memeorandum: Biden wanted to use the State of the Union speech to pivot to his agenda. Then Russia started a land war. (Washington Post)

9:35 AM ET, February 28, 2022

Top Items:

The war in Ukraine isn't working out the way Russia intended … The war in Ukraine isn't going Russia's way. — Videos posted on social media show whole columns of tanks and armored vehicles have been wiped out. Others have been stopped in their tracks by ordinary Ukrainians standing on the street to block their advance.

Discussion: Politico, WAVY-TV, New York Post, Axios, Euractiv, Euro Weekly News Spain, Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Fox News, Financial Times, BizPac Review, HotAir, WPRI-TV and Vanity Fair

Politico:

POLITICO Playbook: A presidency transformed — DRIVING THE DAY — DAY FIVE — The latest on the ground in Ukraine, via the NYT's blog-style running updates: “With a three-mile-long convoy of Russian military vehicles pressing down on Kyiv, a Ukrainian delegation arrived at the border …

Discussion: Daily Kos

Wall Street Journal:

Putin Finds Himself Isolated, Out of Touch as Invasion of Ukraine Sputters — Russia's leader is peddling an alternative narrative to suit his needs, and his behavior is making his inner circle appear uncomfortable — With much of the world moving against him, economic sanctions piling …

Discussion: CBS News and Foreign Policy

Alan Blinder / New York Times:

Ukraine and Russia Meet as Kyiv Remains in Cross Hairs — The Treasury Department announced a freeze on Russian Central Bank assets. Delegations from Kyiv and Moscow were meeting for talks in Belarus, even as Ukraine said dozens were killed in a Russian rocket attack in Kharkiv, Ukraine's second largest city.

Discussion: Raw Story

New York Times:

Putin Declares a Nuclear Alert, and Biden Seeks De-escalation — When the Russian leader ordered his nuclear forces into “special combat readiness,” the U.S. could have gone on high alert. Instead, the administration tried not to inflame him. — WASHINGTON — When Vladimir V. Putin declared Sunday …

Discussion: Insider, The Economist, Washington Post, Instapundit, The Full Belmonte, New Republic, Based Politics, Bloomberg, Political Wire, NATO, The Guardian, Mediaite, Breitbart, BizPac Review and HotAir

Illia Ponomarenko / The Kyiv Independent:

Sources: Belarus to join Russia's war on Ukraine within hours — As Russia fails to inflict quick defeat upon Ukraine after four days of fierce hostilities, Vladimir Putin is about to pull his Belarusian ally, dictator Aleksandr Lukashenko into his war of occupation.

Discussion: Washington Examiner and Balloon Juice

Washington Post:

Historic sanctions on Russia had roots in emotional appeal from Zelensky … As the leaders of the European Union gathered for an emergency summit on Thursday night, momentum was already moving toward imposing tough new sanctions on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, Twitchy, Erick Erickson's Confessions …, Against the Grain, The Daily Wire, RedState, Financial Times, Bloomberg, ZNAK.com Ин …, New York Times and Associated Press, more at Techmeme »

Wall Street Journal:
Ukraine Leads the World

Discussion: UnHerd, Making Sense …, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Washington Current, Power Line and Comment is Freed

Washington Post:
Belarus preparing to join Russian invasion of Ukraine, U.S. official says

Associated Press:
Ukraine slows Russian advance under shadow of nuclear threat

Discussion: Bloomberg, Wall Street Journal, CBS News, NBC News, Associated Press, New Statesman, The Chronicles of DeusX, Al Jazeera and Metro.co.uk

Associated Press:
Live updates: US official: Belarus may join Ukraine invasion

Max Boot / Washington Post:
Putin's war of aggression has mobilized the strongest international outrage since 9/11

Discussion: USA Today, Bloomberg, Fox News and National Review

The Economist:
Vladimir Putin's nuclear threat shows how much is going wrong for him in Ukraine

Discussion: HotAir, Washington Examiner, The Guardian, UPI, Daily Mail and NBC4 Washington

Noah Smith / Noahpinion:
The big sanctions: A quick explainer

Discussion: Fortune, Nsbb, The Kyiv Independent, Japan Times, Townhall, TASS, Mosaic, The Contrarian Ranter, The White House, The Jacked Up Journal, Reuters and The Atlantic

Financial Times:
West takes Putin's nuclear weapons threat seriously

Discussion: Raw Story, The Bismarck Cables, Washington Post, NBC New York, WAVY-TV, Daily Kos, The Economist and ABC7

Francesca Ebel / Associated Press:
Kyiv's mayor: ‘We are encircled’ but full of fight

Discussion: Indian Bronson, IJR, Fox News, Associated Press, Associated Press, New York Times, The Signal, Washington Examiner, Mediaite, The Guardian, RedState, Тел …, Financial Times, WAVY-TV, Instapundit, Townhall and New York Times, more at Techmeme »

U.S. Department of the Treasury:

Treasury Prohibits Transactions with Central Bank of Russia and Imposes Sanctions on Key Sources of Russia's Wealth — In Coordination with Allies and Partners, Treasury Actions Restrict Access to Billions in Central Bank Assets and Sovereign Wealth Fund — Treasury Sanctions Russian …

Discussion: OFAC, CBS News, The Daily Beast, Daily Kos, Forbes, Politico, TASS, REFORM.by and The White House

Caitlin Ostroff / Wall Street Journal:

Russia's Ruble, Financial Markets Are Hammered by Sanctions — Central bank doubles interest rates to protect the banking system as the ruble plunges — Powerful Western sanctions rocked Russia's financial system and triggered a spiral in the ruble, drawing the central bank into an emergency doubling of interest rates.

