch tells a story of an immigrant’s success. But, of course, her short but momentous stint in the last administration receives particular attention.On the page, Yovanovitch berates Trump for “his obsequiousness to Putin”, which she says was a “frequent and continuing cause for concern” among the diplomatic corps. Trump, she writes, saw “Ukraine as a ‘loser’ country, smaller and weaker than Russia”. If only thousands of dead Russian troops could talk.Trump was commander-in-chief but according to Yovanovitch, he didn’t exactly have the best handle on where his soldiers were deployed.At an Oval Office meeting in 2017 with Petro Poroshenko, then president of Ukraine, Trump asked HR McMaster, his national security adviser, if US troops were deployed in Donbas in eastern Ukraine, territory now invoked by Putin as grounds for his invasion.“An affirmative answer to that question would have meant that the United States was in a shooting war with Russia,” Yovanovitch writes.In the moment, she says, she also pondered if it was “better to interpret Trump’s question as suggesting that the commander-in-chief thought it possible that US troops were fighting Russia-led forces, or instead as an indicator that the president wasn’t clear which country was on the other side of the war against Ukraine”.Let that sink in. And remember this. According to Mary Trump, the former president’s niece, Trump mocked his father as he succumbed to Alzheimer’s.Yovanovitch’s parents fled the Nazis, then the Soviets. She was born in Canada and her family moved to the US when she was three. Later she received an offer from Smith, an all-women’s school in Massachusetts, but opted for Princeton. It had gone co-ed less than a decade earlier but Yovanovitch counted on it being more fun.In her memoir, she devotes particular attention to snubs and put-downs endured on account of gender. One of her professors, a European history specialist, announced that he opposed women being admitted. After that, Yovanovitch stayed silent during discussion. It was only after she received an A, she writes, that the professor noticed her and made sure to include her. She really had something to say.Lessons from the Edge also recalls a sex discrimination lawsuit brought in 1976 by Alison Palmer, a retired foreign service officer, against the US Department of State. The case was settled, but only in 1989 and with an acknowledgment of past wrongs by the department.State had “disproportionately given men the good assignments”, Palmer said. Yovanovitch writes: “I felt – and still feel – tremendous gratitude to [her] for fighting for me and so many other women.”Yovanovitch would serve in Moscow and as US ambassador to Kyrgyzstan, Armenia and Ukraine. She worked with political appointees and careerists. She offers particular praise for Republicans of an earlier, saner era.She lauds George Shultz, Ronald Reagan’s secretary of state, for professionalism and commitment to country. Shultz reminded new ambassadors that “my” country meant the US, not their place of posting. He also viewed diplomacy as a constant effort, as opposed to a spasmodic intervention.Yovanovitch also singles out James Baker, secretary of state to George HW Bush, for helping the president forge a coalition to win the Gulf war.“Department folks found him cold and aloof,” Yovanovitch recalls. “But it was clear immediately that he was a master of diplomacy.”Baker showed flashes of idealism. The US stood for something. As younger men, both Shultz and Baker were marines.In marked contrast, Yovanovitch gives the Trump administration a thumping. She brands Rex Tillerson’s 14-month tenure as secretary of state as “near-disastrous”. As for Tillerson’s successor, Mike Pompeo, Yovanovitch lambasts his “faux swagger” and his refusal to defend her when she came under attack from Trump and his minions.Amid Trump’s first impeachment, over Ukraine, Yovanovitch testified: “The policy process is visibly unravelling … the state department is being hollowed out.”Loyalty to subordinates was not Pompeo’s thing – or Trump’s. “Lick what’s above you, kick what’s below you” – that was more their mantra. True to form, in 2020 Pompeo screamed at a reporter: “Do you think Americans give a fuck about Ukraine?”Two years later, they do. At the same time, Pompeo nurses presidential ambitions. Good luck with that.Yovanovitch rightly places part of the blame for Putin’s invasion on Trump.“He saw Ukraine as a pawn that could be bullied into doing his bidding,” she said in a recent interview. “I think that made a huge impact on Zelenskiy and I think that Putin and other bad actors around the world saw that our president was acting in his own personal interests.”What comes next for the US, Ukraine and Russia? Pressure mounts on the Biden administration to do more for Ukraine – at the risk of nuclear conflict. Congressional Republicans vote against aid to Zelenskiy but demand a more robust US response.Recently, Trump admitted that he was “surprised” by Putin’s “special military operation”. He “thought he was negotiating”, he said. A very stable genius, indeed.
      Lessons from the Edge is published in the US by Mariner Books
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      Zelenskiy wants to shame the west into action. Will it work? | Moira Donegan

