Biden’s comments on Russia’s military flails, the reaction of the White House, and the tens of thousands of americans

In contrast, Biden’s comments about an inability to identify an off-ramp – particularly as Putin’s military flails – raises a very real concern that the long-standing mutual understanding may not be as assured as assumed. The concern within the White House was only worsened by Putin’s speech last Friday, one official said.

Biden’s blunt assessment caught several senior US officials by surprise, largely due to that lack of any new intelligence to drive them and the grim language Biden deployed.

A senior administration official said Biden was speakingfrankly in front of a group of people who were at a Democratic Fundraiser in New York.

Several officials pointed out that Putin has been rattling his sabers for years and US officials have been pondering the threats since the first days of the war.

Biden gives a window into the discussion inside his administration as they try to calibrate the response to that environment.

His remarks are usually only slotted for 10 minutes but in the past he has stretched to half an hour or more, expounding on various topics. After the remarks, reporters are ushered out while Biden takes a few questions from the donors.

The Response of the United States to Russia’s Armageddon-Induced Nuclear Warfare Effort during the Cold War

The risks posed by a critical difference were implicit in Biden’s comments. President John F. Kennedy and his team weighed a series of potential off-ramps and backchannel proposals that could head off the crisis. Nikita Khrushchev knew the importance of a nuclear standoff even if his strategic calculations in Cuba were off base. The dealings between Kennedy and Khrushchev reflected the reality that they were assured of destruction.

Armageddon was a good example of the fact that there is no escalation ladder when it comes to nuclear weapons, tactical or otherwise. A cascading response only has one outcome if there is a move in that direction.

One official characterized the speech as “insane,” and while that bolstered the US view of Russian weakness and isolation, it also further increased concern about Putin’s willingness to escalate beyond the level of a rational actor.

White House officials decided not to say anything publicly Thursday night, and there are no plans to address the remarks in isolation so far on Friday morning. If Biden wants to address it himself, it will be apparent when he departs for his Maryland event later in the morning, one official said.

More broadly, the most important element remains that US officials have seen no change in posture or specific intelligence that raises the threat level above where it has been.

In the last several weeks there have been direct communication between the US and Moscow, detailing the scale of the US response should Putin choose that path. Those details are not going to be changed anytime soon, officials say.

It has been credited with allowing Ukrainians to limit Russia’s invasion and with giving them the ability to recover territory seized by Russia, thanks to this military support.

US officials are hoping that the huge influx of weaponry to Ukranian can help the Ukrainians fight back on the battlefield and make it harder for Zelensky to negotiate an end to the war.

As of a Department of Defense briefing in late September, the US had yet to deliver NASAMS to Ukraine. At the time, Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder said two systems were expected to be delivered in the next two months, with the remaining six to arrive at an undetermined date.

The secretary of state spoke to the Ukrainian foreign minister to reiterate the United States’ support. Biden is expected on Tuesday to join an emergency video conference with G7 leaders during which Zelensky is expected to address the group.

The Russian Blitzkrieg against Ukraine: A Warning from the Biden Administration to the U.S. and the Kremlin Threat to the Cold War

Russia launched a total of 84 cruise missiles against targets across Ukraine on Monday, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said in a Facebook post.

A year ago, the Russian leader launched a blitzkrieg against Ukraine, mocking its history and sovereignty, sending his tanks churning toward Kyiv to obliterate the democratically elected government led by a former comic actor. He wanted to destroy all of Ukraine’s dreams of joining the West and force it back to Russia.

Putin, of course, is listening. The Russian leader appears to be digging in for a forever war in Ukraine – where he has already been entrenched since 2014 after the illegal annexation of Crimea. The man believed that, eventually, the West would get tired and splinter, despite hints a new Republican president would cut Kyiv loose. After all, Germany only agreed to send Leopard tanks to Ukraine after Biden also agreed that more advanced US M1 Abrams tanks would also be shipped to the battlefield.

Zelensky’s physical appearance in Washington is surely designed to remind Republicans of the urgency of Ukraine’s fight and how a defeat for Kyiv would lead Moscow’s nuclear-backed brutality right to the doorstep of NATO, and then likely drag the US into a boots-on-the ground war with Russia.

Yes. There is an enormous $45 billion aid package in the works, and while not all military, it is part of a consistent drumbeat from the Biden administration. The message is simple: Ukraine is receiving as much aid as Washington can provide, short of boots on the ground, and that aid will not stop.

The State of the Relations between the U.S. and China During a Critique of the 2016 Presidential Reionization eta/Czech Republic

Kirby said that he can only speak about how he reacts to the pressure at home and overseas.

The debate now is if the rhetoric is a sign of the state of the relationship or if it is a sign of how things have deteriorated over the course of the past year. It was notable that Biden didn’t specifically mention the democratic island – perhaps the most likely trigger of a US conflict with China – in his remarks, possibly to avoid causing even more tension.

The document is required by Congress and is 21 months into Biden’s term. The broad contours of the strategy have been in evidence over the course of the President’s tenure, including a focus on rebuilding global partnerships and countering China and Russia.

Speaking to reporters, Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan said the strategy made clear the White House wasn’t viewing the world “solely through the prism of strategic competition.”

“You remind us that freedom is worth fighting for as long as it takes, and that it is priceless.” And that’s how long we’re going to be with you, Mr. President: for as long as it takes.”

Russia and China agreed on a friendship with “no limits” before Russia’s invasion last year, playing into long term US fears of a united front between Moscow and Beijing. The Chinese foreign ministry bristled that the US was powerless to speak to them about the issue.

“This decisive decade is critical both for defining the terms of competition, particular with the (People’s Republic of China), and for getting ahead of massive challenges that if we lose the time this decade we will not be able to keep pace with,” he said.

Defending Ukraine with US Assistance: Ingraham, Banks, McCarthy, and the Washington Post: The Case for a Successful U.S. Presidential Campaign

Editor’s Note: Dean Obeidallah, a former attorney, is the host of SiriusXM radio’s daily program “The Dean Obeidallah Show” and a columnist for The Daily Beast. He can be followed, by Dean Obeidallah. His own opinions are contained in this commentary. There’s more opinion on CNN.

Vance’s initial reaction was callous and inflammatory, but House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s recent comments were even more alarming. McCarthy said that if Republicans win the House in November, Ukraine can no longer expect that US assistance would be a “blank check.”

The GOP Senate candidate in Ohio later flip-flopped, saying that he wanted “the Ukrainians to be successful.” The Washington Post reported on Sunday that the original remark by Vance was causing Ukrainian Americans, who are lifelong Republicans, to support Tim Ryan.

The idea that Kevin McCarthy is going to be the leader of the pro-Putin wing of my party is stunning. Cheney said on NBC that it is dangerous.

If the GOP wins the House next month, Marjorie Taylor Greene expects McCarthy to give her much power and a lot of latitude, and she blamed the war on Ukraine.

Conservative Fox News stars, including Laura Ingraham and especially Tucker Carlson, have been laying the groundwork with members of the Republican base, readying them for the possibility of an end to US assistance for Ukraine.

Carlson — who declared on his show in 2019 when there was a potential conflict between the neighboring countries that he was “root(ing) for Russia” — did his best in the months before Putin’s attack to paint Ukraine in a negative light. Carlson made a false claim that Ukraine was not a democracy, and also called Zelensky a puppet of the Biden administration.

And just last week, Ingraham derided former Vice President Mike Pence for referring to the United States as the “arsenal of democracy” and suggested our massive military is too depleted to help other countries such as Ukraine. Jim Banks, who is a GOP Representative from Indiana, echoed the comments of McCarthy when he said that America should not give blank checks to solve the world’s problems.

Some of the Republicans may or may not get it, as Biden suggested. There’s one person that fully comprehends it: Putin. If the Republicans regain control of the House, it will be a big day for everyone.

Biden may be talking at cross purposes with the electorate, but they are linked in a way that he didn’t mention in his Union Station speech. The electoral conditions that look likely to restore Trumpism to power were created by the president’s failure to quell inflation and the fears of a nation that was demoralized by a once-in-a-century epidemic.

Biden’s speech was deeply personal, reflecting his own view of the mission handed him by history. It was political given the fact that the elections are only five days away and that scores of candidates are spouting Trump’s election nonsense. It came after the attack on the Pelosi’s husband, which was an example of political violence. And since Biden launched his 2020 campaign as a quest to save America’s soul from what he sees as the aspiring autocracy of Trump, it was a statement of a mission unaccomplished – as well as a potential opening volley of a possible 2024 showdown for the White House between the 45th and 46th presidents.

But the essence of the Trump message exists in direct contradiction to Biden’s logic. When the Republicans win, voters can only love their country, and that is because they see Democrats as anti-American. The current political struggle is caused by dueling understandings of what America actually means and will not end just next Tuesday, but over the course of the next few years.

“You have the power, it’s your choice, it’s your decision, the fate of the nation, the fate of the soul of America lies, as it always does, with the people,” Biden told voters.

Elections should be about more than one thing. Voters can walk and chew gum at the same time. When you see the Capitol dome in Washington, you get the idea of the threat to democracy.

In the heartlands of Pennsylvania, the suburbs of Arizona and cities all across the US, the gut check issue is more of a concept of self-government. It’s the more basic one of feeding a family. This is more about the cost of groceries or a gallon of gasoline than America’s founding truths.

