Keep calm and carry on?
Security experts divide over Ukraine intervention, while churches unite
Just how do foreign policy experts draw lines on the West’s approach to Ukraine? Well, not along hawk/dove-Republican/Democrat lines (“It’s a bipartisan message, send them the MiGs,” Sen. Mitt Romney said Thursday). With the war in week three and Ukrainians showing remarkable fight, Russian President Vladimir Putin may not be able to win yet won’t easily lose. Like it or not, the role outsiders play will be decisive.
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Ukraine: Respected voices argue both sides of the intervention question. Paul D. Miller and others argue against direct U.S. intervention as “unnecessary because Russia cannot and will not expand the war beyond Ukraine.” Similarly, Tom Nichols argues for restraint, telling Americans to keep calm despite the civilian toll.
Others believe Putin won’t stop with Ukraine, and Molly McKew’s series covering the stakes is worthwhile. Senior retired U.S. and European military officers in an open letter advocate for supplying Ukraine with air defense capabilities to defend against Russian air assaults.
Among them, former NATO commander Ret. Gen. Philip Breedlove is a proponent of a no-fly zone. Others propose a security zone in Western Ukraine. For a deeper dive, the Atlantic Council has compiled a risk assessment, asking 37 national security experts to evaluate 11 options. Important to remember: Intervention comes in many shades, and properly done does not obligate the United States to a 10- or 20-year war.
Meanwhile war won’t wait. “If Kharkiv falls, Ukraine falls,” reports the BBC. Battered Mariupol could prove decisive, too, as it forms a land bridge between the enclaves Russia already controls, Crimea and the Donbas region.
In wartime, you can know how to tell news fact from fiction.
This feed from International Partnerships shows what churches in Ukraine are doing to help one another, and it will help your day. This hymn, too.
Russia: At least 300 evangelical worship leaders in Russia denounced their country’s invasion of Ukraine, writing in an open letter, “We need to reject lies and hatred. We call on the authorities of our country to stop this senseless bloodshed!” Under a law passed since the invasion, such speech could be subject to criminal charges.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has its hands full watching for further compromise at nuclear facilities fallen to Russian control while also keeping an eye on Iran. At a press conference Thursday, IAEA director general Rafael Grossi (above) displayed a card showing a growing number of red tabs for missing safeguards reports from nuclear facilities at Chernobyl and Zaporizhzhia. “It is not a good situation,” he said, as the nuclear watchdog “gradually is losing a significant amount of information.” Continuous readings are critical to charting upticks in radioactivity.
Iran: The IAEA announced the launch of an investigation into Iran’s undeclared nuclear sites, even as the Biden administration is pressing to revive a 2015 nuclear deal. Israeli agents broke into a Tehran warehouse in 2018 where they uncovered documentation of Iran’s work on atomic weapons, and the IAEA is acting on the findings.
The Biden administration reportedly has headed back to a make-or-break session to revive the 2015 Iran international nuclear deal, signing sanctions waivers last month to get talks restarted. President Donald Trump withdrew from the agreement in 2018 and reimposed U.S. sanctions. Critics say Biden’s timing is terrible, with the IAEA investigation and war in Ukraine. “Lifting sanctions on Iran will create an outpost for Russia to get sanctions relief,” said Richard Goldberg of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies in a call with reporters this week.
Myanmar: A 25-year-old aid worker is among the latest casualties in a government offensive targeting ethnic and religious minorities in Karenni State. Myanmar’s military junta has shelled and burned villages since overthrowing the country’s democratically elected government last year, forcing over 200,000 people in Karenni to flee their homes. It was the third death since the assaults began for Free Burma Rangers, the U.S.-led medical corps working in the region. Elizabeth (below right) and another FBR medic were wounded March 8 and she died a day later.
Sri Lanka: A 600-strong mob led by 60 Buddhist monks tried to storm and shut down a church in southern Akmeemana. Three years ago nearly 300 people were killed in Easter Sunday church bombings, and a trial for 25 suspects has been postponed until this month.
Antarctica: Marine explorers discovered the nearly-pristine wreck of Ernest Shackleton’s ship Endurance, which disappeared under Antarctic sea ice in 1915. Story and photos.
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