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Date: 2025-02-11 Page is: DBtxt003.php txt00021817
REPORTING ON RUSSIA'S ATTACK ON UKRAINE
CNN What Matters ... by Paul LeBlanc

What should the US do now?


Original article: https://view.newsletters.cnn.com/messages/1646614884179f0729216c1d8/raw
Burgess COMMENTARY

Peter Burgess
The US won't send troops to Ukraine. But here are 3 things that are being considered.

by Paul LeBlanc ... CNN What Matters

Sunday 03.06.22 ... 8:01 PM

: What should the US do now?
  • Scores of civilians killed. Damage to everything from a kindergarten to a nuclear power plant. A growing refugee crisis.
  • Russia's unprovoked attack on Ukraine has an anxious world wondering what comes next.
  • “Vladimir Putin has, unfortunately, the capacity -- with the sheer manpower that he has in Ukraine and the overmatch that he has -- the ability to keep grinding things down against incredibly resilient and courageous Ukrainians,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken told CNN’s Jake Tapper on “State of the Union” on Sunday.
  • While the US and its allies have rolled out a package of sanctions against Russia, putting troops on the ground in Ukraine is a line that they have not been willing to cross.
  • But, as CNN's Kevin Liptak reports, American officials on Sunday identified three areas on which the United States could soon take more action in an attempt to address Russia’s intensifying war in Ukraine. Here's what's getting a look:
1. Ban on Russian oil imports

President Joe Biden convened a phone call Saturday with top members of his administration to discuss a potential ban on Russian oil imports, Blinken said, a step that has been under consideration at the White House since last week.

“We are now talking to our European partners and allies to look in a coordinated way at the prospect of banning the import of Russian oil, while making sure that there is a still an appropriate supply of oil on world markets,” Blinken said. “That’s a very active discussion as we speak.”

How would it affect Russia? Russian oil imports to the US comprise a relatively small percentage of the country’s overall supply, and they have been declining sharply in recent weeks. There is little doubt Russia would be able to sell those supplies to other countries, including China, if the US stops buying them.

Still, the step would be significant, particularly since any sanctions applied to Russia’s energy sector were once considered virtually off the table given the potential ripples on the global oil market. So far, the US and Europe have mostly avoided major steps that could impact Russian energy, though the US did ban the import into Russia of equipment needed for oil and gas extraction.

2. Declaration of war crimes against Russia

US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield said Sunday that the US is also “working with our partners to collect and provide information” on potential war crimes.

“Any attack on civilians is a war crime,” she said on ABC News. To this point, the President has stopped short of calling Russia’s actions in Ukraine a war crime, though he did say he believed it was “clear” Russia was targeting civilians.

The International Criminal Court said last week that it would immediately proceed with an active investigation of possible war crimes following Russia’s invasion. The US Embassy in Kyiv said in a tweet Friday that Russia’s attack on a nuclear power plant in Ukraine constituted a war crime, though the State Department then sent an urgent message to all US embassies in Europe telling them not to retweet that message.

How would it affect Russia? As we wrote last week, the International Criminal Court tries people, not countries, and focuses on those who hold the most responsibility: leaders and officials. While Ukraine is not a member of the court (and neither is the US or Russia), it has previously accepted its jurisdiction.

Putin could, therefore, theoretically be indicted by the court.

But ICC investigations can take a very long time. And the court does not conduct trials in absentia, so the Russian leader would either have to be handed over by Russia or arrested outside of Russia. That seems unlikely.

3. Help facilitating delivery of Polish fighter jets to Ukraine

US and Polish officials are also discussing a potential agreement to supply Poland with American F-16 fighter jets in exchange for Poland sending its Russian-made jets to Ukraine.

“We are working with Poland as we speak to see if we can backfill anything that they provide to the Ukrainians,” Blinken said Sunday.

“But we also want to see if we can be helpful in making sure that, whatever they provide to Ukrainians, something goes to them to make up for any gap in the security for Poland that might result.”

How would it affect the crisis? Speaking to American lawmakers virtually on Saturday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky asked for American support in facilitating the transfer of Soviet-era fighter jets from Eastern European nations to Ukraine, where pilots have been trained to fly them and could use them to control the skies. The US has roundly rejected his bigger request -- for the US and NATO to enforce a no-fly zone over Ukraine -- because of its potential to pit the US directly against Russia.

: What else?

US Covid-19 cases keep falling. The moving average of daily reported cases continues to drop in states across the country.

Gas hits $4 a gallon for the first time since 2008. And with prices surging amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, the record high of $4.11 per gallon set that year is likely to be broken any day.

Supreme Court upholds Boston bomber's death sentence. But it's unclear whether Dzhokhar Tsarnaev will actually be put to death given the Biden administration’s position on the federal death penalty. There is a moratorium on federal executions as the government studies the issue.

Republican Rep. Paul Gosar's ties to extremism. The far-right Arizona congressman has boosted the profiles of local antisemites, attended a conference organized by a prominent White nationalist, and repeatedly shared content from a Holocaust denial website, CNN's KFile reports. Republican leadership has yet to discipline him.

How will the Justice Department handle Donald Trump? Despite reinvigorating civil rights enforcement and reversing a number of Trump-era legal positions, Democrats are increasingly worried that Attorney General Merrick Garland will let the former President go unpunished for fomenting what amounts to an attempted coup that led to the January 6 attack on the US Capitol.

Democrats (still) have a problem with Hispanic voters. While it’s not clear that Hispanic Americans have moved even more toward the Republicans relative to how Americans overall are shifting, it’s clear that Republicans are holding their gains from 2020, CNN's Harry Enten writes after last week's primaries in Texas.

: What are we doing here?

We're trying to connect the dots at a time of political, cultural and economic upheaval.

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