Bloomberg:

U.S. Bans Transactions With Russian Central Bank, Wealth Fund — President Joe Biden's administration on Monday banned U.S. people and companies from doing business with the Bank of Russia, the Russian National Wealth Fund and the Ministry of Finance. — The moves by the U.S. Treasury's Office …

Discussion: New York Times, Washington Post, CNN, CNBC, HotAir, Associated Press, CNBC, UPI, Metro.co.uk, New York Times, Pandemic Capitalism, Instapundit, The Clay Travis & …, The Guardian and BBC

Stephanie Nebehay / Reuters:

Neutral Swiss poised to freeze Russian assets - president … Swiss President Ignazio Cassis said on Sunday that it was “very probable” that neutral Switzerland would follow the European Union (EU) on Monday in sanctioning Russia and freezing Russian assets in the Alpine country.

Discussion: Euractiv, Associated Press, Euro Weekly News Spain, Yahoo News and Daily Kos

Gal Beckerman / The Atlantic:
How Zelensky Gave the World a Jewish Hero

Discussion: Reuters, Associated Press and New York Times

Elizabeth Piper / Reuters: Britain widens Russian ‘dirty money’ crackdown with new law

Barak Ravid / Axios:
U.S. protests Israel's refusal to back UN resolution condemning Russia

Discussion: Reuters, CBS News, Wall Street Journal, The Times of Israel and Fox News

Melissa Eddy / New York Times:
In Foreign Policy U-turn, Germany Ups Military Spending, Arms Ukraine

Discussion: Bloomberg, Politico, Reuters, UPI, Washington Post, Foreign Policy, Wall Street Journal, Euractiv and Financial Times

New York Times:
War in Ukraine Forces Israel Into a Delicate Balancing Act

Discussion: Reuters, The Times of Israel, Instapundit and The Media Line

John F. Harris / Politico:

Relax, Democrats, Biden's presidency isn't screwed — After Democrats got routed in the 2010 elections, a reporter asked President Barack Obama if the results were a sign that voters considered him “out of touch” with their concerns and whether he was willing to change his leadership style in response.

Discussion: New York Times

New York Times:

Climate Change's Effects Outpacing Ability to Adapt, I.P.C.C. Warns — Countries aren't doing nearly enough to protect against the disasters to come as the planet keeps heating up, a major new scientific report concludes. — The dangers of climate change are mounting so rapidly …

Discussion: Grist, Politico, CBS News, Mother Jones, UPI, CNBC, Los Angeles Times, The Daily Caller, Common Dreams, Japan Times and Financial Times

Seth Borenstein / Associated Press:

UN climate report: ‘Atlas of human suffering’ worse, bigger — Deadly with extreme weather now, climate change is about to get so much worse. It is likely going to make the world sicker, hungrier, poorer, gloomier and way more dangerous in the next 18 years with an “unavoidable” …

Discussion: Al Jazeera and Washington Post

NBC News:

Facebook, Twitter remove disinformation accounts targeting Ukrainians — Facebook and Twitter removed two anti-Ukrainian “covert influence operations” over the weekend, one tied to Russia and another with connections to Belarus, the companies said. — One of the operations …

Discussion: CBS News, TechCrunch, The Verge, The Guardian, UPI, NPR, Lukasz Olejnik on Cyber … and Bloomberg, more at Techmeme »

Manveen Rana / The Times:

Volodymyr Zelensky: Russian mercenaries ordered to kill Ukraine's president … More than 400 Russian mercenaries are operating in Kyiv with orders from the Kremlin to assassinate President Zelensky and his government and prepare the ground for Moscow to take control, The Times has learnt.

Discussion: The Times of Israel, The Kyiv Independent and emptywheel

Judd Legum / Popular Information:

Two members of Congress spoke at a white nationalist convention. These corporations are supporting their reelection. — Over the weekend, two members of Congress, Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and Paul Gosar (R-AZ), addressed a white nationalist convention.

Discussion: CBS News, Newsweek and The Racket News

Martin Pengelly / The Guardian:
Romney: Marjorie Taylor Greene a ‘moron’ for speaking at white nationalist event

Discussion: Washington Post, BizPac Review, Democracy Diary, CNN, HuffPost, Deseret News, The Daily Beast, Raw Story, Insider, POLITICUSUSA, Rolling Stone, Washington Times, Breitbart and The Hill

Washington Post:

Barr calls prospect of Trump running for president again ‘dismaying,’ says GOP should ‘look forward’ to others — Former attorney general William P. Barr says in a new book that the prospect of Donald Trump running for president again is “dismaying” and urges the Republican Party to …