The Biden Effects During the Trump Presidency and After: Why a Republican Senator Can’t Forget to Fix the Future of Our Democracy

The price of everything improved during the Trump Presidency, according to a retired person who works in Arizona.

Declining stock markets have hurt retirement accounts and Americans with credit card debt took another blow Wednesday when the Federal Reserve raised its short-term borrowing rate by another 0.75%. One of the best aspects of the Biden economy is the low unemployment rate, and there are fears that the Fed has a plan to ruin that.

Biden believes the current election could cause political trouble if it goes poorly, as it could cause inflation to fall while the economy is damaged.

The results of the elections in which Democrats held the Senate and Republicans took over the House help explain the findings. Biden had promised a return to normal after inflation and public health challenges, but voters didn’t like the low approval ratings of the president and kept him off the campaign trail. But they didn’t trust a GOP still largely under Trump’s sway to fix things either.

He said that he wants you to make the future of our democracy an important part of your decision to vote. Will that person accept the outcome of the election? he added, at the end of a campaign in which several GOP nominees have not guaranteed they would accept voters’ will.

Joe Biden: The White House is Pinning Down the Peculiarity of High-Private Real Estate & Health Care Costs

It’s not that Biden hasn’t been also talking about high prices. Billions of dollars of spending in his domestic agenda will lower the cost of health care, lift up working families and create millions of jobs according to his pitch. That may be the case, but things that could happen in the future can’t ease the pain being felt now.

Throughout history, inflation has often been a pernicious political force that breeds desperation in an electorate and seeds extremism as a potential response. The surge of prices is so alarming that politicians fear it so much, and that the White House is so curious because they initially didn’t take it seriously.

“He has abused his power and put the loyalty to himself before loyalty to the Constitution. Biden said that he was careful not to insult everyone of the Republicans as he did when he referred to “semi-fascists” earlier this year.

The president claimed that Trump’s threat was much broader than it was in the election. The president warned that all the candidates for all levels of office were running without committing to accept the results of the elections.

Biden also hinted at a lack of understanding of Trump’s MAGA supporters, who have embraced his anti-democratic, populist, nationalist appeal to mainly White voters, which grew out of a backlash to the first Black presidency of Barack Obama. The 44th president has been making his own repudiations of Trump on the campaign trail, as well as defending democracy.

Thirty-seven minutes after wrapping up a late-night gala dinner with Asian leaders – punctuated by plates of wild Mekong lobster and beef saraman – an aide handed President Joe Biden the phone.

David Trone, a millionaire Maryland wine retailer, called the other end to say he had just won another term in the House and was thousands of miles away.

There is a person familiar with the call who says that it was not long and that it was indicative of the warm feeling Biden had for candidates over the course of the last week.

Biden’s best answer to those Democrats who would prefer another candidate is that he’s already beaten Trump in 2020 and staved off the traditional first-term shellacking for first-term presidents in the midterms, partly by warning Trump’s ultra-MAGA forces were mustering for another assault on American democracy.

But on the other side of the world, Biden’s advisers say there has been a tangible effect tied to election results that, had they matched historical trends, threatened to undermine his standing ahead of the most consequential meeting of his first two years.

US national security adviser Jake Sullivan provided a glimpse into dynamics of the moment, pointing to the fact “that many leaders took note of the results of the midterms, came up to the president to engage him and to say that they were following them closely.”

“I would say one theme that emerged over the course of the two days was the theme about the strength of American democracy and what this election said about American democracy,” Sullivan told reporters aboard Air Force One as Biden traveled from Phnom Penh to Bali, Indonesia, for the Group of 20 Summit.

White House Talk with Xi: The Story of the First 21 Months of the US – China War and the War Between Democracy and Autocracy

White House officials, even those who braced for losses in the weeks leading up to election day, have cast aside any reticence to take to their Twitter accounts or to TV interviews to call out pundits and politicians who predicted otherwise.

It’s a reflection – abroad and back in Washington – of a team that officials acknowledge feels constantly underestimated and has long coveted unambiguous success after a relentless and crisis-infused first 21 months in office.

White House officials had been circling the G-20 as the likely sit-down with Xi for months. There were intensive preparations between the two sides in the lead up to announcing the engagement publicly. The tenuous state of the relationship necessitated a sit down, regardless of domestic politics.

In the weeks leading up to the election, White House advisers downplayed the effect sweeping midterm losses would have on the weight of Biden’s presence and message abroad, citing the same historical trends they would later buck.

There was a realization that a split screen of a US president grappling with his party’s political loss at the same time as China’s new leader arriving in Denpasar for the Community Party Congress, may be necessary.

“Perception matters and so does political standing,” one US official said. We know that everyone was watching the election around the world, but it was never a central focus or driver of the dynamics.

Each of the calls back home have signaled the importance of the meeting between the president and the president of China, as US- China relations appear to be inching away from great power competition toward inevitable conflict.

With democracy on more stable ground and key autocracies facing serious problems, it was a good time for Biden to talk frankly about areas of difference between the two powers while trying to build safeguards to prevent the rivalry from getting violent.

Biden is consistent about framing the fight between democratic and autocracy as a “inflection point”, which is what he calls it.

“What I find is that they want to know: Is the United States stable? Do we know what we’re about? Are we the same democracy we’ve always been?” At his news conference, Biden described his conversations with world leaders.

The Times of Joe Biden: Beyond Reporting in the White House and the Black-Hole Crisis: The Resurrection Campaign Against Biden

Former President Donald Trump, whose election lies had driven the assault on the US Capitol, hadn’t faded away and he remained the most powerful figure inside the Republican Party.

Biden had gotten around the congressional majorities to put together a big domestic agenda. He still had a approval rating in the low 40s, which was weighed down by four-decade high inflation and a population that was exhausted from crisis to crisis.

The possibility that Biden would face the same harsh judgment of his first two years in office as nearly all his recent predecessors wasn’t just likely. It was expected.

By striking the right balance between claiming credit and over-claiming progress, delivering a compelling and credible vision for the future and preaching constructive collaboration in contrast to the bellicose voices of the right, Biden would be doing more than reporting to the nation: He would be road-testing themes for a challenging reelection campaign to come.

Sullivan said Biden feels that his departure from the summit establishes a strong position for him on the international stage, and that it played out in living color today. “I think we’ll see that equally when we head into both the G20 and to his bilateral engagements in Bali.”

It took two years after Joe Biden was elected US President before the leaders of the world’s two most powerful countries could finally speak in person, but when Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping finally met in Bali, Indonesia, on Monday on the sidelines of the G20 summit, the timing could not have been any better for the United States, for democracy and for the world.

The Impact of the G20 Summit in Indonesia on the Relations between the US and China, and Implications for the Future of the Cold War

Nevada Rep. Dina Titus, who faced a tough reelection battle in a redrawn district, had secured another term in office. Biden had to pass along his good fortune.

The summit in Indonesia yielded two important outcomes, according to the US: A joint position that Russia must not use a nuclear weapon in Ukraine and an expected resumption of talks on climate between American and Chinese negotiators, a boost for the COP 27 global climate conference in Egypt.

Biden, meanwhile, reported that he stressed to Xi that Beijing also has an obligation to temper North Korea’s destabilizing missile and nuclear activity that has the Pacific region on edge.

It shows how much the world hurts when Washington and Beijing are as estranged as they have been this year.

Public statements from both sides also appeared to indicate a basic foundation that each recognize the critical nature of their rivalry, and both want to ensure that it doesn’t boil over into a war, at least yet. They are moving towards reopening more regular conversations — US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is now expected to visit China next year. Since Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan in August, exchanges have been suspended.

Leon Panetta, a former White House chief of staff, defense Secretary and CIA chief who dealt with US-China relations for decades, said that he was cautiously optimistic after talks on the sidelines of the G20 summit.

Panetta told CNN that the meeting could be important in reestablishing the relationship because it would allow them to begin a dialogue about issues that are important to them.

While both the US and China want to avoid a clash now, their goal remains incompatible, and that was clear at the summit in Indonesia.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry said both sides should not try to remold the other in their own image.

Biden publicly told Xi that the US was ready to reengage in climate talks – at an opportune moment for the Egypt climate summit. The two leaders agreed to encourage senior officials to communicate more and to work together on climate change, global macroeconomic stability, and health security, according to a White House statement after the talks.

The reason Richard Nixon wanted to engage China during the 1970s Cold War was to open strategic gaps between Beijing and Moscow.

There was a shift in the dynamics of the summit, which meant engagement with the Russians didn’t start immediately. The relationship with Moscow had not been damaged by the bloody history of Russia seizure of territory from Ukraine.

A former CNN producer and correspondent is a world affairs columnist. She is a weekly opinion contributor to CNN, a contributing columnist to The Washington Post and a columnist for World Politics Review. The views expressed in this commentary are her own. More opinions on CNN are available.

Putin meets Putin at the Olympics: The perfect time for democracy and the United States after the 2016 Russian-Ukrainian border crossing crisis and the G20 summit in Bali

A well-functioning democratic process in the US is likely disappointing to Xi and other autocrats hoping that deep divisions not only continue to weaken the country from within but also prove that democracy is chaotic and ineffective, inferior to their autocratic systems, as they like to claim. The American President got a boost in his hand to play when the voters went to the polls.

There are other reasons why this was a great chance for this meeting to happen, one of which is that it is the perfect time for democracy and the United States.