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      Zelenskiy wants to shame the west into action. Will it work?Moira DoneganThe contrast between what the Ukrainian president has been willing to do, and what western leaders have been willing to do to help, is the source of his moral power In a way, the Ukranian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, ruined the Americans’ plans. Early this year, when American intelligence concluded that Vladimir Putin would indeed invade Ukraine, no one expected it to be a long war. The conventional wisdom, shared by western analysts and Putin himself, was that Ukraine would rapidly fall to Russia’s military, and that after some strong words and a tepid round of sanctions, the US and Nato would cut a deal with Russia. They would give Putin hegemony over much of Ukraine – the eastern part, if not the whole thing – and what was left over would get an aspirationally democratic government with a European orientation. This detente would last until Putin got greedy again, at which point the cycle of Russian expansion and western accommodation would resume, this time a little further to the west. At some point in that version of events, Zelenskiy himself would have been arrested by the Russians. And then he’d be gone.Toxic Putin is going for bust. The west must stop him before this contagion spreads | Simon TisdallRead moreInstead, the man who addressed Congress on Wednesday morning did so from a besieged and defiant Kyiv, shelled and bombed nightly by the encircling Russian forces but still in Ukrainian hands. Zelenskiy appeared via video on a large screen at the front of a room full of senators and congresspeople in blue velvet chairs. He was unshaven. He looked unslept. By remaining in Kyiv, even as Russian troops encircle it and Russian bombs fall from the sky, Zelenskiy has made himself into a symbol of the Ukrainian people, whose surprising courage, determination, and defiance in the face of the Russian aggression have called the west’s moral bluff. Their stand, and Zelenskiy’s stand, have transformed what could have been a cynical calculation about how to manage Russia’s renewed imperial ambitions into a more meaningful – and more challenging – test of the west’s pro-democracy values. Days ago, when Americans offered Zelenskiy a discreet and secure exit from Kyiv, he reportedly told them: “I need ammunition, not a ride.”This sounds like action movie dialogue, and at times Zelenskiy’s skillful public rhetoric has evoked his past life as a comedian and entertainer. He has come a long way from the days when his jokes included pretending to play a piano with his dick. But it is difficult to dismiss Zelenskiy’s words as mere macho posturing when one considers that the stakes are his own life. Russia’s lethal power is superior, and though the Ukrainians have mounted an impressive military and guerrilla resistance, it is unlikely that they will be able to permanently hold Kyiv unless something drastic changes in the war. Zelenskiy’s wife and two small children, who fled at the beginning of the invasion, will probably never see him again. His presidency has taken on the tenor of a suicide mission; he broadcast to Congress from the location in Kyiv where he is waiting to die. The contrast between what Zelenskiy has been willing to do for his country’s sovereignty, and what the western leaders on whom he is calling for help have been willing to do for their own professed values, is the source of Zelenskiy’s tremendous moral power. In his addresses to western leaders – he has also spoken to the Canadian and UK parliaments over the past days – Zelenskiy speaks in inspirational tones. But he is looking to evoke