(TUE 5/24/22)

Three months of war on Ukraine …  President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Russia of inflicting as many casualties and as much infrastructure damage on Ukraine as possible, euronews reports. Three months after Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, the general assessment is that Russia has underachieved and Ukraine has overachieved given each country’s military resources, NPR’s Morning Edition says, but Russia is now concentrating on the Donbas region in Ukraine’s east, with two key cities, Mariupol and Kherson, under its control. 

At the World Economic Forum: In Davos, Switzerland, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Putin “made a big strategic mistake” in invading Ukraine, The Washington Post reports. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Russia is “trying to trample the aspirations of an entire nation with tanks.”

NPR reports, however, that Ukrainian forces’ ability to shoot down Russian aircraft has generally dissuaded enemy pilots from flying in its airspace.  

More arms to Ukraine: Twenty countries have announced new assistance packages to Ukraine, including harpoon launchers and missiles to protect the country’s coast, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told reporters Monday (per The Guardian).

From Moscow Tuesday: Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, in a Q&A at a local event, said the West has espoused “Russophobia” since his country’s invasion of Ukraine, The Guardian reports. Russia is working to replace goods imported from western countries and will depend only on “reliable” countries beholden to the West. Read: China.

Russian counterpoint: Russian diplomat to the United Nations, Boris Bondarev has resigned his post, telling colleagues in a letter he has never been “so ashamed of my country,” over its invasion of Ukraine, The Washington Post reports.

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Speaking of China … Lots of hand wringing over President Biden’s statement in Tokyo Monday of military support for Taiwan as a warning against China’s aggression toward its neighbor. The White House has clarified that its policy on China-Taiwan has not changed – a policy of “strategic ambiguity” going back to the Carter administration. 

A White House spokesperson told Fox News; “As the president said, our policy has not changed. He reiterated our One China policy and our commitment to peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait. He also reiterated our commitment under the Taiwan Relations Act to provide Taiwan with military means to defend itself.”

The upshot: The U.S. has often reiterated its “One China” policy over the years even in the face of Chinese aggression toward Taiwan. Biden’s statement in Tokyo – “gaffe” or not – seems a way to “remind” Beijing of the Taiwan Relations Act over growing concerns of a Russian-style invasion.

--Edited by Todd Lassa and Nic Woods