There are some signs that the democratic world may be starting to reverse the tide of autocracy, or at least its most dangerous elements. It is not yet clear how strong the global democratic push will be.

Russian forces abandoned Kherson to avoid a battlefield massacre as Zelensky described it, in a major victory for Ukrainians. The Ukrainians continued their successful push against the Russian invasion after meeting with President Xi in Beijing.

Back then, on the opening day of the Winter Olympics, Putin and Xi declared the two countries had a friendship with “no limits,” with no “forbidden areas of cooperation.” Twenty days later, after months of denying any intention to invade Ukraine, Russian troops crossed Ukraine’s borders in what they — and much of the world — expected would be a quick operation to conquer the fledgling democracy next door.

The world’s leading autocrats looked unstoppable even. Meanwhile, Western democracies appeared unsettled, roiled by sometimes violent protests against Covid-19 restrictions. Putin was preparing for triumph in Ukraine. The Olympics were around the corner and it was time forXi to solidify the control of China.

In terms of presidential stagecraft, Biden overshadowed Putin this week, with his daring overnight train journey into Kyiv and speech in the Polish capital, a location chosen for its role on NATO’s frontline. Putin’s address to the Russian parliament was a staider affair, sprinkled with his now familiar nuclear threats and conspiracy theories about the West.

Tellingly, Putin chose not to attend the G20 summit in Bali, avoiding confrontations with world leaders as he increasingly becomes a pariah on the global stage.

The Biden/Trump Battle in the 2022 Midterm Election: What Do They Really Want? Early Perceptions of Biden and Trump

To be sure, Biden is not the only leader with a strong hand. Xi has just secured an unprecedented third term as China’s leader, and he can now effectively rule for as long as he wants. He does not need to worry about elections, the press or the opposition party. He is the ruler of a mighty country for a long time to come.

The problems faced by Xi are daunting. The economy has slowed down so much that China is reluctant to reveal economic data. China’s Covid-19 vaccine, once a tool of global diplomacy, is a disappointment. China is imposing paranoia as the world gradually comes back to normal after the Pandemic.

It is crucial for the two systems to show they are the same and that the war of aggression between them is not going to succeed.

Even as President Joe Biden and ex-President Donald Trump move toward a rerun of the most turbulent White House race in modern history, many voters are pining for a break from the past – and the present.

A new CNN/SSRS poll shows that 6 in 10 Republicans and GOP-leaning independents want their party to nominate someone other than Trump in 2024. A similar slice on the other side hopes for a nominee other than Biden.

Of course, it’s early. And the 2022 midterms offer a still fresh reminder that in a volatile, partisan age shadowed by crises at home and abroad, logic, history, polls and pre-race predictions months ahead of time often don’t count for much.

But the race is on, whether voters want it or not. Early perceptions of the contenders’ strengths are important since they shape the decisions of potential rivals and donors in the early money chase. Trump is already a declared candidate, although he could use a relaunch after a tepid start, and Biden is giving every sign he plans on running, suggesting he’ll let the country know for sure early in the new year.

The poll also hints at one of the emerging paradoxes in the nascent 2024 race. Even though they are the most powerful figures in their parties, Biden and Trump seem vulnerable at the start of the two-year campaign due to the shifting political environment and age.

There will be another campaign to see if there has been an erosion of Trump’s base. Even if he doesn’t win the presidency, his mythical connection to those voters could still carry him to his third straight nomination. The unwillingness of most Republican lawmakers to repudiate Trump over comments like his recent call to terminate the Constitution suggest that they are still under the sway of the ex-president’s supporters at home. Kevin McCarthy has been able to avoid condemning Trump’s recent associations with extremists in his desperate bid to win the speaker’s gavel next month.

Any president is vulnerable to unexpected events that could affect his ratings and chances of reelection. And the oldest president in US history will have to confront the age issue every day. Republicans will seize on any slackening of the campaign trail pace, or even a cold, as proof he’s unfit for a second term. And while Biden appears healthy, the chances of an adverse event increase for people in their 80s.

Trump seems to have started stabilizing his slump while the president ends the year in better shape. Only 25% of the Democrat-aligned voters wanted him to be their nominee. The figure now is 40%. The advantage a sitting president usually has against a primary challenger has been strengthened by the fact that 28% of those who want someone else have no one specific in mind.

It’s possible that Republican politics may not be at a moment of transition. How things go in the next few months are going to be crucial to Trump’s future. More and more Republicans are saying it was time to move on from the ex-president after a number of their candidates failed in the midterms.

The arguments that the general election viability of Trump is damaged beyond repair are being reinforced by the president’s dinner with extremists with a record of antisemitism. The so far lackluster campaign of Trump looks like it was made easier for him to portray criminal probes into his conduct as persecution.

The new GOP House majority will be influenced by the former president’s allies. Paradoxically, the failure of Republicans to do better in November means that a thinner majority will be easier for extremists to manipulate as they seek to turn Republican control of half of the Capitol into a weapon to damage Biden and help Trump in 2024.

GOP hopefuls will see that 38% – the lowest point of three CNN polls on the topic this year – as an opening for an anti-Trump candidate. But another big field could splinter opposition to the ex-president among untested potential foes.

U.S. Mission to Ukraine During the February 24 Ukrainian War: Zelensky and the American Army Joint Task Force (CTF)

“It’s something we’ve wanted to do for some time,” the administration official said, noting it came 300 days after Russia began its invasion in February. The official said that the US and Zelensky would not be deterred from making travel decisions because of Russia’s actions.

The war zone in Ukraine is an active one, making Monday’s visit different than previous trips to Iraq or Afghanistan. White House officials had repeatedly ruled out a visit earlier in the year.

Now, with the war nearing its one-year mark on February 24, Biden is hoping to demonstrate to the world his commitment to Ukraine, even as it remains unclear how much longer US and western resolve can last.

Zelensky, who the official said was “very keen” to visit the US, determined those parameters met his needs, and the US set to work executing them. The trip was confirmed on Sunday.

Zelensky spoke to US lawmakers via video in March. He compared the attacks on Pearl Harbor and 9/11 to the strikes on Ukraine and stated he needed him right now.

Ukraine is not an official member of NATO, and that is an important perception for the US. One major reason the US has not provided more direct aid to Ukraine is concern that Putin would be provoked against NATO.

“We know that the days ahead, the conflict will continue,” the senior administration official said. We will provide critical support to the Ukrainian people during the winter because it will be hard.

US officials have said they hope the massive influx of weaponry to Ukraine – which includes new vehicles, longer-range missiles, and Patriot air defense systems – can help Ukraine prevail on the battlefield and put the country in a stronger position to negotiate an end to the war.

Unlike smaller air defense systems, Patriot missile batteries need much larger crews, requiring dozens of personnel to properly operate them. The training for the missiles is normally a long process and it will now be required due to the increased Russian attacks on the US.

The official said that the US would train Ukrainians to use the system in another country. CNN has previously reported the training would occur at a US Army base in Grafenwoehr, Germany.

The system is widely considered one of the most capable long-range weapons to defend airspace against incoming ballistic and cruise missiles, as well as some aircraft. Because of its long-range and high-altitude capability, it can potentially shoot down Russian missiles and aircraft far from their intended targets inside Ukraine.

That his first trip outside Ukraine since the Russian invasion in February is to the United States will also highlight President Joe Biden’s historic role in reviving the Western alliance that kept the Soviet Union at bay and is now countering new expansionism by Moscow in an effective proxy war between nuclear superpowers.

Zelensky compared his nation’s resistance against Russia with Britain’s lonely defiance of the Nazis in the days before the US entered World War II during a video address to the UK Parliament earlier this year, and his arrival in the US capital will sharpen the parallels to the earlier meeting of Churchill and President Franklin Roosevelt.

Zelensky’s appearance was one of Pelosi’s final acts before she resigned the speaker’s gavel. She went to meet the Zelensky in a surprise visit earlier this year.

Zelensky’s visit to the US as a critical blow to the Russian-Russia war on Ukraine, and two days of infamy when Americans experienced the fear of aerial bombardment

The decision to grant the Ukrainian request, which had been pending for years, was reflected by the US matching its aid to the changing strategy of Russia. The system would aid Kyiv in its war against Russia, which it has mounted an effective attempt to break the will of Ukrainian civilians by hitting their cities with missiles.

Former NATO Supreme Allied Commander, Europe, Wesley Clark said that Zelensky’s trip reflects a critical moment when the destiny of a war that Ukraine cannot win without upgraded US support could be decided before Russia can regroup.

His visit to Congress will impact the debate on Capitol Hill over aid to Ukraine, which Republicans will take over the House majority in the new year. Some pro-Donald Trump members, who will have significant leverage in the thin GOP majority, have warned that billions of dollars in US cash that have been sent to Ukraine should instead be shoring up the US southern border with a surge of new migrants expected within days.

In March, for instance, Zelensky evoked Mount Rushmore and Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I have a Dream Speech” during a virtual address to Congress. He also referred to two days of infamy in modern history when Americans directly experienced the fear of aerial bombardment.

“Remember Pearl Harbor, terrible morning of December 7, 1941, when your sky was black from the planes attacking you. Just remember it,” Zelensky said. “Remember September 11, a terrible day in 2001 when evil tried to turn your cities, independent territories, into battlefields. When innocent people were attacked, attacked from air, just like nobody else expected it, you could not stop it. Every day, our country experiences the same thing.