the west’s shame. On Wednesday, he spoke to Congress wearing a T-shirt in the dusty green of a military uniform. The American lawmakers who watched him wore suits.In his address, Zelenskiy asked the Americans for the same things he has been asking for since the beginning of the Russian invasion: first, he wants a no-fly zone over Ukraine to stop the incessant and devastating bombing that has killed thousands of Ukrainians, including many civilians. Second, he wants the US to re-enter a deal that it backed out of this past week, in which America and Nato would facilitate the transfer to Ukraine from Poland of Soviet-made MiG military jets – planes that Ukrainian fighters know how to fly, and which could help make Russia’s air war over their country at least a little less asymmetrical. Third, he wants the west, and particularly the US, to continuously strengthen its sanctions on Russia. He called for individual restrictions to be placed on members of Putin’s government and their assets, and he called for American companies to cease operations in Russia. “Their market is flooded with our blood,” he said. He asked, too, for American ports to be closed to Russian-made goods. “Peace is more important than income.”It is one of the most persistent and embarrassing themes of America’s status as a superpower that the US’s values frequently do not align with its interests – or, for that matter, with its capacities. Zelenskiy is likely to get little of what he asked for. A no-fly zone could only be enforced by shooting down Russian planes and taking out Russian air defense operations that are located not only in Ukraine, but also in Belarus and Russia. Putin would see this as an act of war, and the US and Nato would be pulled into a potentially world-ending global conflict. The transfer of planes also seems unlikely: the Pentagon recently rejected American participation in the scheme, fearing that it, too, would be interpreted as an unacceptable escalation by the Russians.Harsher sanctions meant to cripple the Russian economy seem more likely, and like a less dangerous way to channel the considerable political and public support for the Ukrainian cause. The aim of such sanctions is not only punitive, but tactical. Despite the visibility of Russian dissidents in American media, the truth is that a large majority of Russians support Vladimir Putin, and support the war. Putin has the devoted support of the Russian people in no small part because they feel that their autocratic leader has secured Russia’s domestic stability and material prosperity. Sanctions could eventually change this calculation among ordinary Russians, potentially destabilizing Putin’s regime.It will be tempting for many in America to justify their aversion to further military escalation in eastern Europe by denying the moral authority of the Ukrainian cause. Those on the Republican right, confused about their party’s relationship to the Putin regime, will try to paint Ukraine as a corrupt denizen of decadence. Those on the far left will point to the mujahideen in Afghanistan as an example of the dangers of American support for anti-Russian militias. But this rhetoric will largely function as a distraction from what is really happening in Ukraine. Zelenskiy is right that his people have a moral claim, as he said to Congress, to “Live in their own country and choose their own future.” He is right, too, that watching Putin deny Ukraine this right should make us all ashamed. But he is wrong to think that America has the power, really, to stop him.
      Moira Donegan is a Guardian US columnist
      TopicsVolodymyr ZelenskiyOpinionUS foreign policyUkraineUS politicscommentReuse this content More