The British Ambassador to the Battle of the Red Lines: The Case Against Russian-Russian Interaction in the Second World War, Revisited

The wartime British leader sailed to the United States aboard HMS Duke of York, dodging U-boats in the wintery Atlantic and took a plane from the coast of Virginia to Washington, where he was met on December 22, 1941, by President Franklin Roosevelt before their joint press conference the next day.

The two leaders plotted to destroy Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan with the aid of a drink of 90-year-old brandy and a regimen of breakfast, Scotch and sodas.

Churchill, who had pined for US involvement in World War II for months and knew it was the key to defeating Adolf Hitler, said during his visit, “I spend this anniversary and festival far from my country, far from my family, and yet I cannot truthfully say that I feel far from home.”

The Ukrainian leader is likely to appreciate the historical parallels. He told British members of parliament that one of their favourite speeches from the war was the one he quoted from.

There are two key headline deliverables: first, the Patriot missile systems. Complex, accurate, and expensive, they have been described as the US’s “gold standard” of air defense. NATO preciously guards them, and they require the personnel who operate them – almost 100 in a battalion for each weapon – to be properly trained.

If Ukraine hits its targets, it will ensure no civilians are left nearby. And it means Ukraine does not go through the hundreds or thousands of shells Russia appears to burn through as it blanket bombards areas it wants to capture.

Moscow is struggling to put together and rally its conventional forces, and it appears that it is running out of new cards to play. The use of nuclear force has become less likely due to China and India’s statements against it.

Russia has complained about these deliveries repeatedly but has been relatively quiet about the issue after January when it might have been considered “red lines.”

Biden didn’t set out to give a better picture of the war’s final outcome, instead he is nudging the Ukrainians toward the negotiating table with Russia Indeed, Biden and his aides do not view Russian President Vladimir Putin as anywhere close to seeking a settlement in the war, an impression only reinforced by Putin’s belligerent and, in their view, delusional speech from Moscow on Tuesday.

This is trickier. Kevin McCarthy, the likely Speaker of Congress, has warned the Biden administration that it could not expect a blank cheque from the GOP-led House.

Zelensky’s historic speech on Russian aggression and Ukrainian revolution in the light of the Trump-Russia war and Russia’s war with Ukraine

The remnants of the Trumpist “America First” elements of that party have echoed doubts about how much aid the US should really be sending to the edges of eastern Europe.

The bill for the long and slow defeat of Russia is not very high for Washington, given its trillion-dollar yearly defense budget.

The embodiment of how Putin turned ordinary Ukrainians into war heroes is what he is about, as a former reality TV star turned president.

Zelensky’s historic address strengthened Democrats and Republicans who understand what is at stake when it comes to the fight against Putin and Russian aggression and now with their ally, Iran.

The speech “connected the struggle of Ukrainian people to our own revolution, to our own feelings that we want to be warm in our homes to celebrate Christmas and to get us to think about all the families in Ukraine that will be huddled in the cold and to know that they are on the front lines of freedom right now,” Clinton said on CNN’s “Anderson Cooper 360” Wednesday.

“I hope that they will send more than one,” she added. She noted that the US and NATO have been hesitant in the past to provide advanced equipment to the Ukrainian military.

Clinton, who met with Putin as Secretary of State, said the leader was “probably impossible to actually predict” as the war in Ukraine turned in his favor.

“I think around now, what [Putin] is considering is how to throw more bodies, and that’s what they will be – bodies of Russian conscripts – into the fight in Ukraine,” Clinton said.

Cloaked in secrecy and weighted with history, Biden’s trip was the work of months of planning by only a small handful of his senior-most aides, who recognized long ago the symbolic importance of visiting the Ukrainian capital a year after Russia tried to capture it.

But the trip was about far more than symbols. If Biden did not believe he could meet Zelensky face-to-face instead of using a phone in Washington, he wouldn’t invite him.

Both men are aware of the war entering a new phase. Fears of a stalemate are growing as Russia sends more troops to the front and wages an air campaign against civilians.

Zelensky made comments on Wednesday that suggested the road to peace wouldn’t involve making concessions to Russia.

“For me as a president, ‘just peace’ is no compromises,” he said, indicating he doesn’t see any road to peace that involves Ukraine giving up territory or sovereignty.

Later, in his address to Congress, Zelensky said he’d presented a 10-point peace formula to Biden – though US officials said afterward it was the same plan he offered to world leaders at the Group of 20 summit last month.

For his part, Biden said it was up to Zelensky to “decide how he wants to the war to end,” a long-held view that leaves plenty of questions unanswered.

Zelensky used his address to congress to reference a number of American history, including the Battle of the Bulge in World War II.

He chose to deliver his address in English, a deliberate choice he made prior to the speech. He wore a Army green shirt, cargo pants and boots to remind his audience that he was a wartime leader.

Zelensky’s “Understanding” of Biden and the United States During World War II: He Explained Why “There Was No Electric Light on the Night”

Over the course of the conflict, Zelensky has demonstrated an acute ability to appeal to his audience, be they national legislatures or the audience of the Grammys.

He wanted to evoke dark winter nights in the United States as he sought to harness Americans’ emotional response to his country’s suffering.

“In two days we will celebrate Christmas. Maybe candlelit. He said there would be no electricity because it would not be romantic.

He knew that many Americans have wondered why billions of US dollars are needed for a conflict thousands of miles away. He sought to make the cause about more than his own homeland.

Yet it doesn’t take much to see tensions just beneath the surface. Zelensky has agitated for more US assistance despite Biden directing billions of dollars in military assistance to his country.

On the surface, Biden and Zelensky have maintained a stalwart partnership. And Zelensky was effusive in his praise of Biden as he went from the Oval Office to the East Room to Capitol Hill.

That has not always sat well with Biden and his team. But as he has with a host of other foreign leaders, Biden appeared intent Wednesday on translating physical proximity into a better understanding of his counterpart.

It is all about looking in someone’s eye. I’m very sure that I mean it in a genuine way. He said there was no alternative to sit down face to face with a friend or foe and look them in the eye.

The American War of Independence – The Rise of Artillery on the Crimes Of The Ukrainians and Their Embarrassment

CNN adapted its December 22 edition of Meanwhile In America, the daily email about US politics for global readers. Click here to get past editions.

The comic actor-turned-wartime hero effectively put the fate of millions of Ukrainians in the hands of American lawmakers, taxpayers and families at a time when there is growing skepticism among the incoming Republican House majority about the cost of US involvement.

Zelensky gave Pelosi and Harris a Ukrainian flag he retrieved during his speech at the House chamber.

He said that members of the House of Representatives and senators were asked to bring the flag to them.

His broader message was that Ukraine’s fight was not just some flashpoint over an ancient grudge on the fringes of the old Soviet empire. It was that his fight is America’s and everyone’s – to hold back tyranny and save global democracy.

Zelensky expressed his thanks for the tens of billions of dollars in weapons and aid offered to Americans. He argued that they could not abandon the independence hero without also taking away something of their national identity.

The welcoming of the hero of the Ukrainian leader to the chamber suggested that the incoming House Republicans would be shamed if they decided to abandon him.

He proved that Ukrainians were not alone as Russians attacked their power plants, which weaponized the winter.

Zelensky’s inspiring rhetoric and heroic bearing couldn’t mask the uncertainties and risks of a war that the US is effectively now fighting a proxy battle with Russia.

What will happen after the patriots are in place? Zelensky said during a White House news conference that they would send another signal to President Biden after that. In his address to Congress, he said: “We have artillery, yes, thank you. We have it. Is it enough? Honestly, not really.” Both times, he was joking but that didn’t mean that he wasn’t deadly serious. In his address to Congress, Zelensky pleaded with Washington to send more offensive weapons to spur victory.

The president has limited the potency of the weapons he sends into the battle, balancing the need to defend a European democracy with the desire not to trigger a disastrous direct clash with Russia and to avoid crossing often invisible red lines whose locations are known only to Putin.

There are already early signs of ebbing public support for Biden’s repeated aid and arms packages for Ukraine a year after Russia’s brutal and unprovoked invasion. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is opposed to a “blank check” for Ukrainians. The reaction of the ex-president’s proteges in the GOP-controlled House to Biden’s daring secret visit to Kyiv last month suggests that the 2024 Republican nominee will surely cater to a base that believes the US should spend its money securing its own borders instead of Ukraine’s and that Biden cares more for foreigners than Americans.

“I support Ukraine but I never support a blank check,” McCarthy said after the speech. we want to make sure that we aren’t guilty of overspending.

Zelensky’s State of the Union Address on the Battle of the Bulge: The U.S. Stands Against World War II

In the face of animosity that will erupt in Washington next year, there is no guarantee that America’sLawmakers will be able to fund their own government, let alone one fighting for survival thousands of miles away.

Several Republican members who have expressed reservations about aid to Ukraine – like Reps. Lauren Boebert of Colorado and Matt Gaetz of Florida – did not stand to applaud when Zelensky was introduced.

President Volodymyr Zelensky went to the bloody front lines in his native Ukraine to refill his supply line and was in the US House on Wednesday evening to shore it up.

Although he did not mention the elephant in the room, the speech was a clear plea to Republican lawmakers, who will control the House in January, to stay with Ukraine.

There are concerns about decreasing aid in the Biden Administration, but Congress agreed to provide over forty billion dollars in assistance to Russia in last year’s spending bill.

Blinken said the administration would work with Congress to “to provide an additional $907 million of Foreign Military Financing under the Additional Ukraine Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2022.”

He spoke of the Battle of the Bulge during World War II, when the US was surrounded in the snow on Europe after D-Day.

He pointed out that they will do the fighting for us and that the American people thought they were in this together. That’s what Churchill said,” Kearns Goodwin told CNN’s Anderson Cooper Wednesday evening.

The president has an obligation to report on domestic and foreign affairs in a State of the Union speech. This year, Biden can rightly take credit for rallying the world’s response to Russian aggression.

What Will Petraeus and the House Speaker of the House Tell us about the Agreement to Provide Additional Defense Funding to Ukraine? A Foreign Diplomat Comment on the Situation in Ukraine

Petraeus added it was substantive because of the new money pledged to Ukraine both at the White House and in a larger $1.7 trillion spending bill lawmakers need to pass before Friday.

In addition to the money directly for Ukraine, the larger year-end spending bill includes an increase in US defense spending that will help American weapons and ammunition stockpiles depleted by support sent to Ukraine.

The House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy met with Zelensky and the three other congressional leaders in order to get the votes he needs for Speaker of the House.

Victoria spartz is the only Ukrainian-born member of congress, and she doubts some of the aid to Ukranian.

The new drawdown forUkraine is part of more than $3 billion in new assistance to the country. The Secretary of State said Friday that the United States would be going in a direction to support the people of Ukraine as they defend their territorial integrity.

Several members of the Republican caucus who changed their votes to support McCarthy said that they are encouraged by the framework of the agreement, but provided no details on the deal.

That number was even higher than President Joe Biden requested – a reflection of Democrats’ concern that additional funding wouldn’t be as forthcoming in a GOP-led House. The figure was thought to be an insurance policy against Republican resistance and the White House believed that it would last for several months.

Rules changes to budget process could make it harder for Congress to pass new aid, and certain conservatives have vowed to oppose any new Ukraine funding.

Foreign diplomats have concerns about the implications of the House speaker negotiations on the future of US support for Ukraine.

The diplomat said that the Freedom Caucus, which is not particularly pro-Ukrainian, has just demonstrated its clout, and that this is a sign of legislative paralysis.

The Voice of the U.S. President Joe Biden: Pre-game TV interviews before the Ukraine drawdown and the role of the White House in tackling the crisis

Others noted they were watching closely to see the kinds of maneuvers McCarthy would make to secure the role, which could potentially include cuts to aid.

One diplomat is concerned about the policy concessions McCarthy will make in order to affect the US role in the world.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday welcomed the latest drawdown, saying it was an “awesome Christmas present for Ukraine!” And lawmakers in Ukraine told CNN they are not concerned that the future of assistance is at risk, noting the strong past bipartisan and public support for aiding their country.

David Axelrod, a CNN senior political commentator and host of “The Axe Files,” was a chief strategist for the 2008 and 2012 Obama presidential campaigns. The opinions expressed in this commentary are his own. CNN has opinions on it.

Every president, and particularly those contemplating reelection, wants to use the State of the Union speech to burnish his accomplishments, especially on the issues that are of unique concern to voters. And that is important and necessary. It is not hard to think of a presidential speech as a report card, but it is not a good idea to share a larger story about the country.

The annual report to Congress and the nation is still important because it almost guarantees a president the largest audience he will have all year to share his unfiltered message with the American people.

The traditional pre-game television interview before the Super Bowl may deliver a much larger audience, of course, and a chance for President Joe Biden to crow about his beloved Philadelphia Eagles. But interviews are a gauntlet a president can’t entirely control. People watch football rather than politicians.

In spite of a string of impressive legislative victories, Biden has been distracted recently by a classified documents controversy that has been a distraction.

His overall job approval rating is stuck in the low 40s, according to CNN’s Poll of Polls. According to the recent NBC News poll, nearly three in four Americans think things are headed in the wrong direction, and only 34% approve of Biden’s handling of the economy.

Even though the Federal Reserve has raised its interest rates eight times, the economy is in a much better shape than when Biden took office.

The significant steps he and Congress took to undergird people and businesses during the worst of the pandemic were important. The bipartisan infrastructure bill he signed is now blossoming into major public works improvements across the country. The steps he’s taken are making health care more affordable for millions.

Yet Americans have weathered wrenching loss and jarring dislocations during the pandemic, many of which are still reverberating. We have been buffeted by blistering inflation, thanks to global supply chain shortages and spiraling energy costs exacerbated by the war in Ukraine.

The rest of the world is not immune to the same forces, but the buck stops here when you’re the President of the United States. People can’t be pushed into feeling better.

What does President Biden want to tell us about the past, what is next, and what we can do to solve it all? And what he can do about it

Mindful of this, even as he reports on the things that have been accomplished, Biden should avoid triumphalism or grandiose claims like, “Not since Lyndon Johnson!” or “The biggest since FDR!” Leave that stuff to historians.

Explain how you are trying to help, but don’t tell them how good things are. Or worse, how great YOU are. If you try to get them to like you, you’ll lose them.

Presidents want to have a vision. When you are the oldest president in history, and you have recently turned 80, people don’t connect you with the word “future.”

So, rather than merely claiming credit for what he’s done, Biden desperately needs to tell a larger story about where we’re going and paint a picture of how these major initiatives are laying the groundwork for something better.

But there is a much larger point: The ongoing struggle in Ukraine underscores his argument for the importance of continued American leadership and global alliances in a dangerous world. If the Republican challenger had his way, America would never be the same.

I’m sure the President will speak about gun violence and abortion rights and the crying imperative for more steps to prevent unspeakable horrors such as the savage beating of Tyre Nichols.

He must speak about the crisis at the border and what additional steps he plans to quell it but also the continued crisis faced by millions of undocumented workers who live in our country — crises that should be solved by rekindling proposals for comprehensive immigration reform.

These issues, too, are about the future in our growingly diverse country. The popularity of Biden has been shown by the fact that the Republican House majority is on the losing side.

The State of the Union jousting between Biden and the Republican caucus shows that there are differing styles between the President and his adversaries. The Republicans are doubling down on their image as street fighters, because of their outrage-driven heckling. What they seemingly haven’t learned from 2020 is that Biden thrives when cast as the gentler, more amiable counterpuncher.

He should say: “To those of you in the new House majority, let me say, we all have a choice. We can spend the next two years trying to destroy each other for politics. We can work together to find solutions to issues facing families and communities in our country. I’m pretty sure I know which choice the American people are hoping we make. I know which choice I’m prepared to make. I hope you’ll join me.”

What if? President Biden’s Second State of the Union Address in Washington (and Beyond) promised unity and no far-reaching new ideas

As diplomatic tensions with China soar and new details emerge of a Chinese balloon patrol program, Biden called out Beijing as millions of viewers in the US and around the world watched.

We made clear last week that if China endangers our nation, we will act to protect it. And we did,” Biden said, referring to the moment Saturday when a US jet fired a missile that burst the balloon off the US east coast, after it had spent days wafting across the continental US and Canada.

Moments later, in an ad-libbed addition to his speech, Biden specifically named Xi, as he slammed autocracies and argued for the superiority of democracies.

Biden has repeatedly said as president that he would defend Taiwan in the event of a Chinese attack – in an apparent rewriting of the long-held policy of strategic ambiguity on the issue – only for officials to insist the US stance hasn’t changed.

Suspicions toward Beijing will not have been helped by revelations about the scope of the Chinese balloon program on Tuesday. US intelligence officials believe an extensive surveillance program run by the Chinese military is based in the province of Hainan and has conducted at least two dozen missions over at least five continents in recent years. A number of those flights have been within US airspace, but not necessarily over US territory, as per one official aware of the intelligence.

His remarks on Russia immediately proceeded those on China, making it impossible to miss the symbolic synergy between his policy toward both nations as he laid out what might be seen as a Biden doctrine of standing with democracies against autocracies and increasing attempts by nations like Russia and China to apply their power outside their borders.

President Biden delivered a plea to Republicans on Tuesday for unity in his second State of the Union address, but vowed not to back off his economic agenda and offered no far-reaching, new ideas in a speech filled with a familiar litany of exhortations from more than four decades in political life.

Joe Biden and Paul Ryan’s State of the Union: What if the House Floor of Congress was an Ambush to Biden? Views from Clarity Media Group

Bill McGowan is the founder and CEO of the communications coaching firm, Clarity Media Group. He is the author of the book “Pitch Perfect: How to Say It Right the First Time, Every Time.” At Clarity, Silva is a strategic communications adviser. The views expressed in this commentary are solely those of the authors. You can read opinion articles on CNN.

If the State of the Union address was Joe Biden’s first step in his campaign for reelection, Republicans are in for a shock. The President indicated that he was more proficient at wielding his trademark optimism and likability, as a result of the talk about how good Joe has lost a step or two.

Perhaps more than any other politician, Biden is the king at eviscerating his political opponents with a high-beam smile. Just ask the man who was in that debate – Paul Ryan.

That disarming tactic was again on full display during his State of the Union address when he sarcastically told Republicans who voted against the infrastructure bill he signed into law in 2021, yet claimed credit for the jobs it’s bringing to their home districts, “see you at the groundbreaking.”

The answer was yes in part because of a new breed of House Republicans who were willing to destroy the country in the absence of Donald Trump.

The members of the GOP are unable to help themselves. Maybe they imagined that insult to Biden from the House floor would represent some kind of ambush.