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      Zelenskiy captivates viewers with truth telling in address to Congress

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      Zelenskiy captivates viewers with truth telling in address to CongressUkrainian president, a former actor and comedian, has an understanding of the camera, and is proving a more serious man for more serious times For four long years members of the US Congress had to smile or scowl as a TV star played the role of president.Donald Trump became infamous for the art of lying. On Wednesday another TV performer turned national leader came before Congress. But this one captivated his viewers with truth telling.The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, a former actor and comedian facing down the Russian war machine, has an instinctive understanding of the camera but is proving a more serious man for more serious times. Despite being under siege in Kyiv, Zelenskiy has been on a virtual tour of western capitals over the past three weeks, tailoring his speeches to each nation. Speaking virtually to the British parliament, he cited William Shakespeare and Winston Churchill, while he asked members of its Canadian equivalent to imagine waking at 4am to bombs dropping on Ottawa’s airport or Toronto’s CN Tower.The Axios website described it as a “signature blend of praising, chastising and pleading with his audience to understand the global stakes of Ukraine’s resistance” which has produced unexpected commitments such as oil and Swift banking sanctions.So it was that in a packed auditorium in the basement of the US Capitol in Washington, Zelenskiy, whose words were translated from Ukrainian into English by a female interpreter, conjured the demons of two days when America was attacked from the skies to renew his plea for a no-fly zone above Ukraine.“Remember Pearl Harbor, the terrible morning of December 7, 1941, when your sky was black from the planes attacking you,” said Zelenskiy, looming large on a cinema screen, wearing perfectly trimmed hair and beard and a green T-shirt, against a white backdrop with a Ukrainian flag to one side.“Remember September 11, a terrible day in 2001 when evil tried to turn your cities, independent territories, into battlefields. When innocent people were attacked from the air. Our country is experiencing the same every day, right now, at this moment. Every night for three weeks now … Russia has turned the Ukrainian sky into a source of death for thousands of people.”Combined with references to Mount Rushmore and Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream speech”, Zelenskiy, was pushing America’s most emotive buttons with words. But he also knows that this is the nation of network television, cable news, Hollywood, Netflix and social media. So words alone would not do.Zelenskiy asked the members of the House of Representatives and Senate to watch a searing video compilation showing the hell that Russian troops have rained down on Ukraine and its citizens. It contrasted idyllic images of children playing in peaceful towns and cities with explosions, destruction, sobbing, refugees, hospitals and corpses, accompanied by the lament of a violin.According to a pooled report by the Associated Press, “As Zelenskiy played the video of violence, the room was very quiet and members were mostly still. Some shook their heads or wiped eyes or took video. Small amount of applause afterward.”Then came a simple message written in white letters on a black backdrop: “Close the sky over Ukraine.”Tragic in the truest sense because this is the one thing that Congress, and Joe Biden, will not do, fearing that a no-fly zone, in which US pilots shoot down Russians, could trigger a third world war. Perhaps aware of this reluctance, Zelenskiy did not dwell on the issue for long, pivoting to a request for surface-to-air missile systems and urging Washington to “do more”.But the video had a wider purpose. It was shown to millions of American TV viewers just after 9am. It caught TV executives by surprise and they did not have time to censor it; some anchors apologised for its graphic content. It spread far and wide on social media. In the court of public opinion, the video humanised the victims and conveyed the message that our struggle is your struggle.Zelenskiy had again shown himself to be a master of the medium, inviting comparisons with Vladimir Putin’s efforts to lie low, clamp down on media, crush all dissent and turn Russia into North Korea. Zelenskiy is running rings around Putin in the soft power arena with his speeches and intimate phone videos; Russia is not faring especially well with hard power either.On Wednesday the Ukrainian president ended his speech by addressing the room in English. “Now, I’m almost 45 years old,” he said. “Today my age stopped when the heart of more than 100 children stopped beating. I see no sense in life if it cannot stop the deaths.”There was also a direct appeal to Biden: “I wish for you to be the leader of the world. Being the leader of the world means to be the leader of peace.”The auditorium erupted in a bipartisan standing ovation. Chris Murphy, a Democratic senator, tweeted: “There’s no member of Congress left that room without thinking what more the United States can do to stop this carnage. Just a gut wrenching speech. #SlavaUkraine.”In an era of Trumpism, fake news and disinformation, Zelenskiy, who used to play a fictional president, had cut through with his sincerity. For him and Ukraine, it already feels like a third world war; that is their truth. And the temptation for America to flex its superpower muscles is stronger than ever.TopicsVolodymyr ZelenskiyUS CongressBiden administrationJoe BidenUkraineRussiaEuropefeaturesReuse this content More