The President swatted the attacks away and even managed to turn the tables on his critics. The GOP would have known that ruffling Biden’s feathers is hard if they had watched the videos of his debates. You don’t stay in Washington DC for long and still have a thin skin.

The puzzling question is why are political opponents like Greene creating the same stark contrast in personality that plays right into the President’s hands? There is a mistake that could cost them in the future. When the electorate is given a choice between an angel or a villain, voter turnout goes up and it favors the Democrats.

The Mission of the United States to Russia During the Cold War: John J. Sullivan’s View of the Progress and Status of the Organization

The US Ambassador to Russia was John J. Sullivan during December and October of this year. He served as the US deputy Secretary of State. And is now a partner in Mayer Brown LLP and a Distinguished Fellow at the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. His own views are expressed in this commentary. Read more opinion on CNN.

I had been telling everyone for a long time that Russian President Putin was going to kick off a war on the continent of Europe, a war that had not been seen in over 70 years.

Although confident in my pre-war assessment, I was disconsolate. For two years, I worked hard as US ambassador to achieve modest progress in the few areas in which a dialogue with the Russians could be had.

I say this with a heavy heart, as a person who was an advocate for continued negotiations with the Russian government even as the downward spiral of our relationship accelerated. I left a comfortable perch on Mahogany Row at the State Department as the Deputy Secretary State to serve as the US ambassador in Moscow and take the lead in those negotiations.

The war had a big impact on where I lived in Moscow and how Russia is viewed in the world. The embassy compound was chosen because the pace of teleconferences with Washington, combined with an eight- hour time difference, meant I had to be available at all hours.

The invasion made a big affect on the global economy, including energy and grain markets. It slaughtered thousands of innocents, and caused immense suffering to millions of Ukrainians, because of a policy choice by Putin in his quest for empire.

Yet the merciless Russian violence (which has forced almost 15 million Ukrainians to become refugees or internally displaced), the catastrophic missile strikes on civilian targets and the unlawful occupation of sovereign Ukrainian territory continue. Russia is a permanent member of the UN Security Council, which is supposed to preserve and defend world peace.

This is a menacing global problem that will only get worse—the economic toll alone is staggering—until it is stopped and reversed on terms acceptable to Ukraine that will protect its sovereignty and security.

Russia did not negotiate in good faith before the war, and now they do not. Until Putin accomplishes his goals there is no off ramp.

What is to be done has been a question asked by Lenin. I believe the way forward for the United States is, first, to double down on diplomacy to convince those nations that have not joined in stoutly supporting the defense of Ukraine of the moral, political, legal and military necessity of doing so.

The Russian government should realize that the goals of its special military operation can’t be achieved. The Russia government will only negotiate in good faith. Only then will peace return to Europe.

How did President Biden leave Ukraine, or why he didn’t leave Moscow early on Sunday morning after his trip to Poland in April 2013?

Instead, he secretly left Washington early on Sunday morning. Security concerns prevented details of how he got to Ukraine from being released. Biden has since left the capital. There have been attacks on Kyiv by Russian missiles and drones.

And Biden vowed, “President Putin’s craven lust for land and power will fail, and the Ukrainian people’s love for their country will prevail,” he added.

Biden’s trip to Kyiv was shrouded in secrecy, a reflection of the steep security concerns. Reporters on the plane were not allowed to bring their gadgets with them as Air Force One departed under cover of darkness on Sunday.

Biden is traveling with a relatively small entourage, including national security adviser Jake Sullivan, deputy chief of staff Jen O’Malley Dillon and personal aide Annie Tomasini.

Yet security precautions had prevented Biden from making a similar trip. When he visited Poland in April last year, the White House did not even explore the potential for a trip across the border, even though Biden said he had voiced interest.

Biden has been itching to visit Ukraine for months, particularly after several of his counterparts in Europe all endured lengthy train journeys to meet with Zelensky in Kyiv. The president of France, the chancellor of Germany and the prime minister of Canada are just a few that have visited the country to show their support.

On Mother’s Day last year, Biden’s wife paid a surprise visit to the small city in the far southwestern corner of Ukraine. She met with Zelenska at a former school that was converted into temporary housing for displaced Ukrainians, including 48 children.

Wang arrives in Moscow on Thursday for the first visit of the US to Ukraine since the Russian invasion of Ukraine – and it wasn’t symbolicism

But it remains unclear what parameters Zelensky might be willing to accept in any peace negotiations, and the US has steadfastly refused to define what a settlement may look like beyond stating it will be up to Zelensky to decide.

According to American officials, the US has recently seen disturbing trends and there are signs that Beijing might provide lethal military aid to Moscow without being caught.

The US has given intelligence to its allies and partners at the conference that suggests a shift in China’s position, but the officials wouldn’t say much more about it.

Wang is expected to arrive in Moscow this week in the first visit to the country from a Chinese official in that role since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Putin welcomed Wang and said relations between Beijing and Moscow had reached a new milestone, in a highly significant move.

Biden said that there was no doubt in the US’s support of Ukrainians in the war.

But with no end to the war in sight, polls show a growing number of Americans are concerned about how much money has gone to the war — and some Republican budget hawks have said they would like to curtail the spending.

The President and his wife, Blanca, were back at the White House after a night out in Washington where they enjoyed rigatoni with sausage ragu.

The next time he was seen in public was 36 hours later, striding out of St. Michael’s Cathedral in Kyiv into a bright winter day, air raid sirens wailing a reminder of both the risks and reason for visiting Ukraine as it nears a second year of war.

Yet it was more than symbolism that drove Biden to endure the significant risk of visiting an active war zone without significant US military assets on the ground.

The Case for a Joe Biden High-Dimensional Visit to Kyiv, Ukraine: An Operational Security Plan

It is much larger than just Ukraine. It’s about freedom of democracy in Europe, it’s about freedom and democracy at large,” he said, his blue-and-yellow tie an overt nod to his Ukrainian hosts.

It was due to the fluid nature of the trip that it happened. Even though the White House thought it was doable, the realities of sending a president to a war zone where the US had no control over the air space were daunting.

The NSC is going to use its power to marshal the world, but there aren’t plans for the president to enter Ukrainian on this trip, according to John Kirby.

At that point, Biden had already left Joint Base Andrews and taken a larger Air Force C-32 instead of the usual plane that is synonymous with Air Force One.

There will be a stop to refuel in Germany before the flight to Poland. As he jetted eastward, Biden’s focus was plotting out his conversations with Zelensky, hoping to use his limited time wisely in discussing the coming months of fighting.

“Can we first acknowledge the fact that yes, Biden is over in Poland, but shouldn’t he be with those people in Ohio?” asked Nikki Haley, the former South Carolina governor and US ambassador to the United Nations who is now seeking the Republican presidential nomination, during a campaign stop in Iowa. When there’s a crisis, you have to go to your people immediately.

It was the culmination of a process that began months earlier, as Biden watched as a parade of his foreign counterparts each made the journey into Ukraine.

In the planning stages for this trip, Biden was presented with a range of options for a visit to Ukraine but decided that only the capital Kyiv made sense as a venue, a person familiar with the matter said.

“This was a risk that Joe Biden wanted to take,” said White House communications director Kate Bedingfield. Even when it is difficult, and he directed his team to make it happen, it is important that he show up.

Jake Sullivan, Biden’s national security adviser, declined to discuss whether Biden had to overrule the military or Secret Service in order to proceed with the trip.

“He got a full presentation of a very good and very effective operational security plan. He heard the presentation and decided to leave after he was satisfied that the risk was manageable.

The Cold War between Ukraine and the U.S. Isn’t: President Biden, the Kremlin, and the American Values

The Russian dictator marked the anniversary of his unprovoked aggression – which has killed or wounded close to 200,000 of Russia’s own soldiers and turned some 16 million Ukrainians into refugees – by suspending Russia’s participation in a key nuclear arms deal that kept the threat of nuclear war at bay and giving a 100-minute speech to the country on Tuesday blaming Ukraine and its supporters for the war Putin started.

The leader of the United States strolled through the city in the middle of the day, stopping to look at a historic church as air raid sirens wailed and stood exposed alongside Zelensky.

“President Biden has claimed the upper hand … and tomorrow Putin will have to reply to what happened today,” Rudik said, referring to a speech in which Putin is expected to rally the Russian people on Tuesday.

Biden has so far declined to agree to the request, which gets to the heart of a dilemma that defines his war strategy: How far to go to help Kyiv win while avoiding a direct clash between the West and Russia.

“F-16s are not a question for the short-term fight. F-16s are a topic for the long-term defense ofUkraine, as was discussed by President Biden and President Zelensky.

Ukrainians would have the capacity to potentially strike at Russian aircraft and air defense systems. Biden has tried to avoid a disastrous escalation of the War in Eastern Europe but the use of NATO aircraft in such operations could prompt the Kremlin to conclude the alliance has directly aided the war, making the situation even worse.

A grueling and dangerous journey that required energy and endurance felt like a jab at critics who question whether Biden should be contemplating a reelection race at the age of 80.

Of course, some GOP members criticized Biden for going to Ukraine. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene called the trip “incredibly insulting,” a sign of an “America Last” policy. And Rep. Scott Perry — at the center of a legal dispute with the Justice Department over his cell phone in the special counsel’s January 6 probe — described as “breathtaking” that Biden would help Ukraine defend its borders and not do the same for America.

There is nothing more Presidential than standing for the American values of freedom and democracy and the right of a people to resist tyranny enforced by a more powerful foreign oppressor.

Biden was in Kyiv. Russian journalist Sergey Mardan wrote a reply on his Telegram channel that had a bad word for Russia. Children can enjoy stories of miraculous hypersonics. Just like spells about the holy war we are waging with the entire West.”

Biden could have toured the front lines of eastern Ukraine and escaped unharmed, said a former Federal Security Service officer.

“Wouldn’t be surprised if the grandfather (he is not good for anything but simple provocations anyway) is brought to Bakhmut as well… AND NOTHING WILL HAPPEN TO HIM,” Girkin said.

A number of hardline military bloggers, some of which have hundreds of thousands of followers, criticize what they see as a soft approach on the battlefield by Putin’s generals, and they also provide analysis of the conflict for large swaths of the Russian population.

Jake Sullivan and the Security of the Ukraine: Biden’s Preliminary Speech at a NATO Deconfinement Event in Warsaw

A few hours before he departed, the United States informed Russia of the plans to visit the Ukrainian capital for “deconfliction purposes,” according to Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan.

Both speeches had differences in content and character. Biden was introduced in Warsaw to a pulsing pop anthem; Putin seemed to put some members of his audience to sleep with his hour-and-45-minute address. Biden claimed that Putin was making a big mistake when he announced that his country was suspending their participation in the New START treaty.

The attendees of the event will be Russians but foreign guests and representatives will not be invited, a Kremlin spokesman told reporters Monday.

While Biden is steadfast in his pledge of continued support, European allies are concerned that the war could go into a stalemate as both sides see small gains and losses.

Biden announced Monday he would join European nations in announcing new sanctions on Moscow and unveil another security assistance package on top of the tens of billions already committed this year.

Following his speech Tuesday in Warsaw, Biden did speak by telephone from his hotel with the governors of Ohio and Pennsylvania, along with the head of the Environmental Protection Agency, to discuss the situation.

The German Chancellor’s War with the US will Last Forever: The War in Poland and the Inevitability of the Russian Army in the Cold War

“Freedom is priceless. It is worth fighting for, as long as it takes. Biden told Zelensky that they would be with him as long as it took.

Yet Biden – nor any other Western leader – has not been able to say exactly how long that will be, making this week as much about the year ahead as it is about the past 12 months.

As Air Force One returns to Washington, however, it is difficult to ignore the looming questions Biden’s visit did little to answer: How and when the war will end.

The surprising resilience of the Ukrainian people, along with the unexpected ineptitude of the Russian forces, have prevented a full takeover. NATO’s chief Last week described the war as a “grinding war of attrition,” without a definite end.

It is wise to be prepared for a long war, according to the German Chancellor who will visit Biden at the White House next month.

There is new concern about the availability of weapons and ammunition, as evidenced by polls showing support for the war effort is ebbing, as well as new concerns about the available supplies.

“I do have to say that there is a concern, both in Poland and in Ukraine, about the staying power of the US beyond this administration. This war would look entirely different without the support of the US,” said Michal Baranowski, the managing director in Warsaw of the German Marshall Fund.

“The fact is that we are fighting with time, right?” Baranowski said. I mean, if time is on Russia’s side, they have enough resources to deplete us in the West. That gives me pause. I think we have the staying power.

Kirby, Putin, Zelensky, Putin and the world: “We are going to war,” Kirby said after the Ukrainian mission to Ukraine

In a sign that Poland has absorbed a lot of refugees, his comments will be translated into both Polish and Ukrainian.

John Kirby said the president’s message would be for people all around the world.

The safe trip to an active war zone on Monday was not just a symbol of American support, but it was also a shot in the arm to the population that has been the victims of Russia’s devastating attacks on civilians.

In the early days of the invasion, Russian forces brought along their dress uniforms in expectation of a victory parade, according to Ukraine.

The war has caused a series of unexpected events. Russia’s army turned out to be much less competent than anyone expected; Putin was not quite the genius many believed.

Biden is 80 years old and walking with difficulty. He has a good amount of courage and competence, which was demonstrated when Biden sounded air raid sirens in Kyiv.

Zelensky made a phone call to Trump asking for help to deter an aggressive Russia after he was impeached. The candidate Trump claimed was the weakest was the one he hoped would try to push for an investigation against Biden.

A joyous Zelensky said Biden’s visit “brings us closer to victory,” adding it will “have repercussions on the battlefield in liberating our territories.”

Why did Putin and Putin try to make China great again, or how the West turned the Cold War into a global conflict? The Washington Post-Newtonian View

In addition, the author of the book is a journalist based in New York. Follow her on Twitter. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely her own. View more opinion on CNN.

Less than a day earlier, Putin’s speech to political and military elites in Moscow offered a vastly different narrative of the war as he accused the West of turning a conflict into a global one.

For Americans who came of age after the end of the Cold War, this renewed threat of nuclear annihilation is both new and terrifying; for those who lived through the original Cold War, this is no doubt a hair-raising reboot.

Biden is correct that this is indeed a battle between freedom and oppression. It isn’t worth much, however, that Putin’s emphasis on cultural and gender warfare is also correct.

He is of course lying and fear-mongering when he fulminates about same-sex marriage or the prospect of a gender-neutral God and when he says that the West seeks “the destruction of the family, cultural and national identity, perversion and the abuse of children are declared the norm.” There is a historical and contemporary relationship between conservative religiosity and autocracy on one hand, and liberal tolerance and democracy on the other.

The previous era of Russian autocracy, which was irreligious, proves that Conservative religiosity isn’t required for autocracy. The autocrats in Beijing, who are expanding their own nuclear arsenals, are not bringing conservative Christian principles to China.

But they are embracing traditionalism, hypermasculinity and a backward-looking national identity. Global authoritarians have a tradition of saying, “Make [x country]”. Great job again. Xi Jinping is trying to make China great again, writes the New Yorker’s Evan Osnos. David Petrabrass told CNN that Putin wanted to make Russia great again. And, of course, we all know the American version.

It’s informative, though (and scary) to realize the extent to which a number of right-wing Americans believe Putin has a point about the West being degenerate, and seem comfortable bringing a strongman in to restore the traditional order.

The most salient divide is not between East and West; it’s between those who want pluralistic liberal democracies that allow people to live freely no matter what their religious beliefs, sexual orientations and aspirations – and those who prefer autocratic strongmen who use the law to impose conservative, traditional values whether people like it or not.

The War Between Russia and Ukraine: Donald Trump’s Unpopular Femto-Democratic Attack on the United States and the Dialogue Between America and Europe

Former US President Donald Trump notoriously praised Putin and trashed NATO, elevating the dictator’s status among pro-Trump conservatives. As of a year ago, Republicans in the US had a more favorable view of Putin than of Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the Democratic Party.

NATO has been providing neo-Nazis with powerful weapons and extensive training in how to use them, said a Georgia lawmaker.

I’ll get the war between Russia and Ukraine over before I ever get to the Oval Office. I will get the problem solved. And I will get it solved in rapid order and it will take me no longer than one day,” Trump said. He added that he understood exactly what to say to each of them, and also mentioned that he had a great relationship with Putin.

Putin has positioned his Russia as the leading light for Christian nationalists worldwide, standing against Western secularism and decadence. Many Christian nationalists, including in the US, have gotten in line.

This is not just a divide between Russia and the US. It’s a divide within Russia itself, as the nation’s feminists, LGBTQ rights advocates, and democracy activists continue to push (often at great personal risk) for a freer and fairer country. There is a gap between the Americans who want liberal democracy to thrive and the ones who want their ideology to govern us all.

Putin is willing to sacrifice a lot in order to cement his power and Russia’s imperial interests one year into his war. Americans have a choice, both at home and abroad: Do we stand with autocrats and their small, hateful view of the world? Do we need to live among those whose views you don’t agree with or who you wouldn’t make your own choices?

Joe Biden, Ukraine, and Zelensky: A Roadmap for a Counteroffensive Campaign to End Ukraine’s Warsaw Conflict

The warzone that has shaped so much of President Joe Biden’s presidency was barely slept upon as he rolled in the dark towards Kyiv this week.

As the conflict in Ukraine enters a second year, Biden will leave Europe three days later and loudly recommit to backing the country, trying to cast aside doubts about the reliability of American support and blaming his counterpart in the Kremlin for starting the conflict.

In conversations with aides, foreign counterparts and even by phone with his wife over the course of his visit, Biden has asserted his trip this week was essential in showing the world the US wouldn’t waver in its support.

There have been persistent concerns at how Ukraine is using those resources among some US and European officials, who have encouraged Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to focus on planning and executing a spring counteroffensive rather than waging battle on multiple fronts, some with less strategic importance than others.

Tellingly, Sullivan said much of Biden’s focus during the day-long journey into the warzone was spent plotting out how he would raise those issues with Zelensky when they sat down to talk inside the gold-and-white Mariinsky Palace in Kyiv.

Afterward, Biden’s aides were tight-lipped about how exactly that discussion went, beyond saying there would be follow-up conversations among US and Ukrainian officials in the coming days and weeks.

Instead, the president focused his remarks in Warsaw – a landmark address he’s been developing for weeks – on heralding the continued resistance of the Ukrainians and accusing Putin of a litany of atrocities.