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      Rising US isolationism means Australia must become more resilient and autonomous, thinktank warns

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      Rising US isolationism means Australia must become more resilient and autonomous, thinktank warnsUnited States Studies Centre finds Americans are not convinced the Indo-Pacific should be a priority region for the Biden administration

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      Voters in the US are not convinced the Indo-Pacific should be a priority region for the Biden administration, and isolationist sentiment in the country continues to rise, according to a new analysis by the United States Studies Centre.The new USSC State of the United States report, to be launched in Canberra at an event on Wednesday with the defence minister, Peter Dutton, Labor frontbenchers Penny Wong and Brendan O’Connor, and US congressman Joe Courtney, finds support for the US alliance with Canberra remains strong.But the USSC’s chief executive, Prof Simon Jackman, says the US in 2022 is “consumed by a fractious debate about its role in the world, and is almost paralysed by disunity”. The new analysis draws on YouGov polling undertaken in the US and Australia last December. The US sample size was 1,200 and the Australian sample size was 1,211.The data shows isolationist beliefs in the US have increased steadily from 28% of respondents in 2019 to 40% at the end of 2021. The new report also notes that prior to 2016, the American National Election Studies – a time series dating back to 1952 – has never found more than 30% of Americans holding isolationist beliefs.Dutton dials back language on Australia defending Taiwan in a potential war with ChinaRead moreWhile Joe Biden has stressed the importance of nurturing alliances since winning the White House, voters in the US appear more ambivalent. The largest group of respondents – around half or more – felt alliances made the US neither more nor less secure. This suggests, the report says, “the majority of Americans are unsure about the value of US alliances”.As well as growing isolationism, there is also pervasive pessimism. Voters in both the US and Australia also believe America’s best days are behind them (60% of respondents in the US and 70% in Australia).The research suggests people who voted for Biden in 2020 “are now just as pessimistic about the future of the United States as they were during the Trump administration, while the Republicans’ preferred candidate for the 2024 presidential election remains Donald Trump”.Jackman says the analysis suggests the US currently lacks the national unity that leaders of Australia’s defence and diplomatic establishment view as the critical ingredients of our national defence.“The implication for Australia is clear,” Jackman said. “While the US alliance remains Australia’s single most valuable strategic asset, Australia must continue to rapidly evolve its own capabilities, resilience and autonomy.”Jackman said realising the potential of the Aukus partnership would “require unrelenting focus and attention in Washington, cutting through domestic political division, bureaucratic inertia, vested interests and the many competing demands for the US attention and focus”.
      Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning
      Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morningThe USSC analysis suggests people in the US are hesitant about sharing technology, like nuclear submarine capability, with allies, including Australia (35% of respondents said it was acceptable to share with Australia).Morrison decries ‘arc of autocracy’ reshaping world as he pledges to build nuclear submarine baseRead moreThe new analysis does show there is bipartisan consensus in the US that China is a major problem. New research from another leading Australian foreign policy thinktank, the Lowy Institute, to be released on Wednesday, looks at China’s future growth trajectory.A paper co-authored by Lowy’s lead economist, Roland Rajah, says China will likely experience a substantial long-term growth slowdown owing to demographic decline, the limits of capital-intensive growth, and a gradual deceleration in productivity growth.Rajah suggests annual economic growth in China will slow to about 3% by 2030 and 2% by 2040, while averaging 2–3% overall from now until 2050. The country remains on track to be the world’s largest economy, “but it would never enjoy a meaningful lead over the US and would remain far less prosperous and productive per person even by mid-century”.TopicsAustralian security and counter-terrorismAustralian foreign policyUS foreign policyAsia PacificUS politicsAukusJoe BidennewsReuse this content More

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      Volodymyr Zelenskiy expected to urge jet transfer in address to US Congress

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      Volodymyr Zelenskiy expected to urge jet transfer in address to US CongressLeaders prepare to welcome Ukraine president before Wednesday speech amid divisions over question of planes

      Russia-Ukraine war – latest updates
      Volodymyr Zelenskiy, the president of Ukraine, will address Congress on Wednesday in what could prove his most powerful plea yet for the west to take a tougher line against Vladimir Putin.Kremlin memos urged Russian media to use Tucker Carlson clips – reportRead moreZelenskiy is expected to use the virtual address to urge members of the House of Representatives and Senate to intensify pressure on Joe Biden to allow the transfer of MiG-29 fighter jets from Poland.The House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, and Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer, said in a joint letter to members: “The Congress, our country and the world are in awe of the people of Ukraine, who have shown extraordinary courage, resilience and determination in the face of Russia’s unprovoked, vicious and illegal war.”They added: “The Congress remains unwavering in our commitment to supporting Ukraine as they face Putin’s cruel and diabolical aggression, and to passing legislation to cripple and isolate the Russian economy as well as deliver humanitarian, security and economic assistance to Ukraine.“We look forward to the privilege of welcoming President Zelenskiy’s address to the House and Senate and to convey our support to the people of Ukraine as they bravely defend democracy.”Zelenskiy, who will speak at 9am Washington time on Wednesday, has been seeking to drum up support with video briefings of foreign audiences. Last week he received a standing ovation from the British parliament and echoed William Shakespeare (“The question for us now is: ‘To be or not to be’”) and Winston Churchill (“We will fight in the forests, in the fields, on the shores, in the streets”).On Tuesday, the TV actor and comedian turned resistance leader, who has proved adept at communications under siege, is scheduled to address the Canadian parliament in Ottawa. He is also due to speak to Israel’s parliament at some stage.On 5 March, dressed in a military-green T-shirt and seated beside a Ukrainian flag, Zelenskiy spoke to more than 280 members of the House and Senate in a video call. He is said to have made a “desperate plea” for aircraft to fight Russian invaders.Most members of Congress back the White House’s refusal to attempt to impose a “no-fly zone” that could entail US pilots firing on Russians and trigger a wider conflict.Chris Murphy, chairman of the Senate appropriations homeland security subcommittee, told the Hill: “This is the most dangerous moment since the Cuban missile crisis. We have never been this close to direct conflict with Russia.“We made the right decision to openly support the Ukrainians but we just should understand the unprecedented moment that we’re living in today where we’re openly funding war against a nuclear power.”But there is a growing split over Poland’s offer to send Soviet-style MiG-29 fighter jets, which Ukrainian pilots are capable of flying, to Ukraine via a US airbase in Germany.The White House and Pentagon have rejected the proposal, wary that an increasingly reckless Putin could perceive it as escalatory and saying it raised “serious concerns” for the entire Nato alliance. Republicans and some Democrats say Zelenskiy’s request should be met.Mitt Romney, a Republican senator from Utah, said last week: “He has asked us for aircraft – specifically MiGs. We need to get him those MiGs. It is a bipartisan message.”Rob Portman, a Republican senator from Ohio visiting the Ukraine-Poland border, told CNN: “What we’ve heard directly from the Ukrainians is they want them badly. They want the ability to have better control over the skies in order to give them a fighting chance. I don’t understand why we’re not doing it.”The Democratic senator Amy Klobuchar, from Minnesota, was also on the visit. She said she had spoken to Biden “about 10 days ago” about the fighters, adding: “I’d like to see the planes over there.”The Democratic-controlled Congress approved $13.6bn in humanitarian and security aid to Ukraine last Thursday, as part of a $1.5tn spending bill that funds US government operations through 30 September.The US and allies have imposed broad sanctions on Russia after the invasion of Ukraine on 24 February. Biden has announced a US ban on Russian oil imports, seen as politically risky amid soaring gas prices.Last Friday the president took more steps to punish Russia economically, targeting trade and shutting down development funds while announcing a ban on imports of Russian seafood, vodka and diamonds. On Saturday he authorised $200m in additional military equipment for Ukraine.About 59% of Americans believe Biden has been making the right decisions when it comes to the situation in Ukraine, including more than one in three Republicans, according to Navigator Research. However, asked whether they approve of Biden’s handling of the issue, Americans are more polarised, with 49% disapproving and 43% approving.‘Cynical, craven’ Republicans out to bash Biden, not Putin, over gas pricesRead moreBiden’s predecessor as president, Donald Trump, again refused to condemn Putin at a rally in South Carolina on Saturday.“It happens to be a man that is just driven, he’s driven to put it together,” Trump said, while claiming the war would never have happened if he was still in the White House.On Monday a fourth round of talks between Ukraine and Russia were held via videoconference amid deadly air strikes in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv. At the weekend, Russian airstrikes killed 35 people at a military base near Yavoriv, outside Lviv – perilously close to the frontier with Poland, a Nato member.In a video address, Zelenskiy warned: “If you do not close our sky, it is only a matter of time before Russian missiles fall on your territory, on Nato territory, on the homes of Nato citizens.”He urged Nato to impose a no-fly zone – a request he is likely to repeat to Congress on Wednesday.TopicsVolodymyr ZelenskiyUkraineRussiaUS CongressJoe BidenHouse of RepresentativesUS SenatenewsReuse this content More

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      Biden adviser rejects Republican call to ‘close skies’ over Ukraine

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      Biden adviser rejects Republican call to ‘close skies’ over UkraineRob Portman of Ohio urges US and Nato as US intelligence community says creating no-fly zone risks escalation of conflict

      Russia-Ukraine war: latest news
      A senior Republican senator on Sunday urged the US and Nato to “close the skies” over Ukraine, hours after a logistics hub and training base for foreign fighters 11 miles from the Polish border was struck by Russian forces, killing 35.Russia missile strike on Ukraine base close to Polish border kills 35, governor saysRead more“The message coming loud and clear is close the skies,” said Rob Portman, a senator from Ohio on a visit to Poland. “Because the skies are where the bombs are coming, whether it’s the missile attacks or the airplane attacks or with artillery.”The US intelligence community has assessed that any attempt to create a no-fly zone would risk escalation. The US has also turned down a Polish offer to supply jets to Ukraine via an American airbase in Germany.Asked if supplying Ukraine with Russian-made MiG-29s could trigger a third world war, Portman told CNN’s State of the Union he “didn’t know why that would be true”.“The Russians have complained about everything,” he said. “Vladimir Putin has said that the sanctions are an act of war.”Russia, Portman said, “complained when we provided Stingers directly from the US government, which can knock down an airplane and have been successful in doing that at lower altitudes. We have given [Ukraine] helicopters.“… What we have heard directly from the Ukrainians is they want [the jets] badly. They want the ability to have better control over the skies in order to give them a fighting chance. So I don’t understand why we’re not doing it.”Portman welcomed an indication from Jake Sullivan, Biden’s national security adviser, that anti-aircraft systems could be provided. Sullivan repeated Joe Biden’s opposition to the transfer of “offensive” weapons while underlining commitment to supplying “defensive” arms, telling CBS’s Face the Nation the US and allies “believe in our capacity to continue to flow substantial amounts of military assistance, weapons and supplies to the front in Ukraine.“We have been successful in doing so thus far and we believe we have a system in place that will allow us to continue to do so, notwithstanding Russian threats.”Russia claimed the strike on the Yavoriv base was against foreign fighters and weapons. The Pentagon spokesman, John Kirby, told ABC’s This Week no Americans were at the facility.US film-maker Brent Renaud killed by Russian forces in UkraineRead moreBut Kirby reiterated that the US and allies would “continue to flow and to move and to reposition forces and capabilities along Nato’s eastern flank to make sure that we can defend every inch of Nato territory if we need to.“We’ve made it very clear to Russia that Nato territory will be defended not just by the United States, but by our allies.”Of calls to supply jets or announce a no-fly zone, Kirby said: “We can all understand the kind of escalatory measure that might be perceived as.”The US deputy secretary of state, Wendy Sherman, said Russia showed signs of “willingness to have real, serious negotiations”, despite four sets of talks having failed.Sherman told Fox News Sunday the US had been working to “put enormous pressure on Vladimir Putin to try to change his calculus, to end this war, to get a ceasefire in the first instance, to get humanitarian corridors, and to end this invasion”.“That pressure is beginning to have some effect,” Sherman said, though she added: “It appears that Vladimir Putin is intent on destroying Ukraine.”On Saturday, the White House approved an additional $200m of military assistance.“We are determined and the Ukrainians are determined to ensure that anti-tank, anti-armor, anti-air capabilities, ammunition and other forms of assistance actually do make it to the front to blunt the Russian advance,” Sullivan told NBC’s Meet the Press. “We’re coordinating the efforts of our allies and partners to do the same thing.”Last week, Biden warned of a “severe price” if Russia used chemical or biological weapons. Sullivan said Russian claims about supposed Ukrainian bio-weapons labs signaled that Moscow could be preparing to do so.“When Russia starts accusing other countries of potentially doing something, it’s a good tell that they may be on the cusp of doing it themselves,” he said.“What we’re here to do is to deny them the capacity to have a false flag operation to blame this on the Ukrainians or on us, to take away their pretext and to make the world understand that if chemical weapons are used in Ukraine, it is the Russians who will have used them. And the response will, as the president said, be severe.”Sullivan will meet China’s top diplomat, Yang Jiechi, in Rome next week. Sullivan said the US would respond to any attempts to work around western sanctions on Russia.Ukraine mourns its fallen as Zelenskiy says 1,300 soldiers killedRead more“We have made it clear to not just Beijing but every country in the world that if they think that they can basically bail Russia out, they can give Russia a workaround to the sanctions that we’ve imposed, they should have another thing coming because we will ensure that neither China, nor anyone else, can compensate Russia for these losses,” Sullivan told NBC.He declined to lay out what steps the US might take, saying: “We will communicate that privately to China, as we have already done and will continue to do.”Later, in response to reports Moscow had asked Beijing for military equipment, the Chinese embassy in the US said China’s top priority was to prevent the situation in Ukraine from getting out of control.The economic consequences of the war in Ukraine have yet to register heavily in US polls. On CNN, Portman deployed a Republican attack line, blaming Biden for not expanding domestic drilling for oil. Biden has countered that US oil companies have not exploited existing permits.A CBS poll found that 77% of Americans across the political spectrum are willing to pay more for gas as a result of sanctions to punish Russia. According to the poll, 69% said economic pain now might be a wise hedge against bigger problems later.Americans largely believe Russia has designs on invading other countries.TopicsBiden administrationRepublicansUS politicsUS foreign policyRussiaUkraineEuropenewsReuse this content More

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      Is Putin proving the need for Western power? Politics Weekly America – podcast

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      This week, Jonathan Freedland speaks to Dr Shadi Hamid about why Russia’s invasion of Ukraine could spark thought for anti-imperialists who question American power.

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      Listen to Shadi Hamid’s podcast, Wisdom of Crowds Read David Smith’s feature on Biden’s Russia dilemma Listen to Politics Weekly UK with John Harris Send your questions and feedback to podcasts@theguardian.com. Help support the Guardian by going to gu.com/supportpodcasts. More