Biden’s aides said his remarks were intended for a multitude of audiences: The besieged Ukrainian people, a Polish population that has borne much of the outside burden, Russians who may be disillusioned by their leaders’ failings.

But, at least in the view of some on his team, most important were listeners in the United States, thousands of miles from the frontlines, without a direct stake in the war and – according to polls – softening in their support for continued US assistance.

The toxic chemical spill caused by a train wreck in East Palestine, Ohio, was seized upon by Biden critics as an example of an American crisis deserving his attention.

The United States in Europe: A Call to Address the Russian Warfare and the Cold War, and the Case for the Future of the Middle East

“I reaffirmed my commitment to making sure they have everything they need,” he wrote in a caption accompanying a photo of the call that was posted on Instagram.

But he also used the opportunity to blast Republicans – including former President Donald Trump, who is set to visit East Palestine on Wednesday – for loosing regulations and making it more difficult to strengthen rail safety.

Biden’s aides ultimately believe Republican members of Congress will continue to provide support for Ukraine, buoyed by the staunch backing of GOP leaders Mitch McConnell and Kevin McCarthy despite the protestations of some of their party’s members.

Not for the first time this week, a call for sustained American involvement in Europe came not from Biden himself, but from a man who had once supported Trump: Polish President Andrzej Duda.

The events of this week were within a century-old context of robust American presence on the continent, as stated by the speaker across the table.

The United States demonstrated its responsibility for European matters during the First World War, Second World War and the Cold War. The democratic rules were restored every single time. He said that the United States brought back freedom.

There are opportunities in a crisis and the latter could possibly turn into the former, Wang told Putin.

This new foreign policy picture is also a problem for other countries. Rising challenges abroad as well, as the depletion of US and Western weapons stocks as arms are sent to Ukraine, pose questions about military capacity and whether current defense spending is sufficient. Republicans are accusing Biden of snubbing voters facing economic and other problems, even though he tries to position Democrats as protectors of working Americans as the 2024 campaign dawns.

“The fear of Russia going into NATO countries and all that, and steamrolling, that has not even come close to happening,” DeSantis said on Fox. “I think they have shown themselves to be a third-rate military power.”

The United States and Russia Interaction in the Ukraine War and its Implications for the U.S. and the Ukrainians – Sullivan, Sullivan and Power

The estrangement between the US and Russia is almost complete, as demonstrated by Biden’s trip.

Putin, for example, announced Tuesday that Russia would suspend participation in the New START nuclear treaty with the United States. Since Moscow has stopped working on the deal, it was not clear what impact this would have.

The Biden administration’s accusation last week that Russia has committed crimes against humanity ensures there will be no return to normality between Washington and Moscow even if the Ukraine war ends.

The US Secretary of State has said that when the top two nuclear powers are not talking it is dangerous and they won’t talks if they don’t.

US officials warned that China might be ready to provide military aid to Russia a week after Beijing released its 12-point plan. Sullivan said on Thursday that a move has not been ruled out.

Linda Thomas-Greenfield warned on CNN that such a step would be crossing a US red line but did not say what consequences would come from it.

Sullivan and Power took questions at the town hall from Americans and Ukrainians on topics such as how the United States will keep providing weaponry to the Ukrainians, and how Russia and China could affect the conflict.

The US officials praised the resilience of the Ukrainian people as they were questioned by Ukrainians including a 14-year-old girl and a soldier serving on the front lines of the war in the country’s military.

But Sullivan argued that one year into the conflict, Ukraine has already stopped Russia from accomplishing its main objective of taking over the capital of Kyiv.

Sullivan said that no changes in Russia’s nuclear forces leads them to believe that something has changed over the course of the past year.

Do we need to make the US more responsible for the war in Ukraine? A response to Ukrainian Senator Yegor, the US Ambassador to Ukraine,

New funding for certain contracts has been included in the $2 billion package.

Sullivan was asked by a Ukrainian soldier named Yegor, currently serving on the front lines, whether the US would be able to increase production of ammunition and other weapons to Ukraine, such as 155-millimeter artillery shells and HIMARS.

“One of the things that we are working hard at – at President Biden’s direction – is to increase the production of all of these types of ammunition,” Sullivan said. “This is not something we can do with the snap of a finger, but it’s something that we are putting immense effort and resources into.”

But he also acknowledged that the Ukrainians have often asked for more than the US is willing to give – though in many cases the Biden administration has eventually transferred weapons it had initially resisted sending.

Sullivan reiterated the Biden administration’s position that the F-16 fighter jets are not the “key capability” Ukraine needs to fight the Russian forces.

Zakaria asked Sullivan for his first reaction Thursday evening to a 12-point plan Beijing released calling for the end of hostilities in Ukraine and pitching itself as a mediator between Moscow and Kyiv.

“Well my first reaction to it is they could stop at point one, which is respect the sovereignty of all nations,” Sullivan said. “This war could end tomorrow if Russia stopped attacking Ukraine and withdrew its forces. Ukraine wasn’t attacking Russia, NATO wasn’t attacking Russia, the United States wasn’t attacking Russia. This was a war of choice waged by Putin.”

Both Sullivan and Power brushed aside criticism from some of Biden’s Republican critics that the billions of dollars the US is spending in Ukraine would be better spent at home.

“I would say to those senators, yes, let’s do these things at home. But are you saying that American is incapable of also helping to serve as a powerful force of good in the world?” Sullivan said.

I think there is a lot of pessimism in the argument that they are making. President Biden has an optimistic view that we can do it and we will do it, and we are doing it.

Power argued that US support for Ukraine is actually one of the rare issues where there is strong bipartisanship in today’s Washington, when she was asked by a Ukrainian mother about the commonality between the citizens of the two countries.

Power said that the group had your backs, and that they were trying to help you feel more safe when one man tried to take that away.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/24/politics/takeaways-cnn-ukraine-war-town-hall/index.html

The Road Ahead for Ukraine to Rebuild: The Values and Prospects of the Cross-Section in the Era of World War III

Power acknowledged the long road ahead for Ukraine to rebuild the country when the war ends. Some estimates have totaled the damage to date at $130 billion, she noted.

Power stated that the international financial institutions and the US Agency for International Development have helped to rebuild the infrastructure of Ukraine and return private industry to peaceful parts of the country.

She said that the Biden administration and allies are focused on making sure the money that is dedicated to reconstruction is well spent and that major projects are still ahead.

Most of the big-ticket items will only occur when there is a negotiated peace, Power said.

“But we have to make sure resources are going to be well spent,” she added. When you have huge investments which go well beyond what is currently being provided, you want to make sure that you have the safeguards in place so that donors and outside investors can know that this is money that’s going

Donald Trump says he’d end the war in Ukraine in one day and avert World War III, while Ron DeSantis is keener on waging a culture war than a proxy one to save a foreign democracy.

The ex-president and Florida governor are likely to make grassroots conservatives even less willing to vote for a Republican in the presidential election.

The Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who has thanked Americans for their generosity, should be concerned about this.

Donald Trump, Ron DeSantis, Ukraine and the Future of World War III: Lessons from the CPAC Campaign at the Fermilab Tevatron

Recent polling helps explain the GOP positioning on Ukraine. There was a decline in support for the US giving weapons to the country, and it was more pronounced among Republicans than last spring.

While Trump has made a lot of noise about his views on Ukraine, DeSantis has been less clear about what he would do. After all, he’s not even a declared candidate yet, despite fresh signs he is heading in that direction. He tried to catch up with Trump when he warned that the Biden administration was not going to get involved in a proxy war with China in Ukraine, but that it’s not in the US’s interest.

This is an evolution from his position as a congressman in 2014 and 2015, when he strongly supported arming Ukraine to fight Russia, CNN’s KFile reported.

If the current conflict between Moscow and Kyiv continues and a peace deal is not signed, the future of the country might rely on NATO protecting it and receiving security guarantees from major US or European powers.

The current favorites in the presidential race, Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis, will put increased pressure on their rivals to fall into line to ensure their own political viability.

Zelensky is desperate for more weapons and bullets to be thrown into the ring to defeat Putin’s forces in the Ukraine, even though the possibility of changing political conditions in the United States will make that more urgent.

Trump told attendees of the CPAC that if he gets the chance to face off against Biden again in 2020, he would accuse him of leading the planet to the brink of disaster.

In a speech full of lies, Donald Trump said that he was the only candidate who could prevent World War III. “We are going to have World War III, by the way, if something doesn’t happen fast.”

Trump said he hoped that when the politicians got here, they had some money left over after their tour of Ukraine.

“We are never going back to a party that wants to give unlimited money to fight foreign endless wars but demands we cut veteran benefits and retirement benefits at home,” Trump said during his CPAC speech.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/07/politics/trump-desantis-ukraine-2024-campaign/index.html

Biden’s critique of the United States for its support for the Ukranian and the Iraqi revolutions as a national interest to protect democracy

This perspective seems incompatible with Biden’s description of the US’ support for Ukranian as an important national interest to protect democracy.

The sense among many voters that Bush overreached and led Americans into disastrous years-long wars in Iraq and Afghanistan was not just a motivating force that helped the rise of Trump’s populist nationalism in the Republican Party. The president of the United States, BarackObama, warned during the election that he was against dumb wars.

There is some reluctance to get involved in foreign wars again among American voters on the right and left. A group of Democratic members of Congress, for example, last year called for negotiations to end the war, despite the lack of indications that Putin has any willingness to withdraw his troops. But they were criticized by their colleagues for